Geddings gave credit to Middleton

Former lottery commissioner Kevin L. Geddings thought his appointment to the lottery board was due to a friend who also was chief lobbyist for the lottery vendor Scientific Games, according to testimony Wednesday in federal court.

Scott Anderson, a former aide to Gov. Mike Easley who now works for the National Education Association, testified about a conversation he had with Geddings last year shortly after the appointment by House Speaker Jim Black was announced.

Anderson said he asked Geddings, "How did you pull that off?"

"He said that he thought that Alan Middleton had a role in it," Anderson told the jurors.

Middleton was a key executive for Scientific Games. Records indicate he had dinner with Black the night before the appointment was announced. Prosecutors have said that the speaker settled on the choice of Geddings at that time.

After Geddings' appointment, a Scientific Games executive congratulated Middleton in an e-mail message introduced as evidence. "Not my doing," Middleton replied.

Geddings is on trial on charges that he hid his ties to Scientific Games as he took the seat on the commission.

Geddings' lawyer, Thomas Manning, asked Anderson whether Geddings wanted anything he had told Anderson kept a secret. "No, sir," Anderson said.

S.C. company: Who gave, who received

Prosecutors continued to focus Wednesday on a for-profit company called South Carolinians for an Effective Lottery created by Kevin L. and Kris Geddings that received a $35,000 check from Scientific Games in 2001.

The Geddingses ran a public relations firm in Columbia, S.C., at the time, and it's not clear what the new company's purpose was.

Bank records show that the Geddingses opened an account for it on Oct. 2, 2001 -- a few days before lottery contracts were awarded in South Carolina.

Scientific Games sent its check on Oct. 4 at the urging of Middleton, a friend of Geddings who then ran a consulting firm called Carolina Public Affairs that handled lobbying for Scientific Games.

After the Scientific Games check was deposited, Geddings wrote two checks:

One, for $29,500, was sent to Geddings' public relations firm. The second, for $3,500, was to Middleton's firm. No reason was given why the firm received the payment.

Two other companies also wrote checks to South Carolinians for an Effective Lottery -- Melange Computer Services for $5,000 and Just Care Inc. for $30,000. On May 2, 2003, Kris Geddings wrote a check to herself and Kevin Geddings on the South Carolinians for an Effective Lottery account in the amount of $35,000. They closed the account nine months later. Geddings has said South Carolinians for an Effective Lottery performed legitimate services.

The details are hazy

Few people know more about what's going on in North Carolina government circles than longtime state Sen. Tony Rand. But when he took the stand Wednesday, Rand said repeatedly that he didn't recall much about his dealings with Geddings.

The questions to Rand focused on a meeting with Geddings at Rand's Fayetteville office in May 2005 to prepare Rand for a forum on the pros and cons of bringing a lottery to North Carolina. Scientific Games paid Geddings $5,000 to prep Rand, a Democrat who helped push the lottery in the legislature, for the forum. Meredith Norris, a Scientific Games lobbyist and unpaid political director, attended the meeting. Rand said he thought Alan Middleton, a vice president for Scientific Games, also attended, but he wasn't certain.

Rand said he couldn't recall details, other than talk about the lottery.

Did he know Scientific Games was paying Geddings $5,000 for the meeting? "I did not," Rand said.

Rand was asked what he did with a wine-and-cheese gift basket that Norris sent him shortly after the lottery passed. Scientific Games reimbursed her for the expense.

"I suspect I kept the red wine," he said, getting a laugh from jurors. "I think I gave the rest of it to my staff in Raleigh."

UP NEXT

The trial continues today in Raleigh.