on February 28, 2013 at 4:01 PM, updated February 28, 2013 at 4:02 PM

http://blog.al.com/live/2013/02/judge_throws_out_3_money_laund.html

MOBILE, Alabama – At the close of the prosecution’s case against Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright this afternoon, a federal judge threw out three money laundering counts.

Those charges related to money that the city paid to Wright’s daughter for a piece of property she sold for a federally funded housing subdivision in 2007.

U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose dismissed the money laundering charges because she determined that the mayor did not personally benefit from the transaction. He had given the land to Mary Cook, who wrote checks to him and his wife for an amount roughly equal to the $27,249 that the city paid for the land.

But DuBose said bank records show that Wright and his wife earlier had loaned money to Cook.

Prosecutors finished their case with testimony from current and former city police officers who said that the mayor took punitive action against a police captain who reported alleged crimes to the FBI.

Prosecutors contend that the mayor retaliated against then-Capt. Darryl Wilson after finding out about the FBI probe, which focused on Wright’s handling of federal funds the city received after Hurricane Katrina 2005 and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

The defense maintains the Wright took no adverse action against Wilson and have pointed out that the officer maintained his rank and pay even the mayor transferred him from investigations to patrol.

Police Cpl. Michael Gooden testified that he was upset in 2011 when Chief John Joyner resigned and after the city hired a public safety director to oversee him. He said the mayor responded that the department had gotten “out of control” and added that Wilson was an extremely disloyal employee because he had reported him and grant manager Janey Galbraith.

“He said not to worry about it because he was one step ahead of the FBI on this one,” Gooden testified.

A former Bayou La Batre police officer testified about a similar statement Wright made. Matthew Winston, who was working a construction job at a rental property owned by the mayor after quitting the force, said he asked the mayor what Wilson had done to be driving the worst car that the Police Department owned.

Winston was quite familiar with the car, a Ford Crown Victoria with some 300,000 miles, because the vehicle that had been assigned to him.

“He said, ‘That (expletive) told the FBI that Janey and I were crooked. That’s why he’s on patrol. That why he’s driving that raggedy-ass vehicle,’” he testified.

Toby Wilkerson, a Homeland Security investigator who had worked with Wilson on federal cases in the past, testified that he was trying to investigate an offshore gambling case with possible south Mobile County connections in early 2011.

But he said that when he called Wilson, he found out the captain no longer was available to work federal cases. Wilkerson testified that he had to drop the matter and move on to marriage fraud cases he was investigating.

“Darryl was the only source I knew of in the Bayou who had those (confidential) sources,” he told jurors.

On cross-examination, Madden pressed Wilkerson about why he did not simply take a trip to Bayou La Batre and ask Wilson for his sources. He also ridiculed the idea that “deporting a Czechoslovakian bartender is more important than offshore gambling.”

Wilson, who testified earlier this week, took the stand again today to testify that he handed over deeds showing that mayor used to own land that the city bought in 2007 because, “I thought what transpired with the land deal was illegal.”

Wilson testified that after the mayor retaliated against him, he feared bodily harm.

“It got to the point where I didn’t leave my house,” he said.

Wilson acknowledged under cross-examination that nobody physically hurt him. Madden also pressed him about an $800,000 lawsuit he filed against the mayor and several City Council members. Madden suggested that Wilson has a financial interest in the outcome of the criminal case.

“You’re hoping to get money from this, aren’t you?” he said.

Wilson did not answer directly. “I’m hoping to get justice,” he said.

The defense case has begun.