DeBerry Update: She Lied!

More news today about State Representative Lois DeBerry taking $200 from an E-Cycle employee at a Tunica casino, on what's turning out to be a fast-moving story. Thursday's Tennessean has a story where they catch DeBerry in a lie:

DeBerry on Tuesday told a Memphis newspaper that she took the money from an agent of E-Cycle Management — the shill company the FBI used in its bribery sting — and fed it into nickel slots during a trip to the Grand Casino in Tunica, Miss.

The Memphis Democrat's comments are a reversal of what she told The Tennessean two weeks earlier, that she had taken no cash from the company.

"No, no," DeBerry said in an unpublished July 13 interview. "I mean, cash would have been a red flag anyway. And you learn from other people that have gone through this kind of stuff and you know that anytime somebody offers you cash, that a red flag that should have gone up."

She lied! Has no one learned that if you do something small and stupid, you just admit it. It's the cover-up that gets you into serious trouble. Nixon lost his job over it and Reagan and Clinton found their second terms plagued by it. Whether this stays a speedbump or now escalates into full-blown scandal will be fun to watch.

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh offered her a fig leaf to hide behind by having the House's legal office rule that since the E-Cycle VP was a lobbyist, registered or otherwise, she broke no law.

Today, DeBerry announced she is resigning from the House ethics reform committee. She is keeping her #2 House position as Speaker Pro-Tempore, though. After leaving Naifeh hanging in the wind as she did, it'll be interesting to see if she retreats from that, too.

However, as some have pointed out, what's a married woman doing going to a casino with a total stranger -- although vouched for by her female friend Kathryn Bowers -- who then gives her a $200 "birthday gift" out of the blue? Was there no impropriety in her mind? If not, why not? The answer to that question is what DeBerry is trying to keep covered.

From the Nashville City Paper we pick up another tidbit:

DeBerry could not be reached for comment, but did release a statement saying she didn’t consider the one and a half hour trip anything more than two friends celebrating.

It's not clear in the context if DeBerry is saying she only spent an hour and a half there, or if the reporter is talking about round-trip time. I don't have a copy of the press release to compare it to.

Listening to the Leon Gray show today (AM680, 4 - 7PM), they mentioned that some nickel slots take 15 to 20 coins at a time. Going back to our math, that's still more than ninety minutes, if she spent the $200 strictly by feeding 20 nickels per pull, but with an average cycle time of 30 seconds (takes more time to feed that many nickels or dollars) per pull. That leaves travel time, arrival and beginning play, eating, etc. It still adds up to more than an hour and a half. Something's not adding up, so to speak.

My original post on this ethical lapse is here.

Bill Hobbs posts on this with other links here.