Nolan Clay
The Oklahoman
A lobbyist testified in a political corruption trial Tuesday that a Senate leader was behind a failed attempt to get legislation that would help “friends” with a landfill project.
Dave Herbert told jurors that Mike Morgan, then Senate president pro tem, and lobbyist Andy Skeith said they were going to run the legislation in the 2007 legislative session.
“The discussion we had was: ‘When are you going to run it? And, where are you going to hide it?’” Herbert testified.
The testimony came on the sixth day of the federal trial in Oklahoma City for Morgan, Skeith and prominent attorney Martin Stringer.
Morgan is accused of taking $141,666 in bribes from a landfill company, Dilworth Development Co. Inc., for influence over legislation.
Morgan also is accused of taking $250,000 in bribes from a power plant company and $12,000 in bribes from an Edmond assisted-living business. Jurors are to hear testimony about those payments later. Morgan, who is an attorney, contends he was paid for legitimate legal services. Skeith and Stringer are accused of conspiring with him to help two of the companies.
Morgan, 57, of Stillwater, Stringer, 71, of Oklahoma City, and Skeith, 53, of Edmond, were indicted in March. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Morgan, a Democrat, was Senate president pro tem or co-president pro tem from March 2005 until November 2008, according to the indictment.
Herbert is a former mayor of Midwest City and a former state senator. He also is a lobbyist and in 2006 and 2007 represented a state association of county commissioners.
He recalled Tuesday being called to a meeting at Morgan’s office at the Capitol in 2006. Herbert said Morgan wanted his help to see if Kay County commissioners would back off their opposition to a proposed landfill.
“He said he had some friends who really wanted to see the landfill in Kay County go in,” Herbert testified.
He said he checked and reported back to Morgan that the Kay County commissioners were staunch in their opposition. He said he then agreed to check with his association on a possible change in the law that would take county commissioners out of the business of regulating landfills.
He said he later reported that his association would oppose that proposal. He said months later he met with Morgan and Skeith again. “They advised me they were going to go ahead and run legislation to change the law,” he said.
Herbert said he asked them, “Well, what do you want me to do: Look the other way?”
He said they then discussed that the change would have to be brought up at the end of the legislative session and hid in some bill.
Herbert said he agreed to help because he had 15 to 20 pieces of legislation he was pushing that session for his clients and he didn’t want Morgan shooting them down.
“He was asking me to go against the people who were paying me,” Herbert said. “It put me in a pretty tight spot.”
Despite his promise, Herbert said he alerted another senator when the change did come up so it could be killed.
Herbert acknowledged to defense questions that he had been friends with two FBI agents for years and has talked casually with them about legislators.
