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Jurors in the John Wiley Price corruption trial heard testimony Wednesday from a key government witness that political consultant Kathy Nealy bribed the commissioner for help with county deals.
The star witness laid out the alleged scheme between Price and Nealy to profit from county contracts. Christian Campbell pled guilty to one count of bribery related to Price's corruption case. He agreed to testify Wednesday for leniency in his own case.
Campell described for jurors how would use her influence with Price to land consulting jobs with companies competing for lucrative county contracts then pay Price the bribe for helping the deal go through.
“For the very first time today the jurors heard the word bribery explicitly,” said courtroom observer Nick Oberheiden. “The government used him today as witness for the prosecution to disclose and describe how the bribery scheme apparently worked.”
In cross examination, the defense got Campbell to admit that he'd never actually discussed the payments with Nealy or Price and had only met Price in person 3-5 times.
Campbell testified Nealy was simply paid her standard fee. When Campbell was shown a check Nealy wrote to price for $2,500, he testified that “art” was written in the memo line and he didn't know for sure if the check was to purchase art or not.