|
|
6.27.2001 00:05
Prosecutor
suspended,
fined over
videotape
• The federal judge who sanctioned Asst. U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose also listens to arguments over whether Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s lawyer should be disqualified from the case.
BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- The lead prosecutor in the Operation Plunder Dome investigation was suspended for 30 days and fined $500 yesterday for playing a secretly recorded FBI videotape for his sister and two friends.
Just before Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres imposed the punishment, the prosecutor, Richard W. Rose, stood and told the court that he regretted his lapse in judgment.
"I just wanted to apologize to the court," he said. "I would like to apologize to the U.S. Attorney and my colleagues in that office for the embarrassment it caused them."
The extraordinary development wasn't the only event in the courtroom yesterday. Torres also listened to arguments about whether Richard M. Egbert, the Boston lawyer defending Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. against corruption charges, should be disqualified from the case.
A government prosecutor also disclosed yesterday that a police officer involved in the fatal shooting last year of Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. may be called as a witness in the corruption case against Cianci.
Cianci, who has not appeared in court since his arraignment on federal racketeering charges two months, sat by himself through the three hours of proceedings.
"I want Mr. Egbert to be my counsel and I wanted to listen to the argument," Cianci said.
The hearings started with the issue of sanctions against Rose for playing the videotape of Frank E. Corrente, Cianci's former director of administration, apparently accepting a cash bribe from Antonio R. Freitas, the FBI's star witness.
Rose brought the videotape home and played it for his friend, lawyer Casby Harrison III, his wife, Mary Sylvia Harrison, and, on a separate occasion, his sister.
Rose, by showing the tape to the his sister and the Harrisons in 1999, had violated a court order.
In April, just days after Cianci and five others were indicted on federal racketeering and corruption charges, the U.S. Attorney's office acknowledged that Rose had played the tape.
Immediately, Cianci publicly ridiculed Rose, saying that he played the tape because "Blockbusters was closed that night." Cianci accused Rose of "prosecutorial misconduct," and defense lawyers in the case said that his actions may poison a future jury pool.
Rose has also acknowleged that the tape is the same one that was broadcast on WJAR-TV Channel 10, but he has denied that he gave the tape to the television station.
Torres has appointed a special prosecutor to find out who released that tape.
Under questioning from Torres, Rose said that he had sent a letter to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility in Washington, D.C., notifying officials there that he had violated the court order.
He said that he had not heard about any resolution to the case.
Torres said he found it "distasteful" to be in a position to impose sanctions against a lawyer who has had an "unblemished record before this court."
But, Torres said, Rose was guilty of unethical conduct and violating a court order.
Rose placed his face in his hands. After Torres announced the sanctions, Rose hurried from the courtroom with U.S. Attorney Margaret E. Curran closely behind him.
Rose and Curran declined comment. Rose is barred from working on the Plunder Dome investigation for the next month.
Afterward, the lawyers, without Rose, returned to the courtroom to argue whether Egbert should be disqualified from the case.
Asst. U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly presented his case, saying that a conflict exists now with Egbert defending Cianci and serving as the city's top lawyer in the Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. lawsuit.
Young, a black off-duty police officer, was fatally shot by two white police officers outside a city diner in January 1999. Earlier this month, Leisa Young, the slain officer's mother, filed a $20-million federal lawsuit against the city.
Donnelly said that one of the officers involved in the fatal shooting -- Michael Solitro -- may be called as a witness in the Cianci criminal trial. He said that Solitro once attended a Cianci fundraiser and was told it would cost him $5,000 to get on the force.
Donnelly did not identify who approached Solitro, who was on the job less than 10 days when he and another patrolman shot and killed Young. The prosecutor also did not say whether Solitro paid the $5,000.
Donnelly also said that Maria Maggiacomo, the mother of Joseph Maggiacomo III, told Solitro that she paid $5,000 to get her son into the Providence Police Training Academy. That allegation is part of the racketeering indictment against Cianci and the five others.
In that count, Corrente, the former director of administration for Cianci, and Richard Autiello, a tow-truck operator, are accused of arranging the bribe. Cianci is not mentioned as a participant.
"What to do with Mr. Solitro is perhaps one of the sharpest areas of conflict," said Donnelly, adding that other high-ranking Providence police officers may be called as witnesses.
Donnelly told Torres that the Cianci trial, which is expected to run at least two months, would be stalled by a bevy of other potential conflicts involving Egbert and others in the case.
Egbert and his lawyer, Martin Weinberg, of Boston, challenged Donnelly's presentation.
Egbert said that he had represented the city in the past when it appeared that the Young family was going to sue the city. But he said that he has had nothing to do with the case since last November.
Also, he said, city officials have not formally asked him to defend the city in the lawsuit. Egbert said that he has to make an assessment as to whether it's feasible for him to handle both cases.
Weinberg went one step further, saying that Cianci has a constitutional right to select the lawyer of his choice.
|
|
|
