Despite multiple news reports last week that State Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, will not be called to testify again in the federal bingo corruption retrial, there’s one person who still hasn’t received official word: Beason himself.

The senator, who is in the midst of campaigning in the GOP primary for the Sixth Congressional District seat held by Spencer Bachus, told The North Jefferson News on Friday that the United States Attorney’s office has not informed him that his testimony will not be required in the retrial, which is scheduled to begin next week.

“I saw what the newspaper said, but nobody there has told me anything,” Beason said. “Until then, I still can’t comment about anything regarding the trial.”

The trial, which came after a lengthy federal investigation into possible vote-buying in the Alabama Legislature in exchange for favorable votes on legalization of electronic bingo, ended in not-guilty verdicts for several defendants. Other charges resulted in hung juries that led to the coming retrial.

Beason, who surreptitiously recorded fellow legislators discussing the gambling issue, was the star witness of the original trial. It was during that testimony where transcripts of the recordings quoted him calling the largely-African American customer base of the Greenetrack greyhound track and electronic-bingo parlor as “aborigines.” That comment provoked a firestorm of criticism from political opponents and allies alike, and eventually led to the Senate GOP leadership removing Beason as chairman of the powerful Rules Committee.

Reports last week by The Birmingham News, wire services and local television stations stated that prosecutors would play those recordings during court, instead of putting Beason and District Judge Ben Lewis on the witness stand in person, based on prosecutors’ meetings with defense attorneys. (Lewis was a state representative during the investigation.)

Beason, in an interview for The North Jefferson News Vision Magazine last November, said he had yet to personally hear the actual recordings. No recordings were played in the original trial; only transcripts were introduced as evidence.

As a result of the comments, Judge Myron Thompson said after the trial’s end that he did not consider Beason and Lewis to be credible witnesses because they were racists. (Thompson is African American.)

The possibility of having to testify in the retrial posed a potential problem for Beason, as it would come during the heat of his Congressional campaign. He is one of four active challengers taking on Bachus in the March Republican primary, along with Blount County Probate Judge and Commission President David Standridge, Tuscaloosa developer Stan Pate and Alabaster pharmacy technician Al Mickle.