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5.31.2001 00:05
Corrente
lawyer
faces
challenge
• Federal prosecutors say C. Leonard O'Brien's representation of Mayor Vincent A. Cianci's former top aide may pose a conflict of interest.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- Federal prosecutors in the Operation Plunder Dome corruption case may try to disqualify the lawyer representing Frank E. Corrente, the former top aide to Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, according to documents unsealed yesterday by the chief judge of the U.S. District Court.
In the papers, the government says it wants Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres to conduct a hearing regarding "potential conflicts of interest" regarding Corrente's representation by lawyer C. Leonard O'Brien.
O'Brien, in court papers, says that such a hearing is not warranted.
Exactly what these "potential conflicts of interest" are could not be learned yesterday because Torres has not put in the court record the memorandum of law the government has filed in support of its request for a hearing on the matter.
The government has requested that the memorandum be sealed, saying that it includes secret "matters occurring before the grand jury." Prosecutors say that one of the exhibits attached to its memorandum of law is a grand jury transcript.
"Further," prosecutors say, "the material also contains confidential FBI reports and bears on sensitive issues relating to an attorney's relationships with clients and others, and sealing the matter at least until the defendant has had an opportunity to respond will avoid unwarranted pretrial publicity."
O'Brien has filed a memorandum of law refuting the government's "notice of potential conflicts." But at his request, that too remains in Torres's chambers, and outside of the public domain.
O'Brien also wants to keep the government's memorandum of law regarding his representation of Corrente under seal, according to papers released by Torres yesterday.
Corrente, along with Cianci, and four others were indicted April 2 on multiple corruption charges.
Torres has issued a sweeping gag order in the case and several documents filed by lawyers on both sides have been kept out of the public domain. Torres indicated in an order last week that more information might find its way into the public court file. His order yesterday does release some previously secret material but not all of it.
O'Brien is not the only lawyer that Operation Plunder Dome prosecutors are challenging.
The U.S. Attorney's office is attempting to disqualify Boston lawyer Richard M. Egbert from acting as the mayor's defense lawyer in the case because of "possible conflicts of interest."
The conflicts are not specified in the public court record. But Torres has scheduled a hearing for June 26 on the government's attempt to bounce Egbert off the case.
Egbert, at Cianci's recommendation, was hired by the city last year to represent it in a yet-to-be-filed civil-rights/wrongful-death suit by the estate of slain Providence police officer Cornel Young Jr.
More recently, the city paid Egbert $31,328 to defend Cianci in a now-settled civil racketeering and whistleblower's suit filed by Christopher J. Ise, a city planner who said he paid a $5,000 bribe to get hired. That allegation is now part of the criminal case against Cianci.
Cianci, in court papers, says that despite the government's objection, he wants Egbert to represent him.
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