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4.5.2001 00:22
Racketeering law a powerful tool for prosecutors
 Legal experts say the government needs to tie Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. to a criminal enterprise but does not need to establish his particular knowledge of individual acts.
BY JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
Journal Staff Writer
At first blush, the federal corruption case against Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. does not add up. It veers from a convicted felon's lease with the Providence schools to a recruit's admission into the police academy.
But underlying the diverse case is a powerful federal law that allows prosecutors to link Cianci to the seemingly
unrelated activity, even if the mayor was not intimately aware of all of the alleged crimes.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act is a boon for Cianci's prosecutors, legal analysts said, because it holds leaders of criminal enterprises responsible for the misdeeds of subordinates.
"RICO is an unbelievably helpful tool to the prosecution," said Andrew Horwitz, a criminal-law professor at Roger Williams University. Horwitz runs the university's criminal defense clinic in Providence.
"They really just need to tie Cianci in to the enterprise," he added. "And then, having done that, they don't need to establish his particular knowledge of a single act of bribery, for example."
Horwitz was among a half-dozen lawyers who assessed the prospects of the 97-page indictment against Cianci.
They cautioned, however, that their speculation was imperfect because they did not know what kind of evidence prosecutors had.
The strength of the evidence would profoundly affect the case.
Analysts said a prosecution based solely on cooperating witnesses would not be as strong as one with videotape, say, of Cianci involved in a crime or acknowledging one.
The lawyers agreed that the indictments of former Administration Director Frank E. Corrente and current Chief of Staff Artin H. Coloian were meant to scare them into turning state's evidence.
Cianci has denied the allegations.
Like other analysts, Horwitz expected Cianci's defense would attack the credibility of cooperating witnesses, a common tactic that examines the deals witnesses made to avoid jail time.
Yet Horwitz said Cianci might also turn RICO against itself.
"There is no criminal enterprise," Horwitz said, reciting a possible defense, "and to the extent there was a criminal enterprise, he was not part of it."
Analysts said the set-up of RICO explains the wide range of allegations leveled in Monday's 30-count indictment, which also touches on the mayor's lifetime membership in the University Club, the Police Department's tow list and a city hire.
Under the law, analysts said, prosecutors must prove that Cianci belonged to a crime group whose various members committed at least two crimes for the group.
If the requirements also sound as if they are forcing prosecutors to establish the existence of organized crime, that is because the U.S. Congress enacted RICO, in 1970, to help the federal government crack down on the Mafia.
Indeed, Cianci's indictment reads almost as though he were the don of an organized-crime family, presiding over five lieutenants in and out of city government engaged in bribery, extortion and mail fraud.
Essentially, the indictment alleges that the apparatus of city government was turned away from the public good and toward enriching Cianci, sometimes in the guise of gaining contributions to his campaign fund.
Daniel I. Small, a former federal prosecutor of public corruption who is now a criminal defense lawyer in Boston, said public officials indicted under the federal law face a difficult defense.
"There's no question that RICO provides an enormously powerful tool for the government in these cases," said Small, who is vice chairman of the American Bar Association's white-collar crime committee. "It allows them to take individual charges, which by themselves would be hard to prove, and put them together."
In effect, Small said, RICO turns on its head the legal tenet that the government cannot convict suspects for crimes they did not commit by allowing prosecutors to hold them accountable for the crimes of co-conspirators.
Yet that requires prosecutors in Cianci's case, Small added, to prove that the mayor belonged to a conspiracy and that its crimes were reasonably foreseeable, if Cianci was not directly involved in the acts.
"It's not enough that Buddy was the mayor and in a position of power over people who are corrupt. He has to be aware and involved in that corruption to some extent," Small said.
The mayor might also argue that the acts were not crimes, Small said. For example, Cianci might contend that his campaign fund operated legally under the state's murky campaign-finance laws.
"And the last thing that Buddy has to do is pray that the indictment does not result in more guilty pleas," Small said.
Small said that helps explain why "prosecutors will keep working to get more witnesses to come forward."
ALTHOUGH ESTABLISHED
with the Mafia in mind, RICO was wielded, starting in the 1980s, against others.
Private lawyers have used its civil component in divorces, insurance-fraud cases and even a lawsuit accusing Amway of rumor-mongering.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have mounted RICO cases against FBI agents for tipping off James "Whitey" Bulger and against Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire whom President Clinton recently pardoned.
In Rhode Island, the U.S. Attorney's office used RICO to break up the Latin Kings gang in the 1990s. In 1995, Edward Voccola, who was indicted with Cianci this week, pleaded guilty to a RICO count.
After Cianci was indicted, the U.S. Attorney's office moved to freeze Cianci's assets.
Under RICO, prosecutors can freeze assets to ensure that they can seize the proceeds from illegal activity if there is a conviction.
The law also establishes stiffer penalties for a RICO crime than for the particular crimes that make up a RICO offense.
A RICO violator faces up to 20 years in prison, forfeiture and a fine worth twice any ill-gotten gains.
If Cianci is convicted, federal guidelines would direct any sentence that he would receive.
Under the guidelines, his previous felony assault conviction would not increase his legal jeopardy -- he would need two prior felonies for that.
But the guidelines do increase the penalties for crimes involving the sums that Cianci is accused of taking.
The indictment accuses Cianci and four co-defendants of taking more than $1.5 million.
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