A West Memphis man with extensive social and political connections in eastern Arkansas testified Friday about a series of meetings he arranged years ago between two of his friends, a wealthy businessman and a high-ranking state official, to further the exchange of money for official favors.
But defense attorneys for the businessman, 51-year-old Ted Suhl of Warm Springs, questioned whether Phillip Wayne Carter, the former West Memphis alderman and juvenile probation officer who spent much of the day on the witness stand, was actually trying to "play" his friends off each other to make money for himself.
Suhl's jury trial on six charges related to the alleged bribery scheme between 2007 and 2011 continues at 10 a.m. Monday in a Little Rock courtroom before U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson.
Carter, 46, pleaded guilty Sept. 15 to a federal bribery conspiracy charge, admitting he was the go-between who facilitated secretive, out-of-the-way meetings between Suhl and Steven Jones, 51, of Marion who was the deputy director of the state Department of Human Services.
Carter said Suhl arranged the meetings at a Brazilian restaurant in Memphis and paid for the expensive meals so he could express concerns to Jones about policies and procedures that affected Suhl's for-profit facilities for troubled teenagers, in the hope that Jones might be able to remedy the problems.
Carter testified that at each meeting, Suhl slipped him a check totaling $2,000 to $3,000 that was made out to Carter's church in West Memphis. Carter said Suhl expected him to cash the check and give Jones half of it, with the other half going to the church, to encourage Jones to carry out the requested favors. He said Suhl also surreptitiously gave him $150 to $200 in cash through a handshake after each meeting.
"I was his right-hand man," Carter said, referring to Suhl.
In addition to other businesses, Suhl operated an inpatient center, then known as The Lord's Ranch and now known as Trinity Behavioral Health Services, in Warm Springs, as well as a statewide outpatient counseling business, Maxus, operating as Arkansas Counseling Services.
Before beginning a two-year prison term, Carter also owned a lawn care and janitorial service, a consulting business, and worked at a grocery store, in addition to being an ordained minister at the 15th Street Church of Christ in West Memphis, to which Suhl made out the checks. Carter acknowledged Friday that he had plenty of financial incentives for bringing the two men together as often as possible, which was usually once a month. The father of three said he was perpetually overwhelmed by bills.
He said he met Suhl at a Christmas dinner Suhl sponsored for juvenile court workers in late 2001. Later, he said, Suhl paid him to conduct sermons at The Lord's Ranch and gave him money through paychecks Suhl made out to Carter's wife, Leatrice Carter, for being "on call" to resolve problems at the ranch. Carter said Suhl and his employees didn't want Leatrice Carter at the ranch because she was difficult to get along with, so basically she was paid about $35,000 annually to stay home.
Carter said he introduced Suhl to his pastor, John Bennett, and Suhl paid the church for use of its vehicles to transport patients at Suhl's businesses. Carter said the church bought three vehicles through a loan it repaid using "stipends" from Suhl, and Carter admitted that he regularly drove one of those vehicles, a Ford Expedition, whether on church business or not. He said the funds stopped when Bennett's wife, Ruthie, demanded payments from Suhl's mother, Shirley Suhl.
John Bennett died in 2014 from numerous health problems. His widow, Ruthie, was sentenced in July to three years' probation and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and $157,225.90 in restitution to the Social Security Administration for falsely claiming disability benefits from 2004 through 2014. An indictment said she claimed she hadn't worked since 2008, but other records showed she was the director of the church's Child Care Development Center.
It was on the daycare's account that John Bennett often wrote checks for cash after receiving Suhl's "donations" to the church, an FBI agent said. Carter said he was supposed to give the cash, which represented about half the amount of the "donation," to Jones but admitted he didn't always do so.
Carter said that while he encouraged meetings between Jones and Suhl because it benefited him and the church, which was in dire straits financially, he said Jones liked to keep the meetings going too. He said that was Jones' intention when he said in a wiretapped telephone call with Carter that "we might want to get back on schedule."
Defense attorneys for Suhl pointed out that a log of intercepted phone calls showed that Carter often couldn't reach Suhl for weeks at a time and that Suhl didn't always immediately call him back.
However, the calls also indicated that Suhl was sometimes frustrated that Jones might "put it off," referring to whatever favor Suhl had recently requested. Carter said Suhl "would ask me, 'Is Steve happy?'" He said what Suhl really wanted to know was whether Jones felt that he was receiving enough money for his efforts.
Carter said that Suhl, whose nickname was "Banana," often complained that Janie Huddleston, the department's other deputy director, interfered with his plans to make changes in state policies. In an audio recording, Suhl could be heard saying, "As long as Janie's in office, we can't do much. Anybody else and we'd be passing new laws."
In the last meeting between the three men, when none of them knew they were under surveillance by the FBI, cameras inside the Texas de Brazil restaurant -- the men's regular meeting spot -- recorded Jones walking away from the table as Suhl handed a $2,000 check to Carter, who reached down and put it in his sock. It was Sept. 11, 2011, about five months after Jones became the department's deputy director.
Carter then got up and moved away from the table, talking into a cell phone. The FBI-intercepted call to Pastor Bennett, who was campaigning to be a bishop, was played for jurors. In it, Carter said, laughing, "Bishop, it's going to be a great day. I'll talk to you later. It's gonna be a great day!"
Carter explained from the witness stand: "Bennett and I had talked earlier. We were both low on funds and had decided we weren't going to pay Jones that day."
The FBI said that's why, after agents later confronted Carter and he agreed to cooperate, he used $1,000 in FBI money to take to Jones in November, handing it through Jones' open car window in a West Memphis Cracker Barrel parking lot as FBI agents captured it on film nearby.
Jones is expected to testify when the trial resumes Monday.
Metro on 07/16/2016