oster

PROVIDENCE — The bribery and conspiracy trial of ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster is on track to go to the jury next week, possibly Wednesday, the judge said yesterday.

Yesterday, the day before the sixth anniversary of Oster’s arrest, was spent with the state introducing video and audio recordings of meetings between Oster and former Planning Board member Robert R. Picerno that the state says show specifics on the bribery scheme that it claims Oster and Picerno were running and more general conversations that demonstrate the two were personally and politically close.

The highlight of the day was an almost hour-long tape of a meeting Picerno and Oster had on Feb. 16, 2002, in which Picerno passed an envelope with $10,000 in $100 bills to Oster while visiting Oster’s law office. Oster was arrested a few hours later.

Picerno, who had been arrested two days before on his own bribery and conspiracy charges, was wearing a recording device. Part of the meeting took place outside Oster’s law office, and that was videotaped by state police parked nearby.

Oster is facing two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy in the case. The state charges he and Picerno tried to extort bribes from would-be buyers of a piece of town-controlled land, the H&H Screw Co. site on Route 116. The state says Picerno collected the payoffs while Oster was to get the town to sell the land for $105,000.

Taped conversations have been a staple of the three-week trial. The jury has heard tapes of meetings and phone calls Picerno had with contractors Robert Gelfuso and David Wayne Daniel, two of the targets of the alleged bribery scheme. But when those tapes were played, either Daniel or Gelfuso was on the stand to be questioned about the exchanges.

The Feb. 16, 2002, tape and four Oster-Picerno phone calls were introduced on their own. Picerno was not available to testify, for reasons neither the state nor the defense would comment on.

That handicapped both sides. There were points in the exchanges that both parties could have used to make their cases. But without Picerno to testify what he was talking about, and Oster not required to testify against himself, neither side could draw the jury’s attention to their points.

For instance, the meeting started in Oster’s office, but moved outside after he told Picerno about how lawyers’ offices can be bugged by law enforcement. While they are outside, Oster says Gelfuso has been talking to state police, accusing Picerno of extorting money from Gelfuso’s partner Daniel in exchange for getting town inspectors to ease up on their inspections of a job site the contractors had in town.

Daniel testified that in July 2001, Picerno had suggested he buy $5,000 worth of Oster fundraiser tickets, but then suggested he pay cash. Daniel paid, but Gelfuso demanded the bribe be refunded.

In the Feb. 16, 2002, conversation, Picerno vehemently denies that, saying, “That’s what I said, ‘Do you want to buy some tickets?’ He said, ‘How many do I have to buy?’ I said …”

Oster cuts in, “You made sure he understood that buying tickets was not helping him out?” but as he says “not,” Oster is nodding up and down, like an emphatic yes.

But there were points that would have helped the defense. The first time Picerno brings up H&H Screw and tells Oster that Daniel was going to buy it, Oster appears not to know about it. At that date, Picerno had been haggling with Daniel and Gelfuso for more than a month for a $25,000 cash bribe. Oster sounds as if it’s the first he’s heard of Daniel’s interest. He also seems to be warning Picerno to stay out of it.

“I mean, everybody’s asking if you’re involved in that,” Oster says.

“I’m not,” Picerno says.

Later, Oster warns him again, “I have heard from, I have had an inquiry from, the state police as to your involvement in that and I told them the truth, which was that you are not involved in it.”

Picerno replies, “I’m not involved.”

And again later, Oster presses, “You’re not involved in it?”

“Nope. Not involved,” Picerno says. “I’m not involved but, you know, Wayne, in other words…”

“A friend of yours,” Oster says.

jhill@projo.com