• John DePetro, of radio station WHJJ, tells a special prosecutor that he does not know how a Channel 10 reporter got the tape showing a top aide of Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. allegedly taking a bribe.
BY MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writer
Radio host John DePetro told a special prosecutor yesterday that he had nothing to do with a secret Operation Plunder Dome videotape being leaked to a local television reporter.
DePetro, the self-proclaimed "Independent Man" of WHJJ radio, was questioned for about 90 minutes as part of special prosecutor Marc DeSisto's investigation into how a secret FBI videotape wound up being aired last year on Channel 10 television.
The tape, purporting to show a top aide to Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. taking a bribe from undercover FBI witness Antonio R. Freitas, was obtained from an undisclosed source by Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani.
DePetro, who had lost a court fight to avoid the subpoena, said that he invoked the newsman's privilege in refusing to answer several questions from DeSisto. But he also answered other questions.
One question DePetro did answer struck at the heart of DeSisto's investigation: DePetro said that he does not know how Taricani obtained the videotape, which allegedly shows Frank E. Corrente, Cianci's former top aide, taking a $1,000 bribe in his office at City Hall.
The tape is a key piece of evidence in the pending corruption case against Cianci, Corrente and four others.
DePetro was also asked yesterday about his dealings with a central figure in Operation Plunder Dome, former Tax Board Chairman Joseph A. Pannone. DePetro and his lawyer declined to elaborate on his testimony.
"I was glad that I was able, in certain instances, to invoke the newsman's privilege," DePetro said. "Also, I was glad to put on the record that I was not the source to provide Taricani with the tape."
Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres, who appointed DeSisto last year to investigate the leak of the tape, had ruled that DeSisto could challenge DePetro's invocation of the reporter's privilege if it involved questions pertaining to knowledge DePetro had obtained outside his duties as a journalist.
During yesterday's deposition, at DeSisto's law office on the East Side of Providence, DeSisto did not openly challenge the instances in which DePetro invoked the reporter's privilege, according to DePetro's lawyer, Joseph V. Cavanagh Jr.
DeSisto, who has not commented on his inquiry, told Cavanagh that he would review a transcript of the deposition. But Cavanagh said that he came away from yesterday's session believing that DeSisto will not likely seek to compel DePetro to answer further questions.
"John was able to invoke the reporter's privilege on several occasions where he thought it would protect confidential information," Cavanagh said. "Hopefully, the special prosecutor understood that those were in areas he is not investigating."
