
Video Poker 247
- Medford’s Captain No Fall Guy
Former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford thought he had it all
figured out. He would give Captain Tracy Bridges all of the dirty work
to do and then if he ever got caught he could simply blame it all on
him. The only thing he did not count on was Bridges going to the FBI
and telling them exactly what was going on there.
Bridges has told FBI agents everything they wanted to know about the
illegal video poker ring that Medford was running, and according to an
FBI agent who testified, the list that Medford gave Bridges to do was
fairly long.
Bridges would be given tickets and told to convince prosecutors to
lower penalties for his friends. He also knew about the bribes as
Medford would send him to collect them. Bridges went to the FBI and
told them of a money laundering operation inside of the sheriff’s
office and that he thought that they were trying to make him the fall
guy.
He says that money that was to go into a re-election campaign was
given to Medford by his video poker buddies and instead of going into
an account it would go into Medford’s pocket. He also said that there
were other video poker people that would come by to “pay off” Medford
so that they could continue to operate.
Bridges was sentenced on Thursday for taking bribes and protection
money from illegal gambling operators. Even though he came clean, the
judge said that he only did so when he thought that he was being made
the fall guy and that he should have done it as soon as he knew
something illegal was going on. He sentenced Bridges to 2-1/2 years in
prison, but it could end up being less if he continues to cooperate
with them.
Back to
February 2008 Archive