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4.13.2001 00:09
Pannone pleads not guilty to new corruption charges
BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- Joseph A. Pannone, one of the first defendants in the Operation Plunder Dome scandal, returned to the same federal courtroom yesterday where he was sentenced to five years in prison last year.
As two marshals circled behind him, Pannone, 78, entered not guilty pleas to a battery of new corruption charges that were lodged against him last week. The indictment, in which Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and four others are charged, accuses him of attempting to extort money from Providence businessman Antonio R. Freitas in exchange for helping him lease buildings in the city.
Frank E. Corrente, Cianci's former chief of staff, is charged with participating in the conspiracy.
At the time, Pannone was chairman of the Providence Board of Tax Assessment Review, a city agency that is responsible for granting reductions on commercial and residential property values.
Lawyer John M. Cicilline, of Providence, said Pannone was "not guilty on all counts pertaining to him," in the indictment. He is charged with five counts of racketeering, eight extortion-related charges and three counts of mail fraud.
Pannone, who underwent triple-bypass surgery last summer, looked thinner and more haggard than he had in his last public appearance. When Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lovegreen asked him whether he understood the charges against him, Pannone leaned forward and asked him to repeat the question.
Lovegreen did; Pannone said he understood.
In December 1999, Pannone pleaded guilty to 14 corruption charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. He reported to prison on Sept. 29 and is housed in a prison camp at Fort Devens, Mass.
A tentative trial date on the new charges has been set for May 25.
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