Witnesses deny $10,000 cash was used for a bribe

The money was spent on breast implants and gifts, they say. The jury may get the official corruption case today.

©Associated Press
December 6, 2002

SHALIMAR -- Money the state said was used to bribe an Escambia County commissioner was instead spent on travel, breast implants and Christmas presents, defense witnesses testified Thursday.

Pensacola real estate agent Joe Elliott, 57, is accused of giving suspended Commissioner Willie Junior $10,000 on Halloween last year to vote the next day to pay Elliott and his wife, Georgann, $3.9-million for a defunct soccer complex.

Elliott is also accused of bribing suspended Commissioner W.D. Childers, once president of the Florida Senate. The trial, which also includes charges of racketeering and money laundering, may to go the jury today.

Georgann Elliott, 51, testified Thursday that she borrowed $14,000 from her parents that Halloween day and gave $10,000 in cash to her husband. She said he handed back $2,000, and gave his then-daughter-in-law, Paula Jones, $5,600.

Jones, who left Elliott's son, Keith, earlier this year, testified she put the $5,600 in a lock box and later used $3,550 of it for her breast implant surgery. She said the money was a loan although she has never repaid it, and that the rest of the cash went for a Christmas vacation to the mountains.

Assistant State Attorney John Simon challenged Jones' testimony, pointing out that Joe Elliott withdrew $4,000 from a bank on Dec. 10, the day she went to her doctor for a presurgery examination for her Dec. 14 operation.

"Isn't it true, ma'am, that the money that you used to pay for those breast implants on that particular date was from that money?" Simon asked.

"No, sir," Jones replied.

Georgann Elliott also faces trial next year on charges of being a principal to bribery, money laundering and structuring a bank transaction to avoid a reporting requirement.

She broke into tears when Simon asked her whether she was facing those charges but responded "yes" to each count.

Childers is set for trial March 31 on bribery and related charges.

Junior has pleaded no contest to a series of corruption charges and has been promised a prison term of no more than 18 months.

As part of a plea bargain, he also testified this week against Joe Elliott and is to take the witness stand again against Elliott's wife and Childers.

Junior told the jury Elliott gave him $10,000 in cash the day before the soccer complex deal was approved on a 3-2 vote. He said Childers later handed him a steel cooking pot filled with more cash.

Childers and Junior are among four Escambia commissioners suspended by Gov. Jeb Bush after they were indicted on corruption charges.

The Elliotts' trials were moved to Okaloosa County because of intense media coverage in Escambia. Shalimar is about 45 miles east of Pensacola.

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