PROVIDENCE – The lawyer who gave Channel 10 investigative reporter Jim
Taricani a secret FBI videotape admitted in federal court today to
committing perjury when a special prosecutor previously questioned him
about the tape.
Journal photo / Mary Murphy
Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani, center, accompanied by his wife, Laurie White, right, and his attorneys approach U.S. District Court in Providence today, where Taricani faces a sentence for criminal contempt for refusing to reveal the source of a secret FBI videotape.
Providence lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr. acknowledged lying to special
prosecutor Marc Desisto in February 2002 when DeSisto asked him whether
he had given Taricani the tape in violation of a court order.
"It was poor judgment. I panicked," Bevilacqua said under
cross-examination by Martin Murphy, a lawyer for Taricani.
Both Taricani and Bevilacqua testified earlier today before U.S.
District Court Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres, who is expected to decide
today what Taricani's sentence should be for refusing to disclose the
source of the tape made as part of the Operation Plunder Dome probe into
corruption at Providence City Hall.
Taricani repeated his claim that he had refused to identify his source
for DeSisto because Bevilacqua had requested confidentiality.
Bevilacqua, whose identity as the source was revealed just last month,
said he asked for no such promise.
The judge halted the testimony for lunch at about 12:30, after Taricani
had been called back onto the stand to take questions from Murphy.
Under questioning by DeSisto in earlier testimony, Taricani acknowledged
hinting to DeSisto about who gave him the tape after Taricani heard that
Bevilacqua was talking about it himself at a summer party.
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Taricani testified today that a Channel 10 viewer had reported that he
heard Bevilacqua saying at a party that he was the one who gave the
reporter the tape – while Taricani was facing contempt charges for
refusing to disclose his source. He was later convicted of criminal
contempt.
Under questioning by DeSisto, Taricani said he was “incensed” because he
believed Bevilacqua had broken a mutual agreement not to tell.
Angry that he was risking jail for upholding his end of the deal,
Taricani said he went to DeSisto, who had been seeking the source for
more than two years, and gave him names of people who might be able to
lead him to Bevilacqua. The Providence lawyer had at one point
represented another Plunder Dome defendant, former city tax official
Joseph Pannone, and had access to the tapes.
Channel 10 broadcast the videotape on Feb. 1, 2001, two months before
the indictment of former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and his
co-defendants. The tape showed former top Cianci aide and co-defendant
Frank Corrente accepting a bribe from an FBI informant posing as a
corrupt businessman.
Taricani insisted again today that Bevilacqua had sworn him to
confidentiality.
”I promised him confidentiality and he demanded it, so I intended to
keep my promise, “ he said.
Later, Murphy asked Taricani whether Bevilacqua had ever released him
from that promise of confidentiality.
No, Taricani said. If he had, Taricani said, "I would have been the
first one to scream that name from the top of the tallest building in
Providence."
Journal photo / Mary Murphy
Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., a defense lawyer in the Operation Plunder Dome corruption probe who was recently identified in court papers as the source of the tape, arrives at court today. He was subpoenaed to testify at the sentencing hearing.
According to court papers filed in the case by DeSisto this month,
however, Bevilacqua did sign a "waiver of confidentiality" at DeSisto's
request in March 2002, about a month after he was deposed by the special
prosecutor.
Taricani said today he continued in his refusal to name his source even
after Bevilacqua signed the waiver because he'd been taught that
prosecutors sometimes use such waivers to trick reporters into
identifying their sources.
The reporter said he assumed Bevilacqua "signed the waiver because he
felt he had to sign it because he'd look suspcious if he didn't."
But Taricani did inadvertently help lead DeSisto to the source.
In what DeSisto describes in court papers filed previously as a "chance"
meeting, Taricani and Plunder Dome investigator W. Dennis Aiken, an FBI
agent, ran into each other in a coffee shop on the morning before
Taricani's Nov. 18 trial for criminal contempt.
Aiken, who was among those who had access to the Plunder Dome evidence,
told Taricani that he was planning to sign a waiver of confidentiality
for the court in the hopes that it would encourage other potential
sources to do the same and help DeSisto identify the source.
Taricani told him that his source had already signed a waiver and that
DeSisto had shown it to him. While Bevilacqua was not the only possible
leak who had signed the waiver, his was the only one shown to Taricani.
Aiken passed the information along to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which
contacted DeSisto.
DeSisto called Bevilacqua back in for questioning, and he admitted then
that he was the source.
Taricani’s testimony this morning took place outside the hearing of
Bevilacqua, who was subpoenaed to appear in court in the wake of the
recent disclosure in court papers filed by DeSisto that he was indeed
the source.
Bevilacqua was sequestered during Taricani’s testimony, but was brought
into the courtroom later to testify himself.
He, in turn, repeated his stance that he had not made Taricani promise
confidentiality, but had only asked that Taricani not air the tape
before the trial of Corrente.
”The only thing I asked him was not to show the tapes until the jury had
seen the tapes,” he said.
Bevilacqua said Taricani was grateful for the tape, saying the reporter
told him: ”This will enhance my career. This will make me look good, so
to speak.”
Taricani is facing up to six months in prison for defying Torres' order
to identify his source.
But his medical condition has also become a factor. The 55-year-old had
a heart transplant in 1996, and three years ago had a pacemaker
installed. He maintains an exerscise regimen and takes daily drugs to
suppress his immune system.
Based on his health, his lawyers are asking the judge to give him no
more than 30 days' home confinement.
The clash of fair-trial and free-press interests in the country's
smallest state has drawn national attention. Some are concerned about
what today's proceedings could mean for First Amendment rights, which
protect free speech and a free press. Others say the release of the tape
occurred amid diminishing respect for court orders.
-- With reports from projo.com Staff Writer Jack Perry.
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