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6.1.2001 00:05
Judge orders probe
to discover source
of leaked videotape
• The tape purported to show show Plunder Dome defendant Frank E. Corrente accepting a cash bride in his City Hall office.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- The chief judge of the U.S. District Court yesterday appointed a special prosecutor to investigate who leaked an undercover videotape in the Operation Plunder Dome investigation to Channel 10 (WJAR) and to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute anyone.
Judge Ernest C. Torres, saying the leak "may constitute criminal contempt," appointed Providence lawyer Marc DeSisto to be the special prosecutor in the case. DeSisto will decide whether anyone should be charged with a crime for disseminating the videotape -- which was subject to a nondisclosure order issued by the federal court -- and for prosecuting the case if someone is charged.
DeSisto is a former assistant attorney general who prosecuted Claus vonBulow at his retrial, at which vonBulow was acquitted of charges that he twice tried to murder his heiress wife, Martha "Sunny" vonBulow, with insulin injections.
Three defendants in the Plunder Dome case -- Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., his former top aide, Frank E. Corrente, and Providence tow operator Richard E. Autiello -- had asked Torres himself to conduct an investigation into the source of the leaked tape, and to sanction whoever gave it to Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani.
But the judge said the court "is not the proper body to investigate a matter of this kind," nor, he said, is the U.S. Attorney's office, because its personnel "are among those who had access to the videotape in question."
"An investigation by the court," Torres said, "would divert the efforts and attention of all concerned from the central issue in this case, which is whether or not the defendants are guilty of the offenses with which they have been charged."
In his order, Torres called the leak of the videotape "a serious matter." He said that such leaks, if continued, "could threaten the rights of all parties to a fair trial."
The judge said "the release and/or disclosure [to Channel 10] appear to have violated both the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings" and a protective order issued Aug. 8, 2000, by another federal judge, Ronald R. Lagueux, which bars the government and the defense from disclosing contents of any audio or video recordings.
"If so," Torres said, "such release and/or disclosure may constitute criminal contempt."
Channel 10 broadcast the videotape on Feb. 1, and Torres noted that contents of it were also published in the following day's Providence Journal.
The tape purportedly shows Corrente in his City Hall office, taking a cash bribe from the government's star witness in Operation Plunder Dome, Antonio Freitas. The videotape is one of about 180 that were secretly recorded by Freitas, owner of JKL Engineering in Providence, when he was working undercover for the FBI in 1998 and early 1999 to expose corruption in City Hall.
The tape aired by Channel 10, is -- according to Richard J. Rose, the lead prosecutor in the corruption case -- the same one Rose showed to two friends and his sister last year at his home. But Rose denies that he or anyone else in the government camp leaked the tape to the media.
Asked for comment on Torres's order appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of the tape to his station, B.J. Finnell, WJAR's news director said: "Channel 10 was never subject to that court order that put the tapes under seal. The subjects to court order were those who had been given the tapes -- the defense attorneys and the prosecution team.
"In our opinion," he said, "Mr. DeSisto is not investigating the broadcast of the tapes by Channel 10 but the release of the tapes by the parties who were subject" to the court's nondisclosure order.
Asked whether he thought the special prosecutor would ask his reporter who had given him the tape, Finnell said: "Certainly Mr. DeSisto might ask [but] we are confident in the Rhode Island Shield Law and in our First Amendment rights."
(A shield law is a form of statutory protection that prevents or limits the use of subpoenas to members of the news media.)
Finnell added: "We're still pretty confident we wouldn't have to give up the source because we certainly don't plan on it."
Asked whether Taricani would go to jail before identifying his source, Finnell said: "I'd rather not answer that question; that's way too speculative."
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