Prosecutor John MacCoon told a federal jury Tuesday that County Commissioner William Cotton is "a corrupt politician" who took bribes from a bogus company that turned out to be operated by the FBI.

In the first trial in the FBI's wide-ranging "Operation Tennessee Waltz," the prosecutor said tapes of Cotton and former County School Board member Charles Love revealed that they considered the operation was something "that fell into their lap. They did what corrupt politicians do. They talked about splitting up the money and how much they were going to get."

But defense attorney Hank Hill said Cotton statements on the tape that appear to be incriminating are "taken out of context." He said Cotton was actually counseling Love about being above board and asking for checks instead of cash.

Attorney Hill lambasted Love as "a con man, a thief and a liar. He even conned the FBI. He stole from the government."

Judge Allan Edgar is overseeing the trial in which Cotton faces a charge of bribery conspiracy and two counts of attempted extortion. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

A jury of five women and seven men as well as two male alternates was chosen late Tuesday morning, then opening statements were given prior to the lunch break. Three of the jurors are black.

Prosecutor MacCoon told the jurors, "You are about to see public corruption - politicians caught in the act of taking bribes."

He said the sting operation started in West Tennessee, then was expanded across the state, bringing charges against state legislators, including Sen. Ward Crutchfield, down to county officials.

Prosecutor MacCoon said a bogus company called E-Cycle Management was set up by FBI agents. The firm purported to be in the business of paying governments for used electronic equipment, then shipping the equipment overseas for recycling. He said the agents offered money to legislators and commissioners for favorable legislation.

He told the jury that the probe eventually led to those, including Love and Cotton, "who were willing to take a little money to grease the skids."

He said a state legislator told E-Cycle that Charles Love is "the guy to see in East Tennessee. He can fix you up with certain people."

The prosecutor said Love "identified certain people who were willing to take bribes. One he identified was William Cotton."

He said Love eventually "took bundles of bribe money to William Cotton."

He said two FBI agents who took the names of Joe Carson and John Morrow began working with Love and Cotton. He said the agents were wired, and he said they later got a court order to bug Love's cellphone. He said Love was not working with the government during the probe.

Prosecutor MacCoon said Love and Cotton "worked on getting their story straight," and he said, "William Cotton for $1,700 said he's ready to move on it."

He said Love was to set up an office and get monthly payments from E-Cycle.

The prosecutor said "Morrow" met with Love and Cotton at the Southside Grill in Chattanooga on Jan. 20, 2005, and passed Love an envelope containing $3,500 in cash while they were at a table eating. He said Love gave Cotton half the money out in the parking lot, then Cotton called to thank "Morrow," telling him, "You got a friend for life, Doc."

He said Cotton later said to Love, "You can tell your boys to get ready to bring that package in here. I hope it's bigger than the first one."

Prosecutor MacCoon said Cotton admonished Love about being so open about getting the cash, saying he should have gotten the envelope at the Southside Grill in the restroom rather than at the table.

He said Cotton told Love "that's how they got Gass." The prosecutor said that referred to the late Charles Gass, a County Commissioner who was convicted in 1988 of bribery in the same courtroom where Cotton is being tried.

Cotton stated, "I don't trust nobody."

The prosecutor said the jurors will see a video of $6,000 being passed to Love and Cotton in an envelope at a meeting last Feb. 21. He said in exchange "Cotton agreed to push the E-Cycle agenda before the County Commission."

He said Cotton once again called to thank the E-Cycle representative, who asked, "Is there any doubt you can do it?" Cotton replied, "Unless I get struck by lightning." Cotton said, "I'll do my part. I will do what I can to get it through."

Attorney Hill told the jury that one person is missing from the trial - Charles Love. He said, "They've chosen not to bring him in to testify and chosen not to indict him in this case." Love pleaded guilty earlier on other aspects of Operation Tennessee Waltz and is awaiting sentencing.

Attorney Hill said Love "is their bagman, not William Cotton's."

He said the E-Cycle pitch sounded "like a fantastic idea - a win-win." He said governments were going to get paid for items they were having to pay to get rid of, and it would also help free up landfill space.

He said County Mayor Claude Ramsey had one meeting with E-Cycle, and he said, "Great, guys, this is a niche. I love this kind of entrepreneurial spirit."

Attorney Hill said, "It was never the case that Claude Ramsey did anything improper. There is no indication that William Cotton did either."

He said the legislator who led the agents to Love was former Rep. Brenda Turner. But he said Ms. Turner advised them to "stay away from Charles Love. He's dangerous."

Joe Carroll, a retired FBI agent, testified that he took a contract position with the FBI to take part in the sting. He said the FBI had information on bribes going to government officials. He said, "We decided the best way to go about it was to set up a dummy company."

He said E-Cycle Management was to be based in Atlanta with offices in Memphis and Nashville. It was to ship used electronic equipment to the port of New Orleans for shipment to the Phillipines, where the equipment was to be reworked and resold.

He said it actually "made no sense from a business point of view."

He said another FBI agent was the vice president and a third was chief financial officer.

Agt. Carroll said the group found a contact in West Tennessee who introduced them to a number of legislators, including some who agreed to accept bribes.

He said it was during a meeting with then-Rep. Turner that he met Love, who was working in her campaign. He said, "Shortly thereafter, he contacted me about being our representative in East Tennessee."

Agt. Carroll said, "We basically interviewed Mr. Love to determine -being a lobbyist who had various contacts - could he lead us to criminal wrongdoing that he was either involved in or had knowledge of."

He said Love began to introduce them to legislators "who would take bribes for assisting us in passing favorable legislation." He said E-Cycle "made several payoffs to legislators in this area."

Agt. Carroll said it was learned that Love "on occasions would steal money from us and not give the total payment to legislators. We watched Mr. Love as closely as possible through various means."

He said the legislators would get "half or whatever Mr. Love decided to keep for himself."

Agt. Carroll said he got Love to confirm several times the amounts he had allegedly given to others, but he said he did not believe all that money actually did get transferred to those it was intended for.

He said during one conversation with Love the subject came up about Hamilton County officials. He said Love brought up Cotton's name several times.

He said Love said he "was on good terms with about four county commissioners." He listed Cotton, JoAnne Favors, Richard Casavant and Charlotte Vandergriff."

On cross examination, attorney Hill said, "You fooled a lot of people." The agent answered, "I was playing a role."

He said some of the legislators Love took E-Cycle to "didn't require any money." He said in those cases, no money was paid.

He was asked if Love is "a con man." He said, "Mr. Love is a lobbyist. Mr. Love is well liked."

He said it was set up that Love would get monthly payments from E-Cycle. He told of Love being among a group invited to a meeting on a large yacht at Miami, and he said Love was put up at the Palms Hotel.

A video was shown of a meeting with Love at the Marriott in Chattanooga. It shows Love being handed bundles of $100 bills.

The agent said Love "was to give money to a representative at dinner that night."

Prosecutors said they could make Love available as a witness if the defense wanted him. Attorney Hill said it was too late at this point. He said he was advised Love is working at an auto plant in Birmingham, but he didn't know exactly where.

A tape was played of a conversation between Agt. Carroll and Love in Miami. Agt. Carroll, posing as the E-Cycle president, mentioned several legislators that Love was working with, including Sen. Crutchfield, state Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain; state Sen. Jeff Miller, R-Cleveland, Rep. Tre Hargett, R-Memphis, and several others.

According to the tape, $3,000 had been paid by E-Cycle to Sen. Crutchfield.

They joked about Sen. Crutchfield being paid $150,000 as an attorney for the County School Board, while not handling many of their cases. He actually was paid $53,985.

He said in one conversation with Love he emphasized that he was "trying to get him directed where the FBI wanted to concentrate - not to solicit payments - but on people he had made payments to in the past."

Brian Burns, who is with the FBI in Memphis, said he is "the case agent who initiated the Tennessee Waltz investigation."

He said the initial focus was "on some corruption in the Juvenile Court Clerk's office in Memphis." He said an individual who had been paying bribes agreed to begin working with the FBI.

He said it grew to a probe of "basically systematic corruption through various levels of government throughout Tennessee."

Agt. Burns said during the sting the FBI "was not allowed to visit government officials, throw money at them and see if they take it." He said the focus was on those viewed to be "pre-disposed to criminal conduct."

He said Love made a statement to an informant on tape that "in the past he had made bribe payments."

Agt. Burns said it was decided to wiretap Love's phone. He said that is a drastic action that is not often taken. He said it requires several levels of review, including the main FBI office in Washington, and a federal judge must approve it. He said the wiretap order is for 30 days, and a report must be given to the judge every 10 days.

He said the wiretap for the Love phone was obtained Jan. 11, 2005, and it was renewed for a second month. He said a conversation was taped between Love and Cotton on Jan. 16, 2005.

On the tape, Love explained to Cotton about the E-Cycle operation. Cotton said he served as telecommunications chairman of a seven-state group, and he might get some business for E-Cycle there. He also said he had contacts in cities like Cleveland and Knoxville, noting that a deputy in the mayor's office in Knoxville is a relative of his aide, Sandra Weaver.

Love said he was being supplied $1,700 by E-Cycle to set up an office. He said he wanted to rent a portion of the building owned by Cotton at 3801 Alton Park Blvd.
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