In a series of secretly recorded telephone calls, former state Rep. Pete Kott joked with Veco executives about drinking and women, but assured them he was serious about one thing: getting a gas pipeline.
"I'm going to get this f-----g gas line done so I can get out of here," Kott told former Veco chief executive Bill Allen in a Jan. 10, 2006, cell phone conversation.
Testimony began Monday in Kott's public corruption trial.
Jurors heard recordings of nine telephone calls and watched one videotaped meeting between Allen and former Veco vice president Rick Smith.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Nicholas Marsh told jurors that Kott betrayed the public trust and sold his legislative office to oil field services company Veco. In return for money and job promises, he pushed an oil tax favored by the industry.
Kott even says on one of the tapes, "I sold my soul to the devil," Marsh said.
Kott's own words will be used against him, Marsh said. It's the same tactic prosecutors used to convict former Rep. Tom Anderson in July of seven federal corruption charges.
But the defense told jurors the government twisted the facts. Kott was just a blue collar Republican working hard to get what most Alaskans wanted, a gas pipeline, said Jim Wendt, one of Kott's defense lawyers.
There's nothing illegal about working with lobbyists or others toward a shared goal, and that's all Kott was doing, Wendt said. "If he is guilty of anything, he is guilty of working to get a pipeline."
Marsh warned jurors they would hear "downright offensive" language. But Wendt said it was just "down-to-earth talk."
An FBI agent from Cincinnati, Steve Dunphy, who monitored and recorded some of the action in Suite 604 of Juneau's Baranof hotel, testified all afternoon about various recordings. Dunphy said he volunteered after a request for help with the Alaska investigation went out agencywide.
The listening began with a wiretap on Smith's cell phone in September 2005 and branched out from there to wiretaps on Allen's cell and home phones, and then the bug planted in the Baranof suite, Dunphy testified.
In various phone calls played for the jury, Kott's familiarity with Allen and Smith is remarkable. He calls them Uncle Bill and Uncle Rick. He sounds tipsy at times. Several times, Kott brings up the idea of working as warden at a prison in Barbados that Veco was building.
"I just wanna be a warden," Kott tells Smith in a Sept. 29, 2005, telephone call.
Wendt told jurors in his opening statement that the Barbados prison gig was a running joke with Kott, that he had heard about topless women on beaches there. But Marsh told jurors that even if Kott was kidding about the warden's post, he clearly wanted a job with Veco when his work in the Legislature was done.
As the 2006 legislative session got under way, Kott fretted to Allen on the phone that things weren't going well and Allen needed to get to Juneau.
Allen made it clear that he thought little of House Speaker John Harris, who won the post in 2005 after Kott was ousted in an internal coup.
"About the only ones that I can trust is you and ol' Ben Stevens," Allen tells Kott in a Jan. 10, 2006 call. Stevens is the former state Senate president. He hasn't been charged.
In one lengthy call between Allen and Smith on Feb. 20, 2006, Allen goes on a tirade about Veco's new young lobbyist, Kris Knauss. Allen was angry that Knauss was using Allen's own well-cultivated influence with Kott as if it were his own, turning it to his advantage with Gov. Frank Murkowski's chief of staff, Jim Clark.
"Well f---. I put more money into Pete Kott than he's ever even thought about," Allen sputtered at one point.
In a March 4, 2006, videotaped conversation in Suite 604, Allen and Smith said they would do whatever they needed to get the pipeline and an oil tax favored by the industry through the Legislature. Smith said they may need to "get dirty."
The room is dimly lit and it's hard to make out their faces. But their voices are clear.
"They got dirty and they crossed the line," Marsh told jurors.
Later in the conversation -- in a part not played in court but discussed by lawyers and the judge -- the topic turned to a faltering effort at the time to sell Veco to an Australian firm. Allen was upset because former Veco president Pete Leathard had apparently boasted to the Australians that Veco was in the business of bribing state legislators.
U.S. District Judge John Sedwick agreed with prosecutors that only a portion of the conversation needed to be played for jurors.
In the same conversation, Allen told Smith that Veco's clients need to know what it's doing in Juneau to pressure legislators. He refers to "the big wheels" with BP and Exxon and more.
The case against Kott is the first to go to trial involving Veco, a company that was hugely influential in Juneau for many years. Allen and Smith have both pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges and resigned their positions with Veco.
As of Friday, Veco no longer exists. It's been sold to the Colorado-based engineering firm CH2M Hill.
Kott, a former house speaker from Eagle River who served 14 years in the Legislature, is being tried on charges of bribery, conspiracy, extortion and wire fraud.
Several dozen people gathered in the federal courtroom for opening statements, including defense lawyers, prosecutors, FBI agents and news reporters, but the crowd cleared out by the afternoon. Whistleblower Ray Metcalfe stayed.
Marsh told jurors that Kott, who ran a hardwood flooring business, is accused of accepting money or things of value three times from Veco executives, plus the promise of a job. The specific accusations, as laid out by Marsh:
• Kott, in need of cash during his 2006 campaign, sent Allen a fake bill for an extra $7,993 in flooring work.
• Veco paid $2,750 for a political poll by David Dittman to see how Kott was faring with voters during the campaign. Kott lost in the primary.
• Kott accepted $1,000 from Allen to reimburse Kott for a contribution he made to then-Gov. Frank Murkowski's re-election bid.
All of that is misconstrued or overblown, Wendt told jurors. Kott received no personal benefit from any of it, the defense lawyer said. He didn't even know about the poll beforehand.
The only thing Kott did wrong was accept the $1,000, but that was just to reimburse him for the contribution, Wendt said.
Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.
The Alaska political corruption investigation
The trial of former Eagle River Rep. Pete Kott is part of a broad investigation into public corruption focused on state and federal officials, lobbyists and others. The investigation is being led by the FBI and Department of Justice and has resulted in charges against four former state legislators, two former executives of the Veco Corp., and a lobbyist for a private prison company.
Kott is charged with bribery, conspiracy, extortion and wire fraud for taking money and the promise of a job from Veco executives for supporting an oil tax measure favored by the petroleum industry.
By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com