• Federal prosecutors have filed a memorandum laying out their reasons for dismissing the charge, but the judge hearing the case has not put the document in the court file.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- The U.S. Attorney's office is moving to dismiss one of the bribery charges against Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.; his former top aide, Frank E. Corrente; and auto-body shop owner Richard E. Autiello.
It is unclear from the court file exactly why the government wants to throw out one of the charges in the case that has become known as Operation Plunder Dome.
The one-sentence motion says the government wants to dismiss the federal bribery count "in the interests of justice and judicial economy." The motion was filed in response to earlier motions by the defendants to dismiss the bribery charge "for lack of notice, duplicity and statute of limitations."
Asst. U.S. Attorneys Richard W. Rose and Terrence P. Donnelly have filed a memorandum of law laying out their reasons for dismissing the charge. But Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres has not put the memo in the court file and one of his staff said late yesterday the judge was too busy to speak with a reporter seeking information.
All lawyers, defendants and potential witnesses in the case are under a broad order not to speak about the pending corruption case, which is currently scheduled for trial April 15.
The charge that government lawyers want to throw out is Count 6 of the 30-count indictment. It alleges that from January 1991 through October 1999, in Rhode Island, Cianci, Corrente and Autiello and others unnamed in the indictment aided and abetted each other and "did knowingly and corruptly, solicit, demand, accept, and agree to accept . . . $250,000 more or less, in campaign contributions to Friends of Cianci" from businesses and individuals who wanted spots on the Police Department's lucrative tow list. Friends of Cianci is the name of the mayor's campaign organization.
Other counts of the indictment allege illegal activity on the part of the defendants in connection with campaign contributions and the tow list.
For example, the first count of the indictment accuses the three defendants and the Friends of Cianci of being part of a racketeering enterprise whose aim was to enrich the mayor, his co-defendants and the Friends of Cianci "through extortion, mail fraud, bribery, money laundering and witness tampering."
The racketeering-conspiracy count alleges that Cianci, Corrente and Autiello "obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from members of the Providence Tow Association, in exchange for insuring (sic) that the contributors remained on the City of Providence Tow List and for insuring (sic) that other companies were not added to the Tow List."
Another conspiracy count alleges that Corrente, in 1991, "demanded $5,000 per year in campaign contributions from each member of the Tow Association for Friends of Cianci and that when Autiello and another member of the association "advised" the group's members of the "demand," the association agreed to pay $3,000 per member per year to Friends of Cianci.
Two other counts of the indictment allege that Cianci, Corrente and Autiello extorted money from tow association members and that they conspired to commit federal bribery in connection with the tow list.
All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In addition to Cianci, Autiello and Corrente, other defendants charged in the 30-count indictment are Artin H. Coloian, the mayor's chief of staff; convicted felon Edward Voccola, the owner of property leased to the School Department; and Joseph A. Pannone, a former city tax official.
