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PROVIDENCE -- Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani was sentenced today to
six months' home confinement for refusing to tell a special prosecutor
who gave him a secret FBI videotape from the Operation Plunder Dome
investigation into corruption at Providence City Hall.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres -- the same judge who
oversaw the Plunder Dome trial -- imposed the sentence after Taricani
repeated on the witness stand today that he had pledged to keep his
source confidential.
Torres, who imposed the sentence at about 4:30 p.m, said he weighed the
news reporter's good citizenship and health concerns in deciding the
sentence.
The judge ordered the sentence to begin immediately. He also set several
restrictions on Taricani while at his North Kingstown home, saying that
he would imprison him if he violated any of the conditions. Among them
was a ban on interviews, so no comments from the reporter were available
after the hearing. Other restrictions barred Taricani from doing any
reporting, using the Internet and limited visitors.
Torres also said Taricani could petition for "early termination" of the
sentence after four months. The judge did not order restitution for
court costs.
Torres previously told Taricani, 55, who had a heart transplant in 1996,
that he would not sentence him to more than six months in prison. After
the hearing, Taricani lawyer Martin Murphy said he did not know if his
client would appeal.
After a sentencing hearing that ran for five hours, in a room packed
with local and national reporters , Taricani late this afternoon asked
Torres for leniency.
"I want you to know I do not consider myself above the law," Taricani
said, adding that he'd spent much of his 30-year journalism career
exposing people who had shown no respect for the law.
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.
He also cited his health concerns. Taricani, whose immune system is weak
, is susceptible to illness because of medication he takes to keep his
body from rejecting his heart transplant.
Taricani lawyer Murphy and special prosecutor Marc DeSisto also
recommended home confinement. Murphy asked for 30 days while DeSisto
requested six months. aricani had faced up to six months in federal
prison.
Some testimony recaps court filings
Over the course of the hearing today, the judge heard testimony from
Taricani and the source who gave him the tape.
Taricani's testimony was at odds with that of the source -- Providence
lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., who testified that he had placed no
restriction of confidentiality on the broadcast journalist.
Taricani had been found guilty of criminal contempt of court on Nov. 18
for refusing to tell DeSisto who gave him the tape in violation of a
court order.
Channel 10, the local NBC affiliate, broadcast the videotape on Feb. 1,
2001, two months before former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. was indicted
on corruption charges. It showed former top Cianci aide and eventual
co-defendant Frank Corrente accepting a bribe from an FBI informant
posing as a corrupt businessman.
Torres appointed DeSisto as a special prosecutor in May 2001 to uncover
the leak. DeSisto questioned about 14 possible sources before turning to
Taricani, who refused to talk, saying the source requested
confidentiality.
In a surprising development, DeSisto was able to solve his case just
days after Taricani was convicted of criminal contempt. The special
prosecutor identified the source in court papers filed Dec. 1 as
Bevilacqua, who had defended one of the early Plunder Dome defendants
and had access to the tape.
But in those papers, Bevilacqua told a different story, saying he never
requested confidentiality and actually had signed a waiver of
confidentiality and encouraged Taricani to reveal his name.
Following those revelations, DeSisto was given permission by Torres to
call Bevilacqua, who had been in Florida, into court today to question
him. He arrived at the courthouse this morning, under subpoena, shortly
after Taricani.
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.
He said, he said
Under questioning by DeSisto, 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."
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 also acknowledged lying to 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 Murphy.
For the first time today, Taricani also acknowledged hinting to DeSisto
about who gave him the tape after Taricani heard that Bevilacqua was
talking about it himself at a summer party.
Taricani testified today that a Channel 10 viewer had reported that she
heard Bevilacqua saying at a party that he was the one who gave the
reporter the tape – at the same time Taricani was facing contempt
charges for refusing to disclose his source.
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 and gave him names of people who might
be able to lead him to Bevilacqua.
Lashing from the bench
After the two finished testifying, Torres declared, "There are no heroes
in this soap opera."
Some of the accounts "just didn't make sense," the judge said.
Torres said he believed that Bevilacqua did want to keep his name
secret, whether he had demanded a pledge of confidentiality from
Taricani or whether Taricani had offered it unsolicited, as Bevilacqua
testified. Otherwise, Torres said, Bevilacqua would have come forward
and acknowledged his role sooner.
He also said he believed both Taricani and Bevilacqua knew that
Bevilacqua had violated a court order in handing over the tape to
Taricani.
Those involved in the case were ordered not to disseminate the evidence
to ensure that potential jurors were not tainted and the defendants got
a fair trial. The grand jury investigation was also ongoing.
Bevilacqua testified that he didn't believe he was subject to the order
because his client, former city tax official Joseph Pannone, had already
pleaded guilty and he was no longer involved in the case. Taricani said
he discussed the issue with Bevilacqua and that he relied on Bevilacqua,
as a lawyer, to know whether Bevilacqua was bound by it.
"He was very casual about it. He didn't seem to be bothered by it at
all," Taricani said.
A national case
The clash of fair-trial and free-press interests in the country's
smallest state drew national attention. Some were 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.
Torres addressed the free press issue during the sentencing, saying the
case had created several myths, going through each in detail.
Torres said the "biggest and most misleading" myth was that the case
represented an "assault on the First Amendment." He said the amendment,
which guarantees free speech, does not give reporters the right to
violate the law or encourage others to do so.
The judge said it was "crystal clear" that Taricani did not have the
right under the First Amendment to violate a court order and conceal the
identity of a source who himself had violated a court order.
Torres said reporters are free to use confidential sources "but there
are exceptions to that, and this is one of those exceptions."
Torres said he would have his decision posted on the court's Web site
tomorrow to help the public better understand the issue.
More charges may result from the case -- against Bevilacqua, for leaking
the tape in violation of a court order. U.S. Attorney Robert Clark
Corrente said during a break in the testimony that he expects his
Providence-based office will be handling the prosecution.
-- With reports from Journal staff writer Tracy Breton
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