Arkansas businessman's bid for action by official is heard; wiretap played for bribery jury

Ted Suhl leaves the federal courthouse Wednesday in Little Rock after the first day of his trial.
Ted Suhl leaves the federal courthouse Wednesday in Little Rock after the first day of his trial.

As testimony began Wednesday in the bribery trial of north Arkansas businessman Ted Suhl, jurors heard his voice, captured on a federal wiretap in 2011, insisting that a state official "put a stop to" a state program that was causing Suhl's mental-health businesses to lose clients and money.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Ted Suhl leaves the federal courthouse in Little Rock with family members after the first day of his bribery trial in which jurors heard conversations recorded on a federal wiretap.

Suhl told Phillip Carter, then a Crittenden County probation officer, to be sure to relay to his friend Steven Jones of Marion, then the deputy director of the state Department of Human Services, the need to discontinue a pilot program in northeast Arkansas. The program, started under Gov. Mike Huckabee, steered business to a rival mental-health provider, Mid-South, and Suhl told Carter, "That needs to stop."

"I'm not asking for him to give it all to us," Suhl said, noting that other providers were affected as well.

Carter replied, "That's dead wrong. I sure will" pass the word to Jones.

Carter added, "He could put a stop to it because it's under his purview. ... He could say just give them [referrals] to whoever does the better job."

Suhl, 50, of Warm Springs in northeast Arkansas, is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services fraud, three counts of honest services fraud, one count of federal funds bribery and one count of interstate travel in aid of bribery.

He complained in the call recorded on July 25, 2011, that state employees told him they were required to give certain juvenile-court referrals for mental-health services to Mid-South because of the pilot program.

"Even though he's a friend," Suhl said, referring to Jones, "I don't know if he has the guts to do that. ... You know there will be push-back."

Carter mentioned that Jones "was still asking" about a trip, to which Suhl replied, "We need to get that going. ... Let's talk in a few days. We'll try to have lunch with your buddy who got elected. ... If you could talk to your other buddy ... There's gonna be a big kickback."

Suhl said that when Jones had a chance to talk to unnamed people about changing the referral policy, "I know he wouldn't want to say it's just about us -- just that he's been hearing from providers."

Carter noted at one point that "this guy doesn't do everything we ask him to do," to which Suhl replied, "He might be the one to open it up. Obviously, Steve's the one."

Suhl then re-emphasized that the referral policy stemming from the pilot program "is wrong," and said, "We're not asking for anything special."

In another phone call the FBI secretly recorded days later, on Aug. 3, 2011, Carter told Jones, "Our friend got excited" about the referral program, and urged Jones to do something "if you can, man, in the next two weeks."

Jones mentioned that he had intended to call Carter because "something came up regarding him. I got a report in that I didn't have [on another day]."

Carter then called Suhl, saying, "My friend called me this morning," and mentioned "some monitoring papers that came across his desk, and your organization is mentioned. ... He didn't seem like he wanted to talk about it on the phone."

Suhl asked Carter to "see if he'll give 'em to you," and Carter said, "I'll try to get my hands on that paperwork and give it to you ASAP."

Federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., who are prosecuting Suhl because the investigation used too many resources of the local U.S. attorney's office, say that between 2007, when Jones was appointed the deputy director of the state's largest department, and 2011, Suhl regularly passed thousands of dollars in bribes to Jones. They say the bribes were paid through Carter and a West Memphis pastor, who acted as middlemen, in exchange for official favors that benefited Suhl's companies, Trinity Behavioral Healthcare in Warm Springs, near Pocahontas, and Arkansas Counseling Associates, which provided services statewide.

Attorney John Keller, a trial attorney with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, told the six men and six women on the jury in opening statements that Suhl's for-profit juvenile-counseling facilities received millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements through the state between 2007 and 2011.

"The defendant made a ton of money off the state of Arkansas, but this case ... is about the money he spent to buy a deputy director" of the state's largest agency, Keller said.

He said Jones and Carter, both of whom pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the case and are serving prison time, will testify about the way the scheme worked. He said they will testify about how the three men periodically met at out-of-the-way restaurants, often on Sundays, so that Suhl could give Carter checks that had been written on the account of one of Suhl's businesses to a West Memphis church whose pastor was friends with Carter. Once the checks were cashed, he said, Carter would keep some of the money and give some to Jones.

Keller said jurors will view a videotape of one of those meetings, secretly recorded by the FBI, in which Suhl whispers in Carter's ear and then slides him a check. Keller said the meetings always followed phone calls in which Suhl told Carter "exactly what he needs Jones to do."

"This process was repeated over and over again ... 13 times, from 2007 till 2011," Keller said.

He said the FBI confronted Carter after the videotaped meeting in 2011, and Carter began to cooperate. He said Carter arranged for Jones to meet him in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, while the FBI watched, so that Carter could hand him a promised "package" of cash, which Jones didn't know was money supplied by the FBI.

"You'll see Carter passing $1,000 to Jones through the window of a vehicle at Cracker Barrel," Keller told jurors.

Alex Romain, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing Suhl, told jurors to remember that the cash came from the FBI, not from Suhl, whose family donated almost $100,000 over the course of several years to the church -- the 15th Street Church of God in Christ, whose pastor, John Bennett, died in 2014 of multiple health problems.

"The evidence will show that between Ted Suhl and Steven Jones, there wasn't one conversation about money," Romain said. "Not one dollar changed hands, and Steven Jones performed not one [official] action for Ted Suhl."

Romain told jurors, "We're here because Phillip Carter, a convicted felon, is in jail and wants out."

Romain said that when the three men met for dinner in September 2011, Suhl waited until Jones was gone before giving Carter a $2,000 check to the church. He said Carter, an elder at the church, gave the check to Bennett, who gave Carter some cash back.

"Carter played Ted Suhl and he played Steven Jones," Romain said.

Although Jones pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Suhl, Romain told jurors to "listen closely as to why he pleaded guilty."

"Steven Jones did not take one action that led to one dollar for Ted Suhl and his companies," Romain said. "Jones wasn't even sure the money he received came from Ted."

He called Carter, the government's expected star witness, "a hustler."

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. today before U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson in Little Rock.

Metro on 07/14/2016

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