Secret deal in Corker lawsuit raises questions
2006-10-27
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
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rss feedA secret settlement in an environmental lawsuit that Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bob Corker has tried to avoid talking about before Election Day possibly involves a $775,000 land purchase for an environmental group, county records indicate.
Attorneys in the case and Corker campaign spokesman Todd Womack did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Thursday.
Records at the Hamilton County Register’s Office show that days after the settlement was announced, the Tennessee Environmental Council signed an option to buy 13.4 acres from Pilgrim Congregational Church-United Church of Christ. The council was one of the plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit.
A source familiar with the secret deal told The Commercial Appeal of Memphis that the settlement calls for defendants in the suit to pay for the environmental group’s land acquisition. The specific source of the funds could not be determined.
Corker has said he was prohibited from talking about the settlement, extending a mystery for voters in his race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis. A Ford campaign spokesman has said voters deserve to know if Corker destroyed a city conservation easement "to make millions and then wrote a check to avoid having to tell the truth about it in a deposition."
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