Moe’s daughter testifies at trial

The daughter of Orville Moe, given immunity from federal prosecution, told a U.S. District Court jury Friday that it wasn’t her signature on most of the checks the mayor of Airway Heights wrote to repay an $18,000 loan in 2002.

The checks written by then-Mayor Dale Perry were made out to Moe’s daughter, who testified that she actually only signed two of the checks before they and others that followed were deposited into Orville Moe’s bank account.

The $18,000 loan Moe made to Perry in 2002 is the basis of one of two bribery charges the 70-year-old Spokane businessman faces in a federal public corruption trial that will continue next week before Judge Edward Shea and a 12-member jury.

Moe, the deposed operator of Spokane Raceway Park, is accused in a second count of making a second loan for $109,000 to Perry in 2004, two days before the Airway Heights mayor was set to lose his home in a foreclosure sale.

In an apparent attempt to distance himself from the $18,000 loan, Moe used his daughter’s name, Terry Graham, on a promissory note he had the mayor sign, then forged her signature on repayment checks Perry wrote, according to evidence and testimony on the trial’s second day.

Called as a prosecution witness to testify against her father, Graham was shown the promissory note and bank records that were seized during a lengthy FBI public corruption investigation, which included serving search warrants at the Airway Heights City Hall and Perry’s home.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice showed Graham a copy of the promissory note containing her name as the lender. The witness said she didn’t recognize the document.

“Did you have any part in preparing this document?” Rice asked Graham, who quickly responded, “No.”

Graham testified that she had no involvement in making the $18,000 loan to the Airway Heights mayor, whom she doesn’t know, but later learned about the transaction from her father “when he told me I would be getting payments from Mr. Perry.”

Graham testified that she endorsed two $600 checks brought to her by her father on Nov. 15 and Dec. 24, 2002, but saw none of the money.

The federal prosecutor then showed the witness a series of subsequent checks Perry wrote to her as the payee as he continued to pay down the $18,000 loan from Moe.

Graham said her father would sign her signature to endorse the checks before depositing them in his bank account.

Her name also appeared on cashier’s checks made payable to Perry, but Graham said she wasn’t involved in those transactions either.

“That purports to be your signature,” Rice said, showing the witness one of the cashier’s checks that went to the Airway Heights mayor. “Is this your signature?”

“No,” Graham responded.

“Did you authorize anybody to sign that for you?” the prosecutor then asked.

“No,” the witness again responded.

Graham then explained that her mother and father frequently sign her name to legal documents “because I trust them.”

“You’re telling me they have the authority to sign anything in your name?” Rice asked.

“Yes,” Graham responded.

“Did you give them power of attorney?” the prosecutor followed.

“No,” Graham responded.

She also testified she was not a signatory to her father’s bank account where the Perry checks were deposited.

Graham told the jury about requesting and getting immunity from prosecution while the FBI was investigating her father’s financial dealings with the Airway Heights mayor.

It wasn’t explained to the jury, but that apparently occurred when Graham was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury during the FBI investigation.

The grand jury indicted Moe and Perry last October in the first public corruption case of its kind in this region.

Perry, who pleaded guilty in August to soliciting a bribe, is expected to testify against Moe on Monday when the trial resumes.