Former NC Lottery Commissioner To Be Sentenced

Monday, May 07, 2007 posted 10:26 AM EDT

(RALEIGH, N.C.) Sentencing will be held today for former North Carolina lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings.

He is the latest person with political ties to former House Speaker Jim Black to learn his fate.

Prosecutors convinced a jury that Geddings failed to disclose more than $250,000 that lottery vendor Scientific Games paid to Geddings' public relations firm before he became lottery commissioner in 2005.

Geddings was convicted on five counts of mail fraud last October.

Judge James Dever will be the presiding judge. He is the same judge who handed down a stiff sentence to former N.C. Representative Michael Decker less than two weeks ago.

Prosecutors say the verdict in October shows that unethical behavior among public officials is unacceptable.

"The key point in this case, and really what the whole case was about, is the fact that public officials serve the public," said Senior Assistant United States Attorney Dennis Duffy, "People are sick of public officials serving their own interests, the interests of their friends and special interests."

Geddings' lawyers say their client deserves a lighter sentence because he didn't receive any benefit from hiding his work for Scientific Games, unlike Michael Decker, who got four years in jail less than two weeks ago for accepting a bribe to get Jim Black elected as House Speaker.

In the meantime, Black, who appointed Geddings to the post, is awaiting sentencing on federal corruption charges.

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