Note to Travelers: Below is the hand-delivered complaint Ms. Gwen Smith, the young woman, who told Mayor W.W. Herenton about an alleged plot to entrap him in a sexual encounter. Herenton is Memphis’ first elected African American mayor.
Hand-Delivery
Office of the District Attorney General
William L. Gibbons, District Attorney
201 Poplar Avenue, Room 301
Memphis, TN 38103
Re: Criminal Complaint against Richard Fields
Dear Bill Gibbons:
I would like to make a criminal complaint against local attorney Richard Fields for what I believe to be criminal conduct he has committed against me and has tried to force me to commit against others over the last year.
I am a single mother of three small children and I have a criminal record. Nevertheless, I need your help because I believe I have been the victim of multiple crimes committed by attorney Richard Fields. These crimes included assault, sexual battery, and other crimes which I am willing to discuss with you, members of your staff and the grand jury.
Over the last several weeks, I have been in protective custody to prevent Richard Fields and others from harming me and possibly harming my small children. Some of the prominent citizens that I met through Richard Fields, and who he got me involved with were in on the plot he concocted to harm African American leaders, including the primary target—Mayor Herenton. I believe that because I reported their actions and schemes, which I think are illegal, to Mayor Herenton and Police Director Godwin, Richard Fields and these people may seek to harm me.
I was personally acquainted with Richard Fields through my family. Because of this, I first went to him to represent me in a criminal matter pending in Nashville, Tennessee. We met at his office at Cates & Company, located at 17 West Pontotoc. After discussing my legal problems for a while, Richard Fields insisted that we go to Platinum Plus. After being there for several hours he took me to his home where he assaulted me and tried to force me to have sex with him against my will. He offered me cash to keep quiet, and regretfully I took it.
Richard Fields agreed to represent me in my criminal case, and so I had to meet with him again after he had reviewed the case. At that time, he told me that I was going to have to go to jail for possibly 4 months but definitely for 10 days. So over the next several months, I was forced to submit to his unwanted sexual requests which included being forced to watch him masturbate, in order to try to stay out of jail. During this time period he also gave me cash payments regularly that totaled over $6,000.00.
Ultimately I was sentenced in Nashville and served 10 days in jail. However, after my
release I was again unemployed and my children and I were in a bad situation. Richard Fields contacted me and offered me money that he claimed he was getting from “influential citizens” for a special job he said that they wanted me to do. Richard Fields and these influential citizens also paid my rent, utilities and the court costs in my case in Nashville.
In January 2007, Richard Fields asked me to meet him for lunch where he finally told me what the “special job” was and he said that it would change my life, resolve all of my legal problems with probation, and solidify my and my children’s future. He told me that he would pay me $150,000.00, and the people who he called “my benefactors,” were prepared to pay one-half of my tuition to Christian Brothers College, provide me with a brand new car, get my job back at Pinnacle Airlines and pay for a three bedroom apartment costing more than $2,000.00 a month.
It was at this meeting that Richard Fields revealed to me the names of some of “my benefactors.” The names he gave me included an FBI agent named Bob Reicht, Russell Gwatney and Nick Clark. Richard Fields told me that what he and his benefactors wanted most of all was hard evidence of an embarrassing nature on the Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton that they could use to blackmail him into not running for Mayor, because their attempts to buy him off had failed.
He also told me that he wanted me to attempt to seduce the Mayor and to secretly videotape the encounter for their use; he wanted me to agree to go to a federal prison and convince an inmate named Lambert to lie under oath to the FBI that the Mayor had played a role in securing the liquor license that was obtained by the Martini Room; to secretly gather information on any and all African American leaders and business persons that he and his benefactors could use to either destroy or control them; and gather information on Ralph Lunati (the owner of several “gentleman’s clubs”).
Initially, I thought that Richard Fields was a little nutty and had made the whole story up. So I refused to do what he asked. To persuade me and convince me that he was working with federal authorities he arranged a meeting between me and a FBI agent named Bob Reicht at the home of Nick Clark. The FBI agent confirmed what Richard Fields had told me, including that I would be paid if I agreed to do the things they wanted me to do. Later, Richard Fields gave me a secret and sealed federal indictment against Ralph Lunati and other people and he had instructed me to study it as homework.
Eventually, Richard Fields arranged for me to visit the federal prison where Lambert was incarcerated. When I told him that because of my criminal record I would not be allowed to enter a federal prison, he told me that the FBI agent would handle this problem. Thereafter, Richard Fields also began to threaten me after several months had gone by and I had not been able to obtain any incriminating evidence on Mayor Herenton. He told me that he and his benefactors could make my life miserable if I did not cooperate and he demanded that I hang out in the lobby of the Peabody and lay wait for the Mayor.
At that time, I became convinced that what Richard Fields and his benefactors were asking me to do was illegal and I became concerned for my safety and the safety of my children. I then reported all of this to the Mayor and Police Director Godwin and turned over to them everything that I had, which included Richard Fields’ handwritten notes outlining these plots and the sealed federal indictment that Richard Fields had showed me.
Please let me know when it will be appropriate for me to report to your office to begin the process.
Sincerely
Gwen Smith
cc: Mayor Willie Herenton
Larry Godwin, Director of Police