• The mayor wants to be tried separately on four charges of extorting a free membership at an exclusive club, but the U.S. Attorney's office wants just one trial on all of the corruption charges.
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- Government prosecutors are objecting to a request by Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. that he be tried separately on the four charges that he extorted a free lifetime membership in the exclusive University Club.
The U.S. Attorney's office says it wants just one trial for the mayor on all of the corruption charges he faces in the case that has become known as Operation Plunder Dome -- currently scheduled to be tried in mid-April.
Cianci claimed in court papers made public yesterday 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 he faces, but there is little elaboration on his reasons.
Likewise, the government, in papers filed in court, does not say why it opposes Cianci's motion for separate trials.
Meanwhile, Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres yesterday released a memorandum of law filed by the government that says why it wants to dismiss one of the federal bribery counts against the mayor, his former top aide, Frank E. Corrente, and auto-body shop owner Richard E. Autiello.
The charge the government wants 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.
The government said that while preparing objections and responses to pretrial motions filed by the defense, it "discovered a typographical omission in this count" and that "an essential allegation is missing from the charging language."
The government said it believed the omission "is not necessarily fatal" but that "there is simply no need to consume judicial, prosecutorial and defense resources litigating these issues."
The prosecutors said "the public interest will be adequately protected" because there are remaining counts in the indictment that allege illegalities in how Police Department tow contracts were awarded, counts in which Cianci, Corrente and Autiello are all named as defendants.
