Attorney: Ferguson earned his money from water department deals - Fox 2 News Headlines

DETROIT -- Bobby Ferguson has taken a beating in court from prosecutors, who say he raked in millions on allegedly dirty deals.  Tuesday, we heard Bobby's story.

Ferguson didn't feel much like talking on Monday.  On Tuesday, his attorney had plenty to say.

"The government has misled the jury, and that was proven during cross examination today," said Mike Rataj, who defended his client inside the courtroom and hugged him outside the courthouse.

Rataj says Ferguson earned the millions in Detroit Water Department contracts he received under Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

"You can't get paid unless you do the work, period," he remarked.

Rataj showed jurors how things work at the water department where contracts are often changed and payouts often exceed initial expectations.

Under cross examination, water department official Daniel Edwards acknowledged that contractors working on similar projects made far more changes than Ferguson and received much higher payouts.

"You could see that a lot of other contractors got a heck of a lot more in number of change orders and the amount of the change orders, but this is not unusual.  This is the nature of the beast," Rataj said.

Edwards also testified that former water department chief Victor Mercado helped clean up the department and said he was a good boss.

We can expect to hear a lot more about Ferguson and Mercado in the coming days, but Rataj says it's way too early to make any predictions about how this case will end.