MUSKOGEE, Okla. – A former Choctaw Nation official confirmed Wednesday he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and cash from contractors and sub-contractors looking to do business with the tribe.

“Yes, I accepted the gifts, but they didn’t influence my decision-making process,” Jason Merida said. “I didn’t have the authority to make decisions on which vendors we would use, so they couldn’t.”

The tribe’s one-time executive director of construction administration, Merida was arraigned earlier this year in the Eastern District of Oklahoma on two counts each of theft, tax fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. The charges stem from false billing practices used by contractors from three companies between 2008 and 2011 while construction efforts were underway at the tribe’s casinos in Durant and Pocola. Funds generated by the overcharging and false billings were used to make large campaign donations and purchase lavish gifts.

Among the gifts Merida testified to receiving Wednesday were $20,000 in cash, more than $40,000 in Kohler home fixtures, three all expenses paid hunting trips to Missouri and New Mexico, multiple firearms, a weekend golf trip to Pebble Beach, Calif., two freezers, architectural consultations on a home he and his wife planned to build, two Kawasaki Mule All Terrain Vehicles, a 2009 Cadillac Escalade, tickets to a 2010 Dallas Cowboys playoff game and two trips to Dallas via private plane.

Plans were also in the works for a fourth vendor-funded hunting trip in 2010 – an African safari – that was ultimately scrapped in part due to travel advisories issued by the U.S State Department.

The former executive and his wife also accepted a birthday trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, that he described as within the parameters of their personal relationship with Lauri and Brent Parsons, the owners of Builders Steel. The Parsons were among six individuals who pleaded guilty last year in connection with the case and both testified that they counted the trip as part of the cost of doing business with the Choctaw Nation.

Choctaw Nation law does not prohibit employees from accepting gifts from vendors while in their official capacity as long as those gifts do not impact how they make decisions on the job.

Although Merida readily admitted that he accepted cash and gifts from vendors, he refuted the authenticity of two interview reports compiled in 2012 by federal agents that claimed he stated he had been fiscally swayed by Brent Parsons and Builders Steel. The four federal officials who participated in the interviews reviewed each report stemming from it for accuracy, grammar and spelling before it was finalized. In accordance with the FBI’s policies at the time, the interviews were not recorded and the reports were based off of the notes of the agents involved.

Erika Skaggs, an investigator with the Internal Revenue Service, was one of four federal officials who participated in interviews with Merida both at his home and the FBI’s office in Durant, Okla. Brought on as a rebuttal witness by the prosecution late Wednesday, Skaggs testified that Merida stated that not only was he in the Parsons’ debt due to their largesse, but was told by Brent Parsons during the March 2010 trip to Puero Vallarta, Mexico, that Builders Steel was overcharging the tribe, a claim Merida repeatedly denied while on the witness stand.

Merida, who had no construction experience prior to becoming executive director, also testified that he was explicitly told to help fundraise for former chief Gregory Pyle’s re-election campaigns, allegations denied by both Pyle and current chief Gary Batton. The Parsons and other witnesses previously testified that Merida explicitly told them to make high dollar campaign contributions and big ticket items, such as trips and flat screen televisions, for silent auctions held at Pyle’s campaign fundraisers.

“There was definitely a campaign side to my job,” he said.

A jury will get the case after closing arguments on Thursday, three weeks to the day after the trial began.


Photo: Pueblo of Acoma Big Game Trophy Hunts