AP
Writer: Scrushy Bought Sympathetic Stories
Thursday January 19, 12:52 pm ET
By Jay Reeves, Associated Press Writer
Scrushy Paid for Sympathetic News Stories Amid 6-Month Trial, Writer Reveals
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Throughout the six-month trial that led to Richard Scrushy's acquittal in the $2.7 billion fraud at HealthSouth Corp., a small, influential newspaper consistently printed articles sympathetic to the defense of the fired CEO.
Audry Lewis, the author of those stories in The Birmingham Times, the city's oldest black-owned paper, now says she was secretly working on behalf of Scrushy, who she says paid her $11,000 through a public relations firm and typically read her articles before publication.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show The Lewis Group wrote a $5,000 check to Audry Lewis on April 29, 2005 -- the day Scrushy hired the company. The head of the company, Times founder Jesse J. Lewis Sr., is not related to Audry Lewis.
The firm wrote another $5,000 check that day to the Rev. Herman Henderson, who employs Audry Lewis at his Believers Temple Church and was among the black preachers supporting Scrushy who were present in the courtroom throughout.
Audry Lewis and Henderson now say Scrushy owes them $150,000 for the newspaper stories and other public relations work, including getting black pastors to attend the trial in a bid to sway the mostly black jury.
The payments raise questions about the legitimacy of the ostensibly grass roots support for Scrushy seen throughout his trial
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060119/scrushy_payments.html?.v=3&printer=1