Joe Cooper

5:02 p.m.

Joe Cooper, a former Memphis politician turned FBI informant, is now on the stand. Cooper is describing working with drug dealers to get them vehicles using drug money. Cooper would receive cash to make payments for the dealers on the vehicles. This is a common way to launder drug money.

Cooper talks about being confronted by DEA agents and taken to a Hampton Inn off Walnut Grove. Cooper says he helped Ford get a building to lease for his mortuary and loans for renovations. Cooper says when Ford needed help getting a lease for a Cadillac, he called developer Rusty Hyneman to co-sign and he did.

5:26 p.m.

 Cooper says Ford would sometimes vote against actions Cooper wanted because of pressure from neighborhood groups. Cooper said Ford would either vote directly against the proposition or would walk away from his seat and avoid voting altogether. This is interesting information because this happens a lot, that a council member leaves their seat and just doesn’t vote at all even though they do have remote controls they can use to vote.

5:40 p.m.

Judge Mays has decided this is a good stopping point and we will resume in the morning.

All in all, this has been a pretty slow day. Scholl spent a lot of time trying to hammer the FBI agent and convince jurors the bureau didn’t do a good job of checking Cooper and his information.

For his part, Cooper looked beaten down and spoke like a scolded child. I never saw him look at Ford, just straight ahead.

It will be interesting to see what names Ford throws out when the undercover tapes are played and he’s talking about his influence on the Memphis City Council.

Right now Ed Ford and his attorney are standing outside the federal courthouse surrounded by reporters. In the hall outside the courtroom, Ford was very cheery with his family.

We’ll all be back tomorrow morning around 9:40.