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4.7.2001 00:10
Cianci, 3 others plead innocent
Mayor, aides, businessman appear in federal court
BY MIKE STANTON and
W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writers
In a more dignified time, Abraham Lincoln spoke on the site of the old federal courthouse in downtown Providence.
Yesterday, in a temporary courthouse above the post office next door, Vincent A. Cianci Jr. waded through a media circus to plead not guilty to federal racketeering charges.
At 9:30 a.m. sharp yesterday, the mayor of Providence sat at the defendant's table in an upstairs courtroom.
"The first matter today is the United States of America versus Vincent A. Cianci Jr.," intoned U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lovegreen.
In baseball parlance, yesterday's hearing had all the drama of the warm-ups before the first pitch. It was a routine appearance, during which the mayor was formally charged, pleaded not guilty and was freed on $50,000 unsecured bond.
But it carried all the fanfare of Opening Day, which is where Cianci's lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, was headed afterward, to see the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
The specter of the ebullient Cianci -- the longest-serving mayor in Providence history -- facing a federal judge on corruption charges drew a horde of media.
Three other people indicted with the mayor on Monday also appeared in court yesterday, and pleaded not guilty -- Cianci's chief of staff, Artin H. Coloian; the mayor's former top aide, Frank E. Corrente; and businessman Richard E. Autiello.
But the spotlight was on Cianci.
In front of the courthouse, the normal contingent of U.S. marshals was reinforced by a half dozen or so plainclothes Providence police detectives and uniformed patrolmen, under the direction of detective commander Martin F. Hames.
At about 9:10 a.m., the mayor's black Lincoln Town Car with the Number 1 license plate pulled up to the curb in front. Cianci emerged into one of the biggest forests of cameras and microphones outside a Providence courthouse since the second Claus von Bulow murder trial, in 1985.
The mayor wore a dark blue suit with lighter blue pin-striping, and the same cherry-red tie he wore the day of his indictment.
One questioner quickly handed the mayor a set-up line.
"Are you concerned about the media circus?" someone asked.
"What, are you calling yourself a clown?" the mayor deadpanned.
Reporters and photographers crowded in so close that Cianci, at one point, had to elbow his way toward the door. When he got inside the post office and saw the line of reporters waiting to get through the metal detector, Cianci did a double take.
"Are you all waiting to mail a letter?" he asked.
Upstairs, in the standing-room-only courtroom, the atmosphere was more businesslike.
Cianci sat calmly at the defense table, his reading glasses perched on his nose as he perused documents. To his left sat the mayor's chief of staff and codefendant, Artin H. Coloian.
It was almost like a staff meeting at City Hall -- except the mayor wasn't in charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose referred to the mayor as "Defendant Cianci."
When the judge asked the mayor if he understood the charges against him, Cianci hesitated, glanced back at one of his lawyers, then stood awkwardly and replied, "Yes, I do."
Then came the standard conditions of bail. Lovegreen ordered the mayor to surrender his passport and instructed him to refrain from excessive consumption of alcohol or use of illegal drugs.
Lovegreen required Cianci to notify the probation office whenever he travels within the United States for official business, and to obtain permission for any personal travel.
The mayor, who stands accused of operating a racketeering enterprise out of City Hall, was ordered by the judge not to discuss the charges with three people named in the indictment: Patricia McLaughlin, Ramzi Loqua and Steven Antonson.
All three people figure into the government's charges involving the University Club. Cianci is accused of extorting a free lifetime membership from the exclusive East Side club, which in the past had refused to admit him, by holding up the club's building permits in 1998.
The indictment says that McLaughlin, then an assistant city solicitor, helped fight the club's attempts to re-open following a major renovation.
According to the indictment, McLaughlin was also in the mayor's office when the club's president later presented Cianci with his lifetime membership card; the mayor then instructed McLaughlin to "do what she could to help the University Club open."
The indictment also charges that, before Cianci became an honorary member, the mayor contacted at least two members of the city's Building Board of Review, on which Antonson served, and the city's building inspector, Loqua, and instructed them to reject the club's application for construction variances.
Cianci faces 25 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, bribery, mail fraud and witness tampering.
COLOIAN FOLLOWED
Cianci and pleaded not guilty.
Like the mayor, Coloian was released on $50,000 unsecured bond.
Later in the day, City Solicitor Charles R. Mansolillo suspended Coloian -- who earned about $109,000 last year -- without pay, as provided for under the city charter. (The mayor's position is not subject to suspension.)
Coloian is charged with one count of bribery and one count of bribery conspiracy for allegedly accepting a $5,000 cash payoff on behalf of the mayor to secure a city job for Christopher Ise. He was ordered not to have any contact with Ise.
Afterward, Coloian's lawyer, Walter R. Stone, called Coloian's indictment "one of the strangest things I've ever seen." Unlike the other five defendants, Coloian was not charged with the more serious racketeering counts, fueling speculation that the government is seeking to pressure Coloian to cooperate.
"Maybe they think he knows more than he does," Stone said. Noting that Coloian, at 36, is by far the youngest of those indicted, and has a law license, Stone said that his client has potentially more to lose.
"He's in deeper water than he's ever been," Stone said. "This isn't swimming in the back-yard pool."
Cianci was accompanied by a handful of advance aides and by longtime sidekick Robert Lovell, a retired Providence policeman who has worked for Cianci's campaign organization.
But with federal prosecutors moving on Tuesday to freeze the Cianci campaign bank accounts, Lovell and the campaign's other full-time worker find themselves in limbo.
Cianci emerged from the marshal's office, his toupee back in place after having to remove it for his mugshot, and after being fingerprinted.
Back outside in the media throng, Cianci once again proclaimed his innocence and was whisked away to City Hall, where he tried to pursue a normal schedule.
In his wake, supporters and detractors took up positions on the sidewalk across the street.
"I'm cheering," said Pasquale "Pat" Cortellessa, who tried to run against Cianci in 1998 but was forced off the ballot after many of his signatures were invalidated. "All the businesspeople . . . won't have to grease palms and play the game."
Supporters, however, praised Cianci's role in rejuvenating Providence and wished him well.
"The mayor's innocent till proven guilty," said Phil Perry, an employee at Jensen's Soup at the Arcade. "If someone is in the business this long and is doing this good, then somebody wants you out . . . I think somebody's trying to frame him."
BACK INSIDE
the courtroom, Corrente and Autiello took their places at the defense table.
Autiello sat in a chair away from Corrente, his old friend. They did not speak.
Corrente and Autiello both pleaded not guilty.
Corrente is charged with seven racketeering acts, racketeering conspiracy, three counts of extortion conspiracy, three counts of extortion, two counts of bribery conspiracy, two counts of bribery, attempted extortion, mail fraud conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud, and two counts of witness tampering.
Autiello is charged with racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, two acts of racketeering, extortion conspiracy, extortion, two counts of bribery conspiracy and two counts of bribery.
Autiello is a first cousin of felon Edward E. Voccola, the former auto-body shop owner, who was part of Monday's indictment. Voccola is being held without bail.
Lovegreen released Corrente and Autiello on $50,000 unsecured bond.
Acting on a prosecution request, Lovegreen also barred Corrente and Autiello from having any contact with three witnesses in the case: Joseph Maggiacomo III, and his parents, Mary Maggiacomo and Joseph Maggiacomo Jr., of 850 Scituate Ave., in Cranston.
The indictment alleged that Mary Maggiacomo paid a $5,000 bribe to Autiello at his auto-repair business, Four A's Enterprises, to get her son into the Providence Police Academy. Corrente is charged with participating in the conspiracy.
Autiello's business has a multimillion contract to repair the fleet of Providence police vehicles.
Corrente was also ordered to have no contact with Alan R. Sepe, the city's acting director of public property, and Mark V. Dunham, the School Department's senior administrator of finance and operations.
Sepe and Dunham are witnesses in criminal counts involving alleged bribes that Voccola paid to Corrente for a $1.3-million School Department lease.
Afterward, as he was leaving, Autiello received a pat on the shoulder from Major Hames, the head of Providence detectives.
"We believe that the indictment is built on a house of cards and that house of cards will collapse under its own weight," said Autiello's lawyer, Richard C. Bicki.
-- With reports from Staff Writers David Herzog and Karen Lee Ziner
Digital extra:
Review the week's events since the indictment of Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. with the help of projo.com's special Plunder Dome package:
http://projo.com/extra/plunder/
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