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10.12.2001 00:13
Talk-show host says he'll fight subpoena
• A lawyer for John DePetro, of radio station WHJJ, will file a motion to quash the subpoena from a special prosecutor probing a leak of a secret video.
BY MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writer
John "The Independent Man" DePetro has elected to fight rather than talk to a special prosecutor probing the leak of a secret Operation Plunder Dome video.
A lawyer for the WHJJ radio talk-show host said yesterday that he will file a motion to quash a subpoena to depose DePetro.
Special prosecutor Marc DeSisto subpoenaed DePetro last week as part of his investigation into how a government videotape, purporting to show Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s top aide taking a bribe, was leaked to a local television station.
The station, Channel 10 (WJAR), and its reporter, Jim Taricani, aired the tape in a news report in February. The tape allegedly shows Frank E. Corrente, Cianci's longtime director of administration, taking a $1,000 bribe to arrange a city lease from businessman Antonio R. Freitas, who was working undercover for the FBI.
Cianci, Corrente and four others face indictment on corruption charges in Operation Plunder Dome.
Joseph V. Cavanagh Jr., DePetro's lawyer, said that he asked DeSisto to delay the deposition, originally set for Wednesday, to consider his argument for why DePetro should not be deposed. DeSisto postponed the deposition, but then notified Cavanagh that he intends to push ahead.
Cavanagh, in turn, says that he intends to file a motion within the next few days in federal court to quash the subpoena.
DePetro, Cavanagh argues, should be protected under shield laws that restrict government access to a journalist's sources. Furthermore, Cavanagh said, DePetro isn't even the journalist who aired the leaked tape.
"There are other sources they can go to without getting a journalist involved," Cavanagh said. "The problem is that John is someone who relies on gathering information for his job. Why get him involved when he's not a party to broadcasting the tape?"
Echoed DePetro: "Other people have the information they're looking for. I see no reason they have to come to me."
In another development yesterday, DeSisto called Taricani and asked him if reports in last Saturday's Journal were accurate -- that Taricani would invoke the newsman's shield if subpoenaed. Taricani said that he told DeSisto he would; DeSisto hung up without revealing his plans.
That could indicate that Taricani may soon be receiving a subpoena, or that DeSisto is preparing an argument for why he feels he needs to question DePetro.
On Aug. 20, Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres signed an order granting DeSisto permission to depose five individuals, including DePetro. The other four names on a copy of the order faxed to Cavanagh were blacked out.
DeSisto did not return calls seeking comment.
Torres appointed DeSisto on May 31, following complaints from defense lawyers for Cianci and Corrente about the leaked videotape.
The court order appointing DeSisto says that he is to investigate "whether any participant in this case" violated a court order of Aug. 8, 2000, by "providing or making available" the videotape that aired on Channel 10 in February.
Torres said at the time that the leak of the tape appeared to have violated both the court order and grand-jury secrecy rules and, if so, could constitute criminal contempt.
The court order, however, states only that lawyers involved in the case are not to disclose the recorded evidence. The order allows the lawyers to share the tapes with their clients, but says nothing about the clients' handling of the tapes.
One apparent reason that DeSisto wants to question DePetro concerns his relationship with Joseph Pannone, the former Providence tax-board chairman now in prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
DePetro said that DeSisto recently visited Pannone in prison and asked about his relationship with DePetro.
Meanwhile, DePetro, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Cianci and City Hall corruption, is scheduled to cross paths with the mayor today.
He and Cianci are slated to read the Pledge of Allegiance over the air at WHJJ at 2 p.m., in honor of the American war effort against terrorism.
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