PROVIDENCE -- The special prosecutor in Channel 10 reporter Jim
Taricani's contempt case today revealed the source of an FBI tape given
to Taricani -- lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., who represented former
city tax official Joseph A. Pannone in the Operation Plunder Dome case.
But special prosecutor Marc DeSisto says in court papers filed this
morning that Bevilacqua never asked Taricani to keep his identity
confidential and that the defense lawyer urged the reporter more than 2
1/2 years ago to tell DeSisto that he was his source.
DeSisto asserts that Taricani told Bevilacqua, a Providence lawyer and
son of the late state Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua,
not to reveal his identity and "encouraged Mr. Bevilacqua to maintain
his silence.''
DeSisto says that last Wednesday, after he subpoenaed Bevilacqua, the
defense lawyer admitted under oath that he was the source for the secret
FBI videotape that Channel 10 aired on Feb. 1, 2001. He had previously
denied to DeSisto, also under oath on Feb. 6, 2002, that he was the
source.
DeSisto said he then went to Taricani, who yesterday confirmed through
his lawyers that Bevilacqua was his source.
At a brief press conference this afternoon, Taricani disputed
Bevilacqua's contention that he did not require a promise of
confidentiality from the reporter, saying he was "surprised and
disappointed by the story that Mr. Bevilacqua has provided the special
prosecutor."
The surveillance tape in question was part of the FBI’s probe into
corruption at Providence City Hall, which led to the conviction of
former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. It shows former Cianci top aide Frank
Corrente taking a $1,000 bribe from informant Antonio Freitas, a
Providence businessman who wanted to lease property he owned to the city.
Pannone was among the co-defendants in the case. According to the memo
filed today, the tapes were provided to Bevilacqua as part of the
discovery process involving his client, who later pleaded guilty to
several charges and has been recently released from prison. Corrente was
convicted along with Cianci and is still serving his sentence.
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Taricani, 55, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9 for criminal contempt
for defying a court order to reveal his source. His case has garnered
widespread attention, triggering debates over the freedom of the press
and the powers of the federal court.
DeSisto revealed Taricani's source of the videotape in court papers he
filed today in response to a sentencing memorandum submitted last week
by the reporter's lawyers to U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ernest C.
Torres. In it, they ask that Taricani be placed on probation and given
home confinement instead of a term of up to six months to serve in
federal prison.
They cite Taricani's medical condition as a reason for asking for
leniency. Taricani, who has had a heart transplant, takes medication
that suppresses his immune system in order to keep his body from
rejecting the heart.
In the memorandum submitted to Torres today, DeSisto said that he felt
it important to disclose formerly confidential aspects of his
investigation because he says he thinks it ``bears on the nature and
circumstances of the offense committed by Mr. Taricani'' as well as his
character and history of behavior.
The special prosecutor asserts that Taricani has made misrepresentations
in his legal battle to keep his source confidential.
``Contrary to Mr. Taricani's repeated assertions, both publicly and
before this court, Mr. Bevilacqua, the `source,' did not request any
promise of confidentiality in exchange for'' the videotape.
DeSisto says that in the spring of 2002, Bevilacqua told Taricani, who
is a long-time friend, that he had signed a waiver of confidentiality
``and that Mr. Taricani should come forward'' and tell DeSisto that he
had given him the videotape.
When asked why he denied being the source when he was questioned at the
Feb. 6, 2002, deposition, according to the memo, Bevilacqua said that
Taricani did not want Bevilacqua to come forward and reveal himself.
"Mr. Bevilacqua gave Mr. Taricani his word that he would not identify
himself, which is the reason why he did not come forward earlier," the
papers said.
DeSisto argues in the court papers that ``any obligation that Mr.
Taricani felt to keep his source private should have dissolved upon
presentation of the waiver of confidentiality'' in the spring of 2002.
But ``more egregiously,'' DeSisto contends, instead of complying with
his source's wishes...Mr. Taricani specifically asked Mr. Bevilacqua not
to reveal his identity.''
At the news conference held at the Channel 10 station in Cranston,
Taricani made a brief statement in response to the memo, saying he only
confirmed Bevilacqua was his source after the lawyer disclosed his
identity to DeSisto last week.
"It is unfortunate that the pressure created by the current
circumstances has led Mr. Bevilacqua to say that he did not insist that
I keep his name confidential," he said.
"I would never have jeopardized my health and reputation and put my
family and my company through this ordeal if my source has not required
a promise of confidentiality," he said.
He did not take questions from fellow members of the press, citing his
upcoming sentencing.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Providence, which prosecuted the Plunder
Dome case, released a statement this afternoon saying today's
developments put to rest speculation that the U.S. Attorney's Office or
the FBI had given Taricani the videotape.
"This revelation lifts the cloud of suspicion which had been permitted
to linger, unfairly, over the FBI and this office," U.S. Attorney Robert
Clark Corrente said in the statement. "We agree that it was necessary
and appropriate for the court to appoint a special prosecutor to
investigate this matter. But it is just as important for the people of
Rhode Island to be reassure that neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney's
Office leaked the Corrente videotape in an effort to gain an unfair
advantage in the Plunder Dome trial."
DeSisto had been appointed as a special prosecutor to investigate the
source of the tape since members of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the
FBI had access to the trial evidence.
-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Jack Perry and The
Associated Press
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