But judge rejects
mayor's bid for
2 separate trials
BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- A federal judge yesterday denied a bid by Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. for a separate trial on 4 of the 18 corruption charges he faces.
But the judge did grant a request by the mayor's chief of staff, Artin H. Coloian, to be tried separately from his boss and three other codefendants.
"Mr. Coloian appears to be the least culpable of all of the defendants," said Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres, in granting the defense motion to sever his case.
The judge said that Coloian would be tried immediately after his codefendants -- Cianci; the mayor's former top aide, Frank E. Corrente; auto-body shop owner and tow operator Richard E. Autiello; and Edward Voccola, a convicted felon and owner of property leased to the city's School Department.
The trial of the others is scheduled to begin the week of April 15.
In ordering a separate trial for Coloian, Torres said that the mayor's chief of staff is the only defendant in the case who is not charged with racketeering and "by far, most of the evidence to be presented [by the government] will relate to other defendants and would not be admissible in a trial against Mr. Coloian."
The judge agreed that it might be more efficient to try Coloian with the others -- as the U.S. Attorney's office had wanted to do. But Torres said there was a "heightened risk" that evidence presented against Cianci and the other defendants could prejudice Coloian, who is charged in just 2 of the indictment's 29 counts.
Torres also said that Coloian should not have to incur the "additional expense" of having to pay his lawyer for a trial that is expected to take about eight weeks when a trial of Coloian alone would consume just two to three days.
Coloian is charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery; Cianci is a defendant in the same two counts.
The alleged offenses revolve around Christopher J. Ise's employment with the city's Department of Planning and Development. The indictment alleges that in February 1997, former tax board member David C. 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.
In arguing the motion to Torres, Coloian's lawyer, John Tarantino, said he feared "a spillover effect" if Coloian were tried with the others.
"My client fears a substantial risk of being unfairly convicted" if forced to go to trial with his codefendants, he said.
At a recent hearing, Tarantino called the case the government has dubbed Operation Plunder Dome "a kitchen sink indictment." But yesterday he went further, calling it "a closet full of skeletons and a stable full of dead and beaten horses."
Tarantino said it would be highly unfair to force Coloian to trial with the others because the crimes alleged by the government against Cianci, Corrente, Autiello and Voccola "appear over a decade" and "many occurred before Mr. Coloian even worked in City Hall."
"The so-called Ise job happened on one day over the course of a decade," Tarantino complained, but the government is prepared to present "decades worth of alleged evidence, scores of tapes, thousands of documents . . . [and] of those scores of tapes, [Coloian is] mentioned on five, speaks on one, and none links him to any offense with which he is charged."
Tarantino also asserted that the government has "zero" documents to link Coloian to the crimes he is charged with -- even though the prosecution has "tried to come up with a witch's brew of bad acts" of others with the hope it will "spill over" to convict Coloian.
"This is the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill," Tarantino argued.
Asst. U.S. Attorney Terrence Donnelly conceded that it was within Torres's discretion to order a separate trial for the mayor's chief of staff, and that it was a close call to make. But he told the judge, "We do not want to open the door to inconsistent verdicts in this case" and urged him not to segregate Coloian's case from the others.
"Handing cash to somebody so somebody else can get a job is not a concept particularly hard to understand . . . " for a jury, he said.
When Coloian allegedly accepted cash from Ead for the Ise job, "he said to Mr. Ead, 'Is this for the job?' And the question the jury will have to answer is why he took the money."
"The answer was, he was part of the Cainci enterprise being run out of City Hall," the prosecutor argued. And, Donnelly predicted, "the trial of Mr. Coloian, if separate, will not be as short and discreet as Mr. Tarantino asserts."
Donnelly pointed out that the government has already notified Coloian and his lawyer of its intent to present character evidence regarding a "prior extortion Mr. Coloian was involved in" relating to "obtaining campaign contributions." Donnelly did not elaborate.
CIANCI'S REQUEST
for separate trials on four charges that allege he extorted a free lifetime membership in the exclusive University Club took up little of the court's time.
Cianci lawyer Edward Romano spent less than two minutes making his pitch, saying the arguments for the motion had been covered in the memorandum of law that he and Cianci lawyer Richard M. Egbert had submitted to the court.
In the memorandum, the lawyers argue that the nature of the University Club charges are vastly different from the other 14 counts against the mayor and "are the only allegations for which the government purports to have any evidence not subject to obvious and palpable doubt."
The 29-count indictment facing Cianci and his codefendants alleges that they took more than $1.5 million during the 1990s, extorting cash and campaign contributions for leases, contracts, jobs, promotions and other benefits.
The University Club charges allege that the mayor punished the club for its refusal, dating back to 1975, to make him a member. He allegedly blocked building permits and threatened to shut down the club until it apologized and made him an honorary member. At one point, the indictment says, Cianci vowed to "turn the University Club into a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) club."
The mayor is also charged with witness tampering for allegedly trying in the summer of 1999 to influence the grand jury testimony of a city worker, and the worker's statements to the FBI, concerning the University Club.
While Egbert and Romano argued in their memorandum that the jury might become "confused" and find Cianci guilty if the University Club charges were tried along with the others, Romano conceded yesterday that the crux of the defense argument to sever those charges had been weakened by Torres's refusal at a recent hearing -- held after the memorandum was filed -- to dismiss the racketeering counts against the defendants.
The University Club allegations are among the "predicate acts" the government has cited as part of its racketeering case, so evidence relating to the alleged University Club crimes would come out at the racketeering trial even if Cianci's motion to sever the four charges was granted, Torres pointed out.
The judge also disagreed with Cianci's argument that the nature of the University Club charges was so different from the other alleged crimes.
"All charges basically alleged that Mayor Cianci used the power and authority of office to obtain something of value from others. Whether it was free membership in a private club or cash," the judge said, there's "not a very significant distinction."
The mayor did not attend yesterday's hearing, which Torres moved from his regular courtroom to a much larger one in the newly refurbished courthouse on Kennedy Plaza.
Coloian, who was present, appeared ecstatic when Torres announced he would be tried separately. He was warmly congratulated by Tarantino and his other lawyer, Walter R. Stone, as well as by the lawyers representing the other defendants. He patted Tarantino on the back and embraced three friends who had come to offer support.
Citing a gag order issued by Torres, Coloian said after court that he could make no comment.
