• The Providence mayor asks that one trial address only the allegations that he extorted a membership at the University Club; he also asks that the racketeering charges against him be dropped.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- With jury selection in the federal corruption case against Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and his five codefendants slated to begin April 15, defense lawyers are filing a raft of motions asking, among other things, for the court to grant the mayor two different trials on the charges against him.
Cianci is asking U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres to set a separate trial on the four charges alleging that he extorted a free lifetime membership in the exclusive University Club. The government alleges that the mayor punished the club for its refusal to make him a member by blocking building permits and threatening to shut down the club until it apologized and made him an honorary member. The mayor is also charged with witness tampering for allegedly trying to influence the grand jury testimony of a city worker concerning the University Club.
Cianci claims in court papers that his right to a fair trial would be prejudiced if he were forced to stand trial on the University Club charges at the same time as the other counts, but there is little elaboration on his reasons.
The mayor and his codefendants -- except former tax official Joseph A. Pannone -- are also asking Torres to dismiss the racketeering and racketeering-conspiracy counts against them, claiming that the government's allegations are legally insufficient to support RICO charges.
And as the trial approaches, Cianci has joined in a motion filed a few weeks ago by his chief of staff, Artin H. Coloian, to dismiss the entire 30-count indictment that was handed up by a grand jury last April in the case that has become known as Operation Plunder Dome.
Defense lawyers are also trying to force the government to reveal, prior to jury selection, more information about witnesses the prosecution intends to present at trial -- material that could be used to impeach their credibility.
In addition, lawyers for the mayor and the other defendants are asking the court to order Justice Department lawyers to disclose the names of all confidential informants who furnished information in the corruption probe, an investigation that began four years ago and became public in 1999, when FBI agents raided City Hall.
The defense wants the government to disclose all electronic surveillance it engaged in that has not yet been furnished, and is seeking a court order directing prosecutors to provide a list of documents and tapes it intends to use at trial, as well as a list of the witnesses it intends to present in the case it has prepared against Cianci.
The indictment charges Cianci and his codefendants with racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, mail fraud and witness tampering. It alleges that the mayor and those indicted with him took more than $1.5 million during the 1990s --extorting cash and campaign contributions for leases, contracts, jobs, promotions and other benefits.
Charged with Cianci and Coloian are the mayor's former top aide, Frank E. Corrente; Richard E. Autiello, an auto-body shop owner and member of the Providence Towing Association; Edward Voccola, a convicted felon and owner of property leased to the School Department; and Pannone, former chairman of the Board of Tax Assessment Review.
The defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
Some of the witnesses the government intends to present in its case at trial are already known, but others have not been publicly identified. The defense lawyers, in papers filed with the court, name some of the people they expect will be used by the government in its case and are requesting from the government "any information" that could impeach their credibility: former tax officials Pannone and David C. Ead; Alan R. Sepe, the city's acting director of public property; Steven Antonson, a member of the Providence Building Board of Review whose grand-jury testimony concerning the University Club Cianci is alleged to have tried to influence; former Voccola employee Roger Cavaca; Kenneth Rocha, president of the Providence City Towing Association who is a Cianci contributor; and Joseph Maggiacomo, and his mother, Marie. It is alleged in the indictment that Corrente and Autiello took a $5,000 bribe to admit Joseph Maggiacomo III to the Providence Police Academy. Maggiacomo dropped out of the academy and did not become a police officer.
Many of the motions filed in recent days by the defense team are common in criminal cases. But the difference between the case against the mayor and other high-profile cases in recent years is the level of secrecy that has enveloped it since last May, when Judge Torres issued a sweeping gag order that prohibits the mayor and the other defendants, their lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses, potential witnesses, law-enforcement officials involved in the investigation and court personnel from releasing information that is not in the public record, or from making any comment on the case or the papers they have filed with the court.
After receiving complaints from the media, Torres issued another order -- 10 days after his gag order -- that he predicted would "greatly diminish the number of documents filed under seal." But the gag order has led the lawyers to continue to file much material under seal -- and directly with the judge instead of with the clerk's office.
The result? Only one memorandum of law -- a document that lawyers file to support their arguments behind the motions they make -- has been put in the public court file since July.
That memo, filed by Coloian, outlines his reasons for seeking a trial separate from those of the other defendants -- a move the government opposes.
Coloian argues in the memo that he would be prejudiced by having to face trial with any of the other defendants. "Of these 30 counts, Mr. Coloian is charged with only two violations, namely federal conspiracy and federal bribery and both are brought solely in relation to the circumstances surrounding Mr. Christopher Ise's employment with the City of Providence, Department of Planning and Development," Coloian's lawyers write. (The indictment alleges that Ead delivered a $5,000 payoff to Coloian from Ise that was meant for Cianci after the mayor arranged a job for Ise at City Hall.)
Coloian, his lawyers note, is not charged with any racketeering counts or with any conspiracies except the one count in which he is named as a defendant along with Cianci. They say the facts relating to the two charges Coloian does face "are very limited and discrete. . . . There is no factual overlap between the two counts with which Mr. Coloian is charged and the remaining 28 counts pending against his five codefendants."
Coloian's lawyers say that if he is tried with the other defendants, "he will be severely prejudiced when evidence of his codefendants' alleged wrongdoing -- evidence that would not be admissible if Mr. Coloian were tried alone -- is introduced. Prosecutors, the lawyers say, "will seek to introduce at trial scores of tape recordings that have absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Coloian . . ."
Judge Torres has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 29 on a motion by the mayor to block the government from presenting certain evidence at trial -- although it is unclear from the court file exactly what type of evidence.
No hearing dates have been set on the other pending motions.
