• The rulings center around the potential testimony of Ronald H. Glantz, who was represented by Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s current lawyer when he was found guilty of extortion during the major's first administration.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- If Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. takes the stand to defend himself against the government's corruption charges and denies ever taking bribes and boasts of a clean record as mayor, prosecutors want to use a former high-ranking official from the mayor's first administration to rebut these assertions.
During an almost three-hour hearing in U.S. District Court yesterday, Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres disclosed that the government had asked the court's permission to introduce testimony from a convicted felon, Ronald H. Glantz -- who served as Cianci's city solicitor and chief of staff during much of his first administration -- who would testify about "alleged bribes and acts of extortion in which [Cianci] was alleged to have participated between 1976 and 1983."
Glantz, once a close confidant of the mayor, was convicted in the 1980s of extorting $77,350 in kickbacks from a North Providence garbage hauler who received a contract from the city. He also was convicted of perjury and for conspiring to obstruct justice and served several years in federal prison. Glantz was released from a halfway house in 1991 and was one of 30 people in Cianci's first administration who were indicted and 21 convicted on corruption charges. Cianci was never charged in that earlier federal corruption probe.
Acting yesterday on a pretrial motion filed by Cianci to block the prosecution from presenting testimony from Glantz, Torres ruled that such evidence would be inadmissible in the prosecution's case because it was so remote in time, would be prejudicial, is unrelated to the specific acts alleged in the indictment and might confuse the jury.
Appellate courts have ruled, the judge noted, the "even evidence of past convictions generally would be inadmissible if they are more than 10 years old . . . so why would I allow introduction of prior bad acts never charged?" Torres said.
But the judge said that depending on what Cianci intends to testify to, and what character testimony he introduces -- the government might have the right to present testimony from Glantz.
"The only way this alleged past conduct could be admissible is if [Cianci] himself does something to make it an issue," the judge said. Torres said he doubts Cianci would raise issues that would make testimony from Glantz admissible but added there needs to be a "definitive resolution" now, before the trial starts.
Torres said he would require the mayor to appear before him in court sometime in the next few weeks to answer some questions. If Cianci "opens the door" to allow Glantz to testify in rebuttal, a conflict-of-interest would arise that the judge said would need to be resolved immediately
Cianci's lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, of Boston, also represented Glantz when he was prosecuted for perjury. Egbert would not be allowed to cross-examine Glantz if he were to testify. Egbert might also have to withdraw altogether as Cianci's counsel if Glantz's testimony were to come in, the judge said.
"Mayor Cianci has two choices here," Torres said.
He can keep Egbert as his lawyer, the judge said, but if the mayor, in his own trial testimony, raises issues that would make Glantz qualify as a government rebuttal witness, Egbert would not be allowed to question Glantz and would be prohibited from sharing any information he has learned about Glantz from his former representation of him. The mayor would also have to have another lawyer ready and willing to take on the job of cross-examining Glantz were he to testify, the judge said.
If that's not a satisfactory arrangement for the mayor, Torres said, Cianci "can choose someone besides Mr. Egbert to represent him" at trial.
Egbert argued during the hearing that if he were forced out of the case, a new lawyer would have to ask for a trial postponement of "a year or more" to become familiar with Cianci's case. Egbert also alleged that the only reason the government is now seeking to possibly use Glantz is because its case against the mayor is "weak.' Egbert also asserted that Glantz had failed a lie-detector test, prompting Torres to caution the lawyer to "stick to the issues."
A trial for the mayor and his five codefendants is scheduled for April 15.
Torres asked government and defense lawyers to submit memos to him by next Wednesday addressing the ethical question of whether Egbert would have to be excluded from representing Cianci entirely, or just from questioning Glantz if Glantz were to testify.
Earlier in the hearing, Torres denied defense motions to dismiss racketeering and racketeering-conspiracy charges against the mayor and his codefendants. Cianci and those charged with him -- except former tax official Joseph A. Pannone -- claimed that the government's allegations against them are insufficient to support such charges. (All of the defendants, except the mayor's chief of staff, Artin H. Coloian, are charged with racketeering.)
Defense lawyer John A. "Terry" MacFadyen III argued that the indictment doesn't sufficiently allege a "criminal enterprise" as required under RICO law; that a public entity, in this case, the City of Providence, can't constitute a criminal enterprise as prosecutors have alleged; that the defendants had not been provided with sufficient notice of what is being alleged; and that the racketeering counts were "vague."
Torres rejected these arguments, saying at one point that MacFadyen was engaging in a "hyper-technical" interpretation of the indictment. He also disagreed with MacFadyen's vagueness argument.
"I had difficulty understanding in what way you contend the indictment is vague," Torres said. It's 96 pages long and "goes into great detail. Frankly, I found that argument itself vague," the judge said.
In addition to Cianci, Coloian and Pannone, the defendants charged in the 30-count indictment 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; and Edward Voccola, a convicted felon and owner of property leased to the city's School Department.
The indictment charges Cianci and the others 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.
