Todd Bensman & Robert Riggs

PROMINENT BUSINESSMAN SAYS DEVELOPER SOLICITED HIM TO HELP BRIBE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER DON HILL

CBS-11 LEARNS FBI HAS MOUNTED ELABORATE STING OPERATIONS FURNISHING THOUSANDS FOR FAKE BRIBES; FORMER PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER ENSNARED

Jun 28, 2005 9:54 pm US/Central
By Todd Bensman and Robert Riggs, The Investigators, CBS-11 News

One of Dallas? most prominent black business leaders says he was approached this year to help pay a bribe to Dallas City Councilmember Don Hill, who is a subject in an FBI corruption investigation, CBS-11 News has learned.

Hair care manufacturing entrepreneur Comer Cottrell, Jr. told CBS-11 News in an exclusive interview that a former player for the San Francisco 49ers football team and was among three men who approached him about two months ago with a favor to ask. The former football player is Kevin Dean, a longtime fishing buddy of Cottrell?s who now runs an asphalt sales company and is involved in the kind of affordable housing development now the subject of FBI scrutiny.

CBS-11 has learned that Kevin Dean, a Texas Christian University football player who played professionally in 1987, has become ensnared in an FBI sting as part of the investigation and that his business offices were raided last week.

Cottrell said that about two months ago Dean and Dean?s business partner in a housing development brought an unidentified Caucasian man to him for an introduction. Cottrell said the Caucasian man, whose identity is not known, asked Cottrell to carry a bribe to Hill in hopes that the council member would help obtain a city permit that had been blocked.

?They were like, yeah, what do you think it would cost to give it to Don?? Cottrell said in a telephone interview Tuesday. ?They would pay me to give it to Don?but I wouldn?t do that. I?ve never given Don anything, and he?s helped me a lot.?

Cottrell said the Caucasian man complained that he had already paid large sums of money to get the city permit and h ad had no luck. Cottrell said the man did not say to whom the ostensible bribe money had been sent.

?The white guy was with them (Dean and Dean?s partner), and he said he?d been paying somebody?He said ?I?ve spent too much money with these guys. I don?t want to spend any more. You know, if it can be done reasonably??? Cottrell said. ?I said, ?It can?t be done with me - at all!?

Last week, the FBI revealed the existence of a wide-ranging corruption investigation when the bureau executed search warrants of Hill?s offices and home; Hill?s planning commission appointee D?Angelo Lee; the security business offices of City Council member James Fantroy; Southwest Housing Development Company CEO Brian Potashnik; and the offices of various Dallas nonprofit organizations and businesses involved in affordable housing projects.
Hill, who has denied all wrongdoing, could not be reached for comment about Cottrell?s statements. No evidence has surfaced that Hill ever accepted a bribe, and Cottrell said he never approached the councilmember about the matter.

In a brief telephone interview Tuesday, Dean acknowledged that the FBI had raided his company, Dean Asphalt Technologies in Grand Prairie, and seized invoices and other business records. He cut the interview short, saying FBI agents had told him not to speak. Dean?s lawyer, Larry Jarrell, declined to comment.

Records show that Dean is a manager of Metro Urban Development, LLC. Cottrell is listed as a manager, as well. Cottrell said he was not aware that he was a manager of a real estate development company but that he did recall that he had authorized Kevin Dean to develop townhouses on a piece of his property in Arlington.

He said Dean had promised that he had lined up financing for the deal, which never came to fruition. Dean also is listed as an officer for other entities involved in real estate development.

CBS-11 has learned that Dean was the subject of far more FBI attention than the search warrants he acknowledged in his br ief interview.

Sources confirm that Dean was the subject of an elaborate FBI sting operation, one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging in Dallas history. The investigation has furnished tens of thousands of dollars for bribes in sting operations targeting multiple individuals. The investigation has involved informants and wiretaps of city officials at City Hall.

Cottrell, however, says he has never been approached by the FBI.

After the FBI raid on Dean?s business, Cottrell said Dean came straight to his home seeking advice. Cottrell said he advised Dean that he had nothing to worry about ? if he committed no wrongdoing.

In other developments, CBS-11 News has learned more about the BMW in Councilmember Hill's possession. During last week's FBI raids, Hill acknowledged the BMW was not his but refused to say who owned it. Now CBS-11 has learned it belongs to Sheila Farrington, a political contributor and consultant for Hill. Farrington, whose home also was raided by the FBI last week, is tied to Southwest Housing Development Company, which is a center of the FBI investigation.

Farrington has done consulting work for Southwest Housing, as well as for Hill, the company confirmed Tuesday. But it remains unclear why Farrington was letting Hill use the vehicle. The vehicle had been purchased from a previous owner months ago but never re-registered to the new owner, a misdemeanor.

The car is not registered under Farrington's name, and Hill has not declared the use of the BMW on his campaign finance reports. For a second day, Farrington could not be located.