Turner: 'I would rather die in jail' than admit taking a bribe

Convicted City Councilor Chuck Turner maintained his innocence and blasted a conspiracy by the powers that be to bring him and former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson down, in an interview tonight with Joe Heisler on BNN.

"I've lived the life of a warriors," he said. "Warriors take hits. I'm just collateral damage."

"I said before I'm innocent," he said of his conviction for extortion and perjury. "I think if I hadn't been innocent, I wouldn't have gotten on the stand. ... I'm innocent. Juries make mistakes."

Turner wondered why the FBI didn't go after other city councilors, who he said raised far more money from "fat cats" than he ever did, and said he concluded it's because former US Attorney Michael Sullivan wanted to take him and Wilkerson out because they spoke truth to power. Or more simply: "It's race. It's race."

Turner said he couldn't have not testified, not after 40 years of "pushing and demanding" that public officials be held accountable. "I'd be a hipocrite" otherwise, he said.

Turner insisted he had no memory of Ron Wilburn pressing any money, let alone $1,000, into his palm. "The problem is, I deal with 50 to 100 people a week. People come in large numbers because I have an open-door policy. ... The reality is, Joe, I have no memory of his coming in. And so the question is, the question that they raised, did you take money from him and they showed this picture, scenes from this video he had made and it looked like something was happening but the reality is, I have no memory of it."

But getting back to the FBI plot, he said it makes no sense somebody would come to him for help with a liquor license, because "I'm the radical," who routinely voted against large projects and who has "always been the outsider and hasn't pushed an inside game. People don't come to me for liquor licenses."

Turner said he won't lobby individual city councilors to let him stay in office at a meeting on Dec. 1, but added he is consulting with lawyers about whether a state law that seems to allow convicted felons to retain office if they are not in prison would override a city-council rule that would requre the council to boot him immediately.

But after the council vote comes his sentencing on Jan. 25. Turner told Heisler he is hoping for probation instead of jail, but is prepared for prison. He added he will not grovel and admit guilt in the hopes of receiving a less severe sentence. "I'm innocent and for me to resign based upon jury coming to conclusion that I'm guilty would send to the public the wrong message. ... If I resign, I would just be feeding into an untruth. ... I'm innocent. I would rather die in jail than in fact admit to something I didn't do."