Drama of Ex-Mayor Plays Out in Atlanta Courtroom

Former Fulton County commissioner Michael L. Lomax, who opposed Campbell in the 1993 mayoral election, said he is not surprised. During their campaigns, Lomax called on Campbell to answer allegations that he took a bribe from an airport vendor. Campbell passed a polygraph test that his campaign arranged.

The trial is a much tougher test. Vying to prove Campbell's guilt, prosecutors tracked his bank withdrawals before and after a businessman accused of passing him bribes was jailed in 2000 for filing false income tax returns.

Before that year, Campbell made almost no withdrawals over four years, even as he gambled extensively and took vacations around the world. After the businessman, Fred B. Prewitt, was imprisoned, the withdrawals shot up.

Dewey Clark, a former mayoral aide, explained how Campbell managed. Clark said in testimony that he saw Prewitt slip the mayor a roll of bank notes big enough to "choke a goat."

Clark said he parted with the mayor over another bribe. It came from a strip-club owner who needed a liquor license. When the mayor failed to deliver, Clark allegedly confronted his boss, shouting, "You took that boy's money."

Campbell's secretary, Serena Skaggs, said she overheard the conversation and recalled the mayor's icy reply: "Technically, I didn't. You did."

A string of confessions and convictions show that Campbell's administration was awash in corruption. DeWayne Martin, the chief of staff, and Joseph Reid, the deputy chief operating officer, confessed to taking bribes and are cooperating with prosecutors.

Wilton Lawrence "Larry" Wallace, the chief operating officer, is serving a four-year prison sentence for bribery, and Herbert McCall, the commissioner of administrative services, went to jail for lying while under oath.

Prewitt spent six months in jail. Businessman Herbert H. Timmerman, who confessed to paying bribes in return for city contracts using Prewitt as a go-between, is cooperating with prosecutors.

Stories about money changing hands provided high drama, but they did not electrify the courtroom as did the appearance of an attractive TV anchor who had been rumored to be Campbell's mistress.

The woman, Marion Brooks, confirmed the four-year affair and said Campbell flew her to Paris, rented rooms at fine hotels, and bought her jewelry and a $2,000 mink coat -- with cash. He arranged to provide another $16,000 to help her buy a condominium when she moved to Chicago, she said. A second woman is scheduled to testify.

Through it all, Evelyn D. Brown, a black spectator, sat in court, backing Campbell for not backing down.

"He did not humble himself to the crowd who thought they were in charge when he was mayor," Brown said. "They," she said, meant white people. "He was not the kind of gentleman who would run away."