Jury Trial of Former Houston County Commissioner Part Two

Sandra Stokes Walden

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Posted by: Sandra Walden
Date: May 11 2015 6:50 PM

3:49 Court resumes. 

Judge Mendheim is addressing the jury. 

The Snellgrove indictment is for allegations that Snellgrove used his position as Houston County Commissioner for personal gain. The allegations are Snellgrove was paid $ 214,122.00 for security services and $ 6087.20 for port-a-potties.

Attorneys will give opening statements this afternoon.

Opening Statements:

Attorney Pete Smyczek for the prosecution.

When Mr. Snellgrove was asked what is your relationship with Ronnie Gilley, He stated,  ”I know of him.”  Gilley and Snellgrove spoke on the phone about 30 times during the time period.  Mr. Snellgrove used his office to obtain business for businesses that he and his son controlled.  During the time Mr. Snellgrove did business with Mr. Gilley he was a Houston Co Commissioner.  At the time Mr. Snellgrove received this money he cast his vote several times on decisions that benefited Ronnie Gilley.

You will see from the evidence that this was not a mistake, that this was done intentionally.  You will hear from witnesses that were present and you will always hear from Ronnie Gilley. 

As you all know things did not work out for Country Crossings.  Mr. Gilley plead guilty and he resides in federal prison now.  Mr. Gilley agreed as part of his plea agreement to cooperate with the Federal government on two government corruption cases centered around electronic bingo.  As part of his agreement to plead guilty he also agreed to cooperate with the state when they prosecuted similar cases 

You will hear from Mr. Gilley that Mr. Snellgrove demanded that Mr. Gilley hire Mr. Snellgrove’s son Mark for security services.  The security business was paid over $214,122 for providing security. That is the first count.

The second count is a allegation that Mr. Snellgrove used his position to get more business for himself and his son.  Mr. Gilley will tell you from the stand that Mr. Snellgrove went to Mr. Gilley again to demand that his son’s port-a-potty business be contracted to provide port-a-potties at Country Crossings.  You will see that they did get the business at approximately $6,087.20.

Mr. Snellgrove did not abstain from voting on motions that benefited Country Crossings and Mr. Gilley.  He did not reveal that his business was doing business with Country Crossings and Mr. Gilley.  You will see that Mr. Snellgrove did that illegally and improperly.

Attorney Joey Sheffield for the defendant: 

And now you will hear the rest of the story.  I am going to get into details a little bit more.

What this story is about is about a man that has a very low threshold for tolerance for being in prison.   He has tried to move the puzzle pieces around to get what he wants. 

Ronnie Gilley is a entrepreneur.  I think he had good intentions.  He went into Enterprise with good intentions to create a new Nashville.  He was buying land and recruiting country music stars. During this time the real estate market crashed and his money sources began to dry up.

Ronnie Gilley needed new avenues of money.  He realized that Houston County has very liberal bingo laws.  Mr. Gilley went to the Chamber and presented his ideas and at the end through in bingo.  At this time unemployment was going down.  There was a strong outpouring from the community that showed they wanted this business.

The Houston County Commissioners wanted to be certain that electronic bingo would be legal in Houston County. They went to the Attorney Generals office, the same office these men represent, to get a opinion to see if electronic bingo was legal in Houston Co.  This ruling said yes it was legal.  They went back the second time and got a second opinion and again  the Attorney General’s Office said it was legal.  They got a third opinion that yes it was legal.  The vote was unanimous to proceed with Country Crossings.

Feb 25 ,2008 there was supposedly a discussion between Snellgrove and Gilley concerning Regional Services.

 It is not illegal for a politician to have a business.  Mr. Snellgrove owned The Prop Shop.  His son, Mark Snellgrove had worked at the Prop Shop.

2007 before this came about Mark Snellgrove was interested in starting a small business.  He started talking to people

Mr. Bobby Snellgrove answers the phone at the prop shop, he gets the mail. Just to have something to do.

Mark Snellgrove started up the security Co in March of 2008.  He went to Bama Jam, a large country music concert and saw that the security was a mess.  Bama Jam had used their own security.  A few days later Mark drove to Enterprise to talk to two people at Bama Jam to see if he could get some business for Regional Services.  They called him back to guard a front gate, then realized they needed a guard at a back gate also. 

That was the beginning of Regional Services owned by Mark Snellgrove.

They talk about $214,122.  Mark Snellgrove ended up $15,000 in the hole. Mark Snellgrove shut Regional Services down after County Crossing was shut down.

Bobby Snellgrove loaned Mark money to make payroll and three weeks later Mark paid him back. 

Mark Snellgrove also started Regional Portables, a port-a-potty and septic tank business .  You have to buy port-a-potties, a truck to pump it out.  Mark went to his dad to ask for his help to buy the equipment.  Bobby Snellgrove bought the trucks and port-a-potties and put them in his name.

Bobby Snellgrove ran into a friend and he mentioned what his son was doing, the friend knew someone who was in business and knew where to get some equipment.  All of the equipment was in Bobby’s name, He was concerned that if something happened to his son he wanted to be protected for his investment so he asked to be a partner to protect his investment.

Mr. Gilley is wanting to get out of jail.  He is a little vindictive and wants to get out of jail.  Mr. Gilley had to pay HEADA 1.6 million dollars for a tax on the electronic bingo machines.  Within days after the tax was paid Country Crossings was shut down by Governor Riley’s task force.  Gilley wanted the $1.6 milions dollars refunded by the Houston County Commission.  Bobby Snellgrove was the only commissioner to vote to not give back the stamp tax money on the bingo machines when Country Crossings was closed.  Eventually Houston County refunded $900,000 and Mr Snellgrove was the only commissioner that did not vote for returning the money.

When Gilley got ready to come to Dothan, He looked into seeing who the players were in Dothan.  He went to Alfred Saliba to do the land deal.  He knew Mark Snellgrove was related to Bobby so he felt he could use Mark Snellgrove to get to Bobby Snellgrove, a Houston County Commissioner.

Three days after Bobby Snellgrove voted that Mr. Gilley not get the money back,  Mark Snellgrove’s security company was fired by Country Crossings.  Mark did not get the last pay check for $9.000 Three days after Bobby Snellgrove voted that Mr. Gilley not get the money back.

There is no record of  telephone calls between Snellgrove and Gilley before the February 25 meeting to vote for the refund. The calls were after the vote.  Don’t you think if you were trying to influence the vote you would call before the meeting. 

Do you think a 67 year old man was trying to strong arm someone for a $6087.20 bid to pump port-a-potties?  When you go to Branson MO who in the world thinks they are going to use a port-a-potty.  No body.  When you go to Dixie Stampede do you think you are going to see port-a-potties. 

Mr. Gilley made the presentations to the Houston County Commission and presented drawings of plans for Country Crossings guess what was not on the drawings?  Port-a-potties.

Security needed for Country Crossings?  The plans showed a Sheriff’s Substation at Country Crossings.  They did not need a private security service. 

Oct or Nov 2009 Governor Bob Riley got his illegal task force in place.  Sheriff Hughes started to waffle a bit.  You will hear evidence that at the last minute because of the illegal gambling task force the sheriff’s department backed out of providing secruity because there was going to be a raid.

DSI heard about this and went out to negotiate a contract to do the inside security control at Country Crossings.

There was a letter written in Dec 2014.   We  heard about that today. This case was to be tried in January and the defendant’s attorney had the case continued due to a conflict in scheduling.  Luther Strange wrote a letter asking that Gilley get a reduced sentence. 

Sheffield is recapping the arrest of Ronnie Gilley and his participation in the investigation for the Bingo Trials.  Jim Murray, Senior Special Agent for the State of Alabama, formerly worked for the Federal Government and was one of the agents who arrested Ronnie Gilley.

You are going to hear that Gilley could not even handle a month and a half in jail, he cut a deal and he got released.  Theoretically Mr. Gilley could probably walk out of jail next week after he testifies. 

Mr. Sheffield told the jury that they have heard more than he usually reveals in opening arguments. 

Court will resume in the morning with witnesses for the State.  The trial is expected to last until Thursday afternoon or Friday. 

I will be in the courtroom daily covering the trial and typing as I hear the testamony.  I will post during the breaks as I did at the 2010 Bingo Trials.

 

 

 

 

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