Friends say Stevens didn’t want to pay for renovations

Close friends suggested Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) did not want to pay for home renovations and merchandise that he failed to publicly disclose, according to recorded phone calls played for jurors Tuesday.

The tapes are meant to solidify the Justice Department's central accusation: that Stevens concealed more than $250,000 in gifts given to him by an oil-services company, and then asked for bills to pay for an estimated $188,000 tab in a deliberate attempt to cover his tracks.

{mosads}Stevens, 84, who faces reelection next month, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers will likely argue Wednesday that his friends went to great lengths to keep him from paying.

The tapes included conversations with people central to the case: Bill Allen, Stevens's longtime friend, who owned the now-defunct oil-services firm Veco Corp. and paid for the bulk of the home renovations; and Bob Persons, a local restaurant owner who monitored the renovations while Stevens was in Washington.

In a February 2006 telephone call, Persons and Allen said they needed to be discreet with the bills. Persons suggested authorities were looking at "raking [Stevens] over the coals over anything they have."

"Catherine says Ted gets hysterical when he has to spend his own money," Persons said on the call, referring to the senator's wife and a racehorse he and Allen co-owned with the senator. "He gets hysterical because he can’t afford to pay a bunch of money."

"I know," Allen responded.

Later that month, Stevens received a bill from Chugach Sewer & Drain that acknowledged the senator had paid more than $1,100 to fix a boiler, even though Allen paid for another $1,080 in labor. The jurors heard a second audiotape of Allen and his secretary discussing an e-mail Stevens sent, in which he expressed his desire to pay for the labor.

That prompted a second phone call in late February 2006 between Allen and Persons. Both expressed concern that Stevens should not have received a bill saying Allen paid for the labor.

"We don’t need this thing floating around," Persons said of the invoice, adding that they needed to "make it disappear from his records."

Persons suggested that Allen tell the company that Stevens paid for the labor and request a new invoice.

“I'll tell him that this is a mistake and to redo the whole mother [expletive]," Allen said. Persons later suggested that Allen ask Stevens for a check, but told him, "You don't have to cash it."

"Then if it ever comes up, say, 'Screw you, here's the check,' " Persons said.