BALTIMORE, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A Maryland lawmaker was accused of selling his office for $245,000 at the opening of his Baltimore trial on federal bribery and extortion charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin told jurors 74-year-old state Sen. Ulysses Currie conspired with two executives to provide government favors to Shoppers Food Warehouse, The Washington Post reported.
Gavin said the Prince Georges County Democrat failed to disclose payments he received.
"This is a case about a politician who took bribes," Gavin said in her opening statement Tuesday. "He sold his office for almost a quarter of a million dollars."
The prosecution charges Currie helped Shoppers transfer a liquor license, get a rent reduction for one store, win approval for a stop light at another store and secure a road improvement for a third location.
Attorneys for Currie and the two corporate executives said Currie's work was not a secret since he had signed a consulting contract with the chain.
Currie appeared in public at store openings, the attorneys said.
"Their allegations simply do not make sense," said Lucius T. Outlaw III, assistant federal public defender.
