Mike Thompson Testifies in His Trial

After six days of trial, both sides completed their interviews with witnesses in the trial against Mike Thompson.

The jury finally heard from Thompson himself.

The former director of the Poverty Point Reservoir District in Delhi is charged with using tax dollars for his personal projects.

Tuesday Thompson took the stand for the first time and answered questions about his work relationship with Joe Cleveland

The state claims Cleveland, a handyman who worked for poverty point, worked on Thompson’s property doing various projects, and then billed his labor to poverty point.

Cleveland testified last week that he kept handwritten records of his work in two notebooks similar to this one that is sold in stores.

Thompson denied all claims except for two.

He says he paid Cleveland over $700 in cash for labor and supplies to build a corral.

And he says he paid him $125 to put wire on his barn.

In testimony, Thompson said he employed several workers to build his house in Delhi in excess of $100 thousand.

But he says all that money came from his own pocket.

In fact, Thompson claims most of the jobs Cleveland recorded in his notebook as doing for Thompson was actually done by his own hired labor.

The prosecutor went back to Cleveland’s diary and used invoices, receipts and checks from Thompson.

She matched dates from the diary to invoices, receipts and even checks for supplies related to jobs or errands recorded by Cleveland.

Thompson said Cleveland would often pick up supplies at stores only as a favor, but his hired workers did the labor and not Cleveland.

Thompson’s attorney suggested that dates in the diary could have been known by Cleveland because they were around each other so much.

Monday, Thompson’s attorney filed a motion for acquittal for lack of evidence against Thompson.

But so far the judge has not ruled on the matter and Thompson’s fate still lies in the hands of the jury.

With the witness testimony complete, closing arguments are set for Wednesday morning and the case will be given to the jury to decide.