05/24/2002

By DAVID McPHERSON
projo.com staff writer

PROVIDENCE / Updated 1:10 p.m. -- The jury in the Operation Plunder Dome trial today viewed a second video tape showing defendant Frank E. Corrente accepting a $1,000 cash payment from undercover businessman Antonio Freitas.

Freitas, who was working for the FBI as part of its probe into corruption at City Hall, is seen placing the alleged bribe on Corrente's desk.

"There's more coming," Freitas said as he walked out of Corrente's office on Dec. 3, 1998.

"You know, it's not necessary," responded Corrente, then the city's director of administration and top aide to Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.

Journal photo / Mary Murphy SUBJECT OF TAPES: Defendant Frank E. Corrente arrives at the federal courthouse, where the Operation Plunder Dome trial later focused on tapes showing him and undercover businessman Antonio R. Freitas.

At the time, Freitas was trying to secure a lease with Marriott Corp., which had a school lunch contract with the city School Department. In the tape, Corrente makes a telephone call to School Department official Mark Dunham to discourage Marriott from setting up in another building, rather than Freitas's.

Freitas also testified today he paid another $1,000 bribe he paid to Corrente, on Jan. 7, 1999. The jury had previously seen a video of that transaction, in Corrente's office at City Hall, during testimony by Dunham.

Late this morning, Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Rose told Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres that the prosecution cannot move further in its questioning of Freitas until the judge rules on whether tapes featuring former city tax official Joseph Pannone and Freitas can be played for the jury.

As a result, Rose recommending adjourning court earlier than usual today. The judge agreed, adjourning the session after the government finished playing its tapes featuring Corrente and Freitas.

The judge then heard a brief argument from the prosecution on the playing of the Pannone tapes, but a ruling is not likely until Tuesday morning. Torres had previously given the lawyers from both sides until this afternoon to outline in writing their arguments on the Pannone tapes.

Pannone has already pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from the Plunder Dome probe. He is scheduled to be sentenced on a second set of charges early this afternoon.

In all today, the prosecution played for the jury 11 surveillance audio or video tapes that captured meetings or telephone calls between Corrente and Freitas in 1998 or early 1999. In the tapes, Freitas seeks Corrente's help in leasing a building he owns and getting paid by the city for work by his air-conditioning company, JKL Engineering.

In a Sept. 28, 1998, meeting, Corrente is heard making anti-Semitic remarks about a School Department official and a developer.

"The (expletive) Jews," Corrente said.

The jury also heard testimony from Freitas about Cianci, but the judge told jurors to disregard a statement regarding the mayor.

Asked by Rose what advice Pannone gave him to secure a city lease, Freitas said, "That it's Mr. Corrente you go through to get to the mayor."

The statement drew an objection from Cianci's lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, and Torres told the jury to disregard the remark.

Yesterday, the prosecution played six of the 45 tapes it hopes to show jurors in its bid to prove allegations that Cianci led a criminal enterprise out of City Hall with Corrente acting as the "bag man."

Freitas testified yesterday that he paid $1,000 in bribes to Pannone in a bid a to secure payment for air-conditioning work Freitas had done for the city. The money was intended for Corrente, Freitas testified.

The tapes played yesterday chronicled a half-dozen meetings Freitas had with Corrente in 1998 as Freitas complained about losing a School Department lease to another Cianci codefendant, Edward E. Voccola, and sought help getting paid for work he did for the city.

Cianci, Corrente, Voccola and businessman Richard Autiello are now on trial on 29 corruption-related counts, including the extortion of bribes for favors ranging from city leases to jobs.