Judge: Geddings may have lied

More prison time possible for former lottery commissioner

A federal judge said in a new court filing that former state lottery commissioner Kevin L. Geddings apparently committed perjury while testifying last year at his trial on fraud charges.

U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III also gave notice that, as a result, he is considering tacking extra time onto any prison sentence recommended for Geddings under federal sentencing guidelines.

Geddings' lawyer, Thomas Manning of Raleigh, declined to comment.

The amount of time Geddings might face isn't clear. His sentencing is set for May 7, and a lengthy federal report that would show the time recommended for Geddings is not a public document. In his order, Dever also did not reveal the amount of time faced by Geddings, who in October was found guilty by a jury of five counts of mail fraud.

Geddings could receive a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count, though that is considered unlikely because the conviction is his first.

The case centered on Geddings' efforts to take a seat on the state lottery commission while hiding his employment history with and other ties to a major lottery vendor, Scientific Games, that was seeking multimillion-dollar lottery contracts.

At trial, Geddings maintained in testimony over two days that he publicly revealed enough about those ties.

Dever said in his order, dated April 19, that "[i]t appears that Kevin Geddings committed perjury during his trial testimony in at least" four instances.

Among them is that Geddings gave a different story about a conversation with two executives from Scientific Games who had testified that Geddings knew disclosure of his ties to the company would cost him his position. Another was that Geddings testified he showed no favoritism to any party, including Scientific Games, while acting as a commissioner.

Geddings' apparent perjury obstructed justice, Dever said, which allows for an increase in prison time beyond the recommended level. The judge must specifically decide that misleading testimony is not the result of confusion, mistake or a faulty memory.

The judge has given similar notice of an intention to add time beyond sentencing guidelines in another case he is overseeing: the sentencing on Friday of former state Rep. Michael Decker on a guilty plea to public corruption charges.