FBI Sting Snares Tenn. Lawmakers

Four Tennessee state lawmakers, including a member of one of the state’s most powerful political families, were indicted Thursday on charges of taking bribes from FBI agents posing as representatives of an electronics-recycling company.

In a sting operation dubbed “Tennessee Waltz,” the FBI set up a bogus company called E-Cycle Management Inc., then allegedly doled out payoffs to lawmakers to sponsor a bill that would allow the business to buy and sell used electronic equipment from the state.

The bill was withdrawn Wednesday.

State Sen. John Ford, one of the lawmakers charged, allegedly received payments totaling $55,000, beginning last year. “You are talking to the guy that makes the deals,” Ford boasted to the undercover agents, according to the indictment.

Ford was also charged with attempting to threaten or intimidate potential witnesses by telling an undercover agent that “if he caught someone trying to set him up he would shoot that person,” prosecutors said.

The other defendants -- state Sens. Kathryn Bowers and Ward Crutchfield, and state Rep. Chris Newton -- were charged with accepting lesser amounts. Former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon was also charged, as were two nonelected officials.

Newton is a Republican; the others are Democrats.

Ford’s brother is Harold Ford, who served 11 terms in Congress. His nephew Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has served five terms in Congress and said Wednesday that he would run in 2006 for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Over three decades in the Tennessee Senate, John Ford has lost paternity lawsuits, given a political job to a girlfriend and been successfully sued for sexual harassment.

The Senate Ethics Committee and a federal grand jury are also investigating the $429,000 Ford received from 2002 to 2004 from a consulting company with financial ties to the state’s Medicaid program.

This month the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance fined Ford $10,000 for spending $15,000 of campaign money on his daughter’s wedding.

The controversies have done little to hurt Ford among voters in his inner-city Memphis district.

Calls to the legislators’ offices were not immediately returned. Bowers, Newton and Crutchfield had no comment after a court appearance.

U.S. Atty. Terry Harris said the investigation began two years ago.

The arrests came as the Tennessee General Assembly was trying to wrap up debate on the state budget and adjourn the session by Friday.

“Today is a sad day on many levels,” Gov. Phil Bredesen said. “I think all of us feel that the important thing to do is keep a steady hand.”