U. S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle created some excitement among the more than 25 friends and witnesses that had come to show their support for former Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill yesterday when he dropped two of the four charges Gaskill was facing in federal court.
Gaskill, 63, of Cedar Island, has been charged with illegal activities associated with the state’s efforts to establish a passenger ferry across the shallow Currituck Sound.
After federal prosecutors finished with their last witness on what was third day of the trial, Gaskill’s attorney Thomas Manning moved for an acquittal on all charges. Judge Boyle asked the jury to leave the room and then, in open court, proceeded to tell Assistant U. S. Attorney Banu Rangarajan that the government had failed to present credible evidence that Gaskill had planned and carried out illegal dredging.
The remaining charges Boyle allowed revolve around the issue of whether Gaskill knowingly lied and submitted false statements to federal authorities after the dredging activity took place.
After Boyle brought the jury back in and the trial resumed, Gaskill took the stand and testified that when concerns about illegal activity were first brought to his attention in June 2004 he confronted Ferry Division Superintendent of Dredging and Maintenance Bill Moore.
Gaskill said Moore told him there had been some accidental damage to the bottom of Currituck sound when he and others were marking a channel. Gaskill said Moore did not “come clean” about what had happened until July 12, 2004. Gaskill denied knowingly lying to officials or providing false written statements associated with the federal and state investigations that had begun.
Moore and three other ferry division workers pleaded guilty last year to conducting the illegal dredging. Moore testified earlier in the trial that the idea to use work boats to prop wash a channel was his and that in early 2004 he suggested it to Gaskill.
Moore said he ordered a maintenance crew to perform the illegal prop washing without Gaskill’s knowledge, but Moore said he informed Gaskill about it in person when it was completed on May 7, 2004. Gaskill denied meeting with Moore on that day.
Manning called six character witnesses for Gaskill and each claimed that Gaskill was a truthful person.
The jury will hear closing arguments today and then Judge Boyle will give them instructions on how to proceed with a verdict.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.