The Channel 10 reporter says the lawyer who gave him the FBI surveillance tape was emphatic that his identity not be disclosed.

09:44 AM EST on Tuesday, December 7, 2004

BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

Journal photo / Mary Murphy

Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani faces a possible six-month prison sentence on Thursday.

PROVIDENCE -- In a sworn affidavit filed with the federal judge who will sentence him on Thursday, television reporter Jim Taricani yesterday disputed the version of events given by lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., who gave him a secret FBI videotape in the Operation Plunder Dome case, in violation of a court order banning its dissemination.

Taricani, in an eight-page affidavit filed with Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres, calls "false" and "absurd" Bevilacqua's assertions that he never sought confidentiality as his source and that he had encouraged Taricani to reveal his identity to a special prosecutor more than two years ago.

Taricani, who had a heart transplant in 1996 and a pacemaker installed in 2001, said he never would have risked being sent to prison, which could endanger his life. He also said that he never would have put himself, his family or his employer through the stress of contempt proceedings if Bevilacqua had not told him, over and over again, that he expected Taricani to keep his identity secret.

At his lawyers' urging, Taricani said, he tried on several occasions to see if Bevilacqua would agree to come forward, so that he could avoid a conviction for criminal contempt, but Bevilacqua would not release him from the pledge of confidentiality.

Bevilacqua finally revealed his identity to special prosecutor Marc DeSisto on Nov. 24, six days after Torres convicted Taricani of criminal contempt. The reporter now faces up to six months in federal prison -- something his doctors assert in court papers could endanger his life, even if he is placed in a federal medical facility with other sick inmates.

In his affidavit, Taricani, an investigative reporter for Channel 10, says that prior to Nov. 24, Bevilacqua was emphatic about the reporter not revealing his identity, and rebuffed Taricani's repeated overtures to get him to change his mind.

Taricani says that Bevilacqua expressed fear, if he came forward, of being prosecuted for perjury since Bevilacqua had lied under oath to DeSisto at a deposition in February 2002 about being Taricani's source for the leaked tape. The tape, which Channel 10 aired on Feb. 1, 2001, showed Frank E. Corrente, a top aide to former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., taking a $1,000 cash bribe from informant Antonio Freitas, who was posing as a corrupt businessman.

Taricani said that since he had given his word to Bevilacqua, he told him, "Don't worry. I'm not going to give you up."

IN THE Plunder Dome case, Bevilacqua represented Joseph A. Pannone, the former chairman of the Providence Board of Tax Assessment Review, who was indicted in 1999 on charges of money laundering to facilitate bribes for property-tax reductions. Pannone pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison. He would later be indicted again on corruption charges and again would plead guilty.

On Nov. 11, 1999, and again on Aug. 7, 2000, Bevilacqua received copies of FBI videotapes that were made as part of the Justice Department's probe of corruption in city government.

On Aug. 8, 2000, Bevilacqua agreed to abide by an order issued by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Ronald R. Lagueux that prohibited all members of the prosecution and defense teams from disclosing any of the FBI audio or video recordings. The tapes were turned over to the defendants and their lawyers as part of the pretrial process. Lagueux's order was intended to ensure fair trials for the defendants.

Taricani's affidavit disputes many of the things that Bevilacqua told DeSisto about giving Taricani the tape. It also explains why Taricani held onto the tape for at least two months before airing it and why the reporter pushed to broadcast it, despite the court order barring its release.

Taricani makes it clear in his affidavit that he would have never disclosed his source if Bevilacqua had not come forward himself. He describes several overtures he made to get Bevilacqua to come forward.

At one point recently, Taricani says, one of his lawyers went so far as to ask another lawyer to approach DeSisto to see if the reporter's source could cut a deal.

In his affidavit, Taricani says he and Bevilacqua have had a professional relationship over many years. "I met him covering criminal trials in which he represented defendants. . . . Over the years, he has given me information and leads for news stories," he says.

Taricani said that in November 2000 -- eight months after tax official Rosemary Glancy was convicted at trial for extortion and other offenses, and several weeks after Pannone had reported to prison after pleading guilty to the first set of charges against him -- he went to Bevilacqua's Providence law office and asked if the lawyer had the FBI videotapes that incriminated Pannone.

Taricani says that Bevilacqua told him "he would try to locate the tapes." Several weeks later, he said, Bevilacqua called to say he had found a box of tapes. The reporter says he went to the lawyer's office and that Bevilacqua gave the tapes to him. The reporter said he took tapes back to Channel 10 and watched them. He said he copied just one -- the one showing Corrente taking the bribe money from Freitas -- and then returned all of the tapes to Bevilacqua.

Upon returning the tapes, Taricani says, "I told Mr. Bevilacqua that I would like to keep the copy of the Corrente tape. We discussed whether the tape was subject to the protective order."

"Mr. Bevilacqua stated that he did not think that he was bound by the order because he was out of the case -- since Mr. Pannone had pleaded guilty. Mr. Bevilacqua also stated, " 'You can never, never, never tell anyone where you got this tape because I will deny it forever,' " Taricani says in the affidavit.

Taricani says he told Bevilacqua: "Don't worry. My word is good. . . . Because I believed the tape was newsworthy, I assured him that I would keep his identity confidential."

TARICANI SAYS that he and his news managers originally decided not to air the tape prior to Corrente's trial because the trial was scheduled for February 2001, and "I did not wish to adversely affect the jury that would be selected for the trial."

The plan, he said, was to air the tape during the trial after it was introduced as evidence. But in January 2001 -- two months after receiving the tape from Bevilacqua -- Taricani says he got word that the Corrente trial was going to be postponed because there was going to be a superseding indictment issued in the spring of 2001 that would include Corrente and possibly Cianci, which would delay the trial for more than a year.

"As a result, I, along with the news managers, decided to broadcast the tape in February 2001," -- the first night of a ratings period. Taricani says that "the major reason we decided to broadcast the tape was because we understood that the tape of Mr. Corrente and other tapes used in the Plunder Dome trials" would never be released to the public, "even after the trials were concluded."

He notes that the tapes were not released until the defense lawyers filed them as part of the defendants' appeals of their convictions -- long after the Plunder Dome trial concluded.

In his affidavit, Taricani says that Bevilacqua never asked him to refrain from broadcasting the tape. He also says that he never knew that Bevilacqua had been questioned under oath by DeSisto and had denied being his source until after Bevilacqua had given the deposition. Taricani says that he refused to identify Bevilacqua, even after he was shown a waiver of confidentiality Bevilacqua had given to DeSisto, because he believed that Bevilacqua could have been pressured to sign it.

After Torres instituted civil contempt proceedings to try to force him to reveal who gave him the tape, Taricani says his lawyers urged him to contact his source to see if he would identify himself. Bevilacqua told him that he had to sign the waiver of confidentiality, said Taricani, because "otherwise, it would have looked like he was guilty." He refused to come forward.

Taricani says he told Bevilacqua he might get fined and have to go to jail if he didn't reveal his source. He said Bevilacqua replied: " 'You're not turning into the enemy, are you?' "

During another conversation, he says, Bevilacqua suggested that Taricani get out of his legal jam by testifying "that I just took the tape from a desk in his office. I said I would not do so because that would be stealing the tape and that was not something I would do."

In September 2004, Taricani says, Bevilacqua told him "that he was concerned about having committed perjury in his deposition and indicated that that was his problem." But he still refused to come forward, Taricani says.

Last month, before he was convicted, Taricani says, he spoke with Bevilacqua several more times. On one occasion, he says, Bevilacqua "asked me if everything was all right. I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm not going to give you up.' "

But as his Nov. 18 trial date neared, Taricani says, he once again asked Bevilacqua if he would come forward. He says Bevilacqua told him "he would need a lawyer to enter into discussions with the special prosecutor about coming forward but did not have a lawyer."

Taricani says that Bevilacqua indicated "that he might be willing to come forward if, among other things, no perjury charge would be brought."

As a result, Taricani says, his lawyer contacted a Providence lawyer, Michael DeFanti, who met with DeSisto to find out what charges the source might face if he came forward.

"Mr. DeFanti was not told the identity of my source," Taricani says. The reporter says DeFanti said that DeSisto "would consider permitting Mr. Bevilacqua to recant to avoid a perjury charge and consider recommending no jail time for Mr. Bevilacqua." But Taricani said DeFanti was also told that DeSisto "could make no guarantee that the Court would accept the terms of any plea bargain."

After hearing this, Taricani says, Bevilacqua persisted in his decision not to come forward. A few days before his trial, Taricani says he went on a long car ride with Bevilacqua. "You're going to jail," Taricani says Bevilacqua told him. "I know," Taricani replied. Bevilacqua held out his hand, Taricani said, and told him, "I've always had respect for you. I have even more respect for you now."

The morning of his trial, Taricani ran into an FBI agent in a coffee shop in Providence. After the agent told him he planned to sign a waiver of confidentiality so that others, hopefully, would also do so and help identify the source of the leaked tape, Taricani replied that his source had already signed a waiver and that DeSisto had shown it to him.

As it turned out, that was the only waiver DeSisto had ever shown to Taricani. Just before his trial began, Taricani called Bevilacqua and once again asked him to come forward but Bevilacqua said no. He only revealed his identity after DeSisto began making plans to subpoena Bevilacqua for a second deposition -- based on the information the FBI agent had provided about his coffee shop encounter with Taricani.

Taricani says Bevilacqua told him on Nov. 24 that he planned to tell DeSisto he was the source. "I'm just going to get it over with and I also don't want to see you go to jail," Taricani says Bevilacqua told him. He says Bevilacqua asked him not to tell anyone until the following Monday.

By then, Bevilacqua had left town for Florida.