Attorney says Langford was duped by friends

TUSCALOOSA | Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was duped and stabbed in the back by Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount, said Langford’s attorney, Michael Rasmussen, during his opening statements Tuesday.

It was all part of a conspiracy to entrap and manipulate Langford, he said.

“For Larry, it was about friendship with a multimillionaire,” Rasmussen said.

Langford is accused of accepting $236,000 in cash, jewelry, clothes and loan payments between 2002 and 2004 from Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre in return for steering more than $7 million in bond work to Blount’s company, Blount Parris & Co. in Montgomery, as part of the multibillion-dollar repair work on Jefferson County’s sewer system.

Langford, who served as Jefferson County Commission president from 2002 to 2007, has pleaded not guilty.

Langford was indicted in December with LaPierre and Blount, who have both pleaded guilty to corruption charges and reached agreements with prosecutors that require them to testify against the mayor.

During the prosecution’s opening statements Tuesday, lead prosecutor George Martin told jurors that Langford used his influence as a powerful politician to receive money and gifts.

“This is a case about wheeling and dealing politics,” Martin said.

The prosecution described multiple bond trips to New York where Blount paid for Langford’s purchases, including thousands of dollars in designer suits, a $12,000 watch and a $1,600 cardigan sweater.

According to the prosecution, Blount and LaPierre also paid for more than $54,000 in clothing at Birmingham-based Remon’s Clothiers and paid $148,000 for jewelry from Bromberg’s, including a Rolex watch.

During the second day of the Langford trial Tuesday, Remon Danforah, owner of Remon’s, testified that Blount and LaPierre made multiple payments on a credit account kept open for Langford, all made with American Express credit cards. But Langford never made a payment on that account himself, Danforah told prosecutors.

“They said they would take care of whatever Larry wanted,” Danforah said.

Defense attorneys questioned Danforah’s record-keeping practices, painting a picture that Danforah could have been scamming more money from LaPierre and Blount. Danforah denied that accusation.

In other testimony, jurors also heard from Yvette Campbell, a branch manager for the former Colonial Bank, and Karyn Cope Hughes, who helped arrange a $50,000 loan for Langford. Hughes testified that Blount, her former boyfriend, asked her to help Langford get a loan. She told prosecutors that Langford’s credit score was poor, but she trusted Blount and knew Langford was a public official.

When Langford’s loan was past due to Colonial Bank, it was paid off with a loan from LaPierre, Hughes said.

During the opening statements Langford’s attorney said the money paid off by LaPierre was a loan to Langford and that he had signed promissory notes. The money was to have been paid off by the sale of a $1.5 million piece of property near the Galleria, which still has not sold, Rasmussen said.

Langford also gave gifts to Blount, Rasmussen said, adding that the bond work was not connected. He said Langford needed help, from someone he trusted, with complicated bond deals to finance billions of dollars in work on the county’s dilapidated sewer system.

“It was the practice in Jefferson County,” he said. “These little county officials don’t know who is going to buy $1 billion in bonds. The bankers do.”

Rasmussen acknowledged that Langford is a shopaholic and tends to move from project to project quickly, leaving the details to others he trusts.

“Bill Blount decided to take advantage of these faults to manipulate Larry Langford,” he said.

Langford, 61, faces multiple criminal charges, including bribery, money laundering, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

If convicted he faces up to 804 years in prison and the loss of his position as mayor of Birmingham.

His trial, originally planned to begin in August in Birmingham, was moved to Tuscaloosa after his defense attorney convinced the court that pre-trial publicity had tainted the jury pool.

U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler is presiding over the case.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reach Lydia Seabol Avant at 205-722-0222 or lydia.seabol

avant@tuscaloosanews.com.