By Katie Campbell | Arizona Capitol Times
Jim Norton said on the witness stand Tuesday he did not force his now ex-wife, Kelly Norton, to hire Sherry Pierce at her firm, but that he urged her to do so because he had a stake in their success.
Norton not only disputed Kelly Norton’s accounting of events leading up to their involvement in an alleged scheme to bribe Pierce’s husband, former Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce, but also her characterization of their marriage.
Norton, the Pierces, and water utility owner George Johnson, whose company bears his name, are on trial in U.S. District Court in Phoenix in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.
Norton testified that Johnson had retained his firm on and off for years. The water utility owner tasked R&R Partners with projects related to Pinal County though the majority of the firm’s business was conducted at the state Capitol.
Norton said he eventually told Johnson he needed additional resources to accomplish goals related to the incorporation of San Tan Valley, which he said “just would not go away,” and the expansion of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, for which Norton had been seeking candidates willing to work with Johnson.
