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June 14, 2005
The legacy of Lee Brown?
This Dan Feldstein/Chronicle article reports that the brother of former Houston mayor Lee P. Brown was implicated this morning during the opening stages of the federal corruption trial of Cleveland, Ohio businessman Nate Gray:
[O]n the first day of a major bribery trial here of three other men, prosecutors played a wiretapped cell phone conversation in which Cleveland businessman Nate Gray brags that "the mayor's brother and I are like this.""I can go into Houston and have more juice than a local guy," Gray told a young attorney who wanted to learn the ropes of Gray's consulting business.
"Greasing palms" was how to get things done, said Gray, who faces 44 counts of bribery-related charges.
Two other people Gray allegedly gave cash and gifts were Houston city officials — former Brown chief of staff Oliver Spellman and building services director Monique McGilbra.
Both pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and are expected to testify against Gray. . .
Prosecutors said Brown got monthly payments totaling thousands of dollars and even a payment specifically for promising to talk to his mayoral brother about a pending contract.
Here is a previous post regarding Ms. McGilbra's plea deal, and Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net (more here) has been covering these developments from the beginning.
Where there is smoke in such matters, there is often fire. Stay tuned on this one.
Posted by Tom at June 14, 2005 10:45 AM
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Just discovered this blog last week and I just wanted to post and say how much I enjoy it.
Posted by: James B. Caruthers at June 14, 2005 02:46 PM
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