Bucci workers: Traficant didn't pay

The head of a Market Street halfway facility was expected to testify today.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- The racketeering trial of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. resumed today with the videotaped testimony of a sick witness waiting in the wings.
Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor, told jurors in his opening statement that they wouldn't have to rely solely on the word of crooked contractors such as Anthony R. Bucci, who awaits sentencing on mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the IRS in an unrelated case.
Bucci testified last week that, from the late 1980s until 1996, he provided free labor and materials to Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, in return for favors.
Bucci had initially billed Traficant for the work done at the congressman's 76-acre horse farm at 6908 W. South Range Road, Greenford, and, after repeated attempts to collect, threatened to sue for payment. He later agreed to forgive the debt and "own" the congressman.
Bucci testified with the promise of immunity from prosecution.
Bucci's now-defunct Girard companies, Asphalt Specialist Inc., then Prime Contractors, bid primarily on federal, state and county paving projects. He admitted using every illegal means he could think of to make money.
The jury, Morford said, will see the letters and faxes Traficant sent on behalf of Bucci and three other contractors who did free work at the congressman's farm.
A 'little witness': Morford asked the nine women and three men early in the trial to "watch for the little witnesses that corroborate the big witnesses." The congressman always got something back for himself each time he took official action for the contractors, the prosecutor said.
One of the little witnesses, in what Morford has called the "chorus of witnesses," is Thomas Williams, a retired Ohio Department of Transportation inspector. The court recessed for three days last week to allow Williams, who has cancer, to give a videotape deposition near his Cape Canaveral, Fla., home.
U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells will determine how much of the videotape the jury will view.
Bucci's testimony: When questioned about Williams last week, Bucci testified: "Personally, I hated him."
Bucci said he found Williams to be one the most knowledgeable engineers he'd ever come across. The paving contractor hated Williams because "he made me follow the specifications."
Williams, Bucci testified, was a no-nonsense, by-the-book inspector and anyone who "tried to pull the wool over his eyes" had a problem.
Traficant asked if any other contractors had complained about Williams. Bucci said no one in the construction business "loved" Williams, because of his no-nonsense approach.
The 60-year-old congressman obtained the ODOT inspector's personnel file last week in an attempt to show that other contractors had lodged complaints against him.
Bucci said he complained to Traficant many times about Williams and was present to overhear a phone call the congressman made on his behalf to the ODOT inspector. Bucci said Traficant screamed at Williams and threatened to have him fired.
Bucci recalled a paving contract he had at Mosquito Lake Park that created chaos when his crews disrupted the July Fourth holiday. He didn't pay the $500 to $700 it would have cost for traffic control, which created long lines and, as a result, some park-goers never got in.
Bucci said Williams "went crazy" and shut the project down. The former contractor said he called Traficant and said, "You gotta call this guy and get him off my back."
Traficant called Williams and again threatened to have the inspector fired and begin a federal investigation, Bucci testified.
In questioning Bucci, Traficant tried to link the collapse of his barn wall to the jackhammers Bucci's workers used and asked the contractor to recall the threat of a lawsuit. Bucci said that he had no knowledge of the barn collapse and that he never had a conversation with Traficant during which the congressman threatened to sue him.
Billak to testify: Set to testify today was Richard J. Billak, chief executive officer at Community Corrections Association Inc. CCA is a halfway facility on Market Street in Youngstown that accepts inmates, some federal, serving out the remaining months of their sentence.
One of those inmates was Bucci, who had been at a federal prison in North Carolina in the early 1990s. Bucci testified that Traficant was able to get him transferred to CCA after only 70 days in prison, which was unusual because the Bureau of Prisons typically waits six months before agreeing to such a move.
Traficant wrote to the federal prison and Billak on Bucci's behalf.
Bucci said he was out on leave while at CCA and didn't call in, which put his leave privileges in jeopardy. Traficant sent a fax to Billak, and no punishment followed, Bucci said.
Contractor's son: Another inmate sent to CCA with Traficant's help was A. David Sugar Jr.
Sugar's father, A. David Sugar Sr., has admitted that he committed perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering in the Traficant case. His sentencing is pending.
The elder Sugar, of New Middletown, admitted providing false testimony when questioned at the grand jury about whether his company, Honey Creek Contracting in Petersburg, billed and received payment from Traficant for work done at the congressman's farm.
Sugar also directed his secretary to create fake invoices and mailing dates and give those records to an FBI agent in response to a grand jury subpoena.
Sugar then told his secretary to misrepresent facts about the fake invoices if asked by the FBI.
Court records from Newark, Ohio reveal why Sugar Jr. went to CCA.
On May 17, 1999, a Licking County Common Pleas Court judge suspended the younger Sugar's driver's license for three years and sentenced him to a year in jail on a felony DUI conviction. The DUI was his fourth in six years.
Traficant had one of his staffers arrange for a lawyer to represent Sugar Jr. and wrote letters to the judge and Billak at CCA, Morford said.
The judge ordered that, after 60 days in the Licking County jail, Sugar Jr. be released to a Mahoning County community-based correctional facility for six months.
Traficant wrote to Billak on July 15, 1999, and referred to a conversation about Sugar Jr. that Billak had that day with Anthony Traficanti, the congressman's regional director in Youngstown who is also on the prosecution witness list.
Traficant thanked Billak for assisting Sugar Jr. to continue his daily duties with his father's construction company. Allowing the younger man to work as a condition of probation would be therapeutic for him and advantageous for the overall continued success and operation of their company, the congressman wrote.
In return, Sugar Sr. did $10,000 worth of work at the farm, Morford said.
meade@vindy.com