TRAFICANT ON TRIAL Official's video testimony played

A former ODOT deputy director said Congressman Traficant asked him to ease up on the Buccis.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- An Ohio Department of Transportation inspector whom U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. wanted fired testified today via videotape.
Thomas L. Williams was asked about Anthony R. and Robert Bucci, who once operated Asphalt Specialist Inc. and Prime Contractors in Girard.
Williams described the Buccis' work on state projects as being of poor quality. He said many times the Buccis went over his head to complain to the ODOT deputy director when he held them to the specifications of the project. David Dreger was deputy director in the early to mid-1990s.
Call from Traficant: Williams testified that he received a telephone call from Traficant and Robert Bucci. The topic was Williams' decision to not allow paving on the Memorial Day weekend in the area of Mosquito Lake State Park.
Williams said it was inconvenient because 3,000 people wanted to use the park that weekend.
Williams said he recognized Traficant's voice on the phone because he had heard him on the radio hundreds of times. Traficant said Williams had no right to do this, meaning not allowing paving on the holiday weekend, and told Williams he was "picking on his friends."
The retired ODOT inspector said Traficant was going to have a meeting and "have my job."
Traficant said he would meet with the ODOT director or the governor. Williams described Traficant's voice as threatening.
Williams testified that he had many arguments with the Buccis over their state paving projects.
Traficant asked if in Williams' opinion the Bucci brothers were crooks. Williams said yes. Traficant wondered if the Buccis ever tried to bribe Williams. The former inspector replied, "To some point, yes. But not really serious."
Ex-deputy director: Dreger testified after the Williams videotape. He recalled a breakfast meeting at Perkins restaurant in Canfield on Sept. 2, 1992, with several people including Traficant.
Dreger said those at the meeting wanted him to "get to Tom, to ease up" on the Buccis.
Traficant said, according to Dreger, that if ODOT caused the Buccis to lose their business, "there would be trouble" for them.
Dreger said that it felt like a threat or intimidation and that it was very clear Traficant was there in defense of the Buccis.
Loan to contractor: During testimony Tuesday, Perry J. Chickonoski testified that until a letter from Traficant was handed to him by Bank One's president, the idea of lending almost $1 million to a minority contractor with very poor credit was out of the question.
Not only did Bank One in Youngstown lend Greg Tyson $415,000 in March 1994 to buy a cement batch plant for his Capitol Ready Mix, it lent him "in excess" of $500,000 in May 1994 for Big G Construction, Chickonoski said in U.S. District Court.
By the end of 1994, Tyson defaulted on the loans, said Chickonoski, a vice president at Bank One. At the time of the loans, Chickonoski was a loan officer and had determined that Tyson had very poor credit, marginal collateral and insufficient cash flow.
The loan was initially rejected, and Chickonoski told Tyson that by phone.
"Did you realize he was a minority contractor?" asked Matthew B. Kall, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Chickonoski said it had been the only thing in Tyson's favor, because being a minority made him eligible for set-aside contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome Tyson's poor credit, he said.
Chickonoski then recalled how the decision was made to lend Tyson the cash he needed to buy the cement manufacturing plant from Anthony Bucci.
Letter from Traficant: In January 1994, Michael Brenan, president of Bank One, handed Chickonoski the letter from Traficant, of Poland, D-17th. In the letter, the congressman said Tyson had been "sloughed off" by "Perry, whose last name we cannot spell."
Chickonoski said Brenan told him, "We need to find a way to get this [loan] done."
Without Traficant's input, the bank wouldn't have made the first or the second loan to Tyson, Chickonoski testified. "We ended up losing several hundred thousand. ... We took quite a hit."
Traficant put Chickonoski at ease when the cross-examination began.
"No offense," the congressman said of the letter he sent to Bank One and his inability to spell Chickonoski.
Did the city of Youngstown guarantee Tyson's loan? Traficant wondered. Chickonoski couldn't recall and, after checking loan documents in front of him, said he saw no reference to the city.
"You said 'this loan sucks,'" Traficant said of Chickonoski's initial decision to recommend against the loan.
"Maybe not in those words," Chickonoski answered. "We looked at the merits and said this isn't credit-worthy."
Of the reversal, Traficant said: "My power did that?"
"Your influence, yeah, absolutely," Chickonoski said. "The transaction was declined, congressman."
Traficant, using a transcript of Chickonoski's grand jury testimony, asked the bank official if he recalled what he told Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor. The response had dealt with Traficant's reputation.
Chickonoski recalled saying that the congressman has "a reputation for helping the little guy."
The 60-year-old congressman's trial began Feb. 5 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells. He faces charges of racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
The government said the case includes contractors, such as Tyson and Bucci, who did work at the congressman's Greenford horse farm in return for favors.
Walter T. Diehl of Struthers, Tyson's former personal and business bookkeeper at Capitol Ready Mix, testified Monday that materials used at Traficant's farm were billed to "whatever job we were doing at the time," never to the congressman.
Tyson's role: Last week, Morford spent about four hours delving into Bucci's past and asked about Tyson's role in a scam. Tyson owned 51 percent of Capitol Ready Mix; Bucci and Joseph Sattarelle, who worked for Tyson, each had 24 1/2 percent.
"He was black -- he was gonna be our minority," Bucci answered. The scam, Bucci said, was to set Tyson up as a "paper contractor" and, being black, he would pre-qualify for minority contracts with ODOT.
Tyson, though, had trouble getting a $600,000 to $800,000 bank loan to buy Bucci's concrete batch plant. "He was really paying for nothing -- I had absolute control," Bucci said.
Traficant stepped in to get Bank One to lend Tyson the money, Bucci said. Tyson, he said, "couldn't get a loan to buy a newspaper."
After Tyson defaulted on the loan, the bank wanted to look at the batch plant and dismantle it and sell it piecemeal.
Bucci said he would charge the bank $1,000 a day rent because the plant was inside his property. "They agreed to give me their interest in the batch plant," he said.
Bucci described Tyson's Big G Construction as a dilapidated plant Tyson bought and never operated.
Mechanic's testimony: Sattarelle, a truck mechanic from Liberty, testified Tuesday that Bucci's cement batch plant was "junk" when Tyson bought it. It took about four months to get it in shape.
He questioned how Tyson could succeed by buying a batch plant inside a building that Bucci owned.
Sattarelle said the business did well for about six months, then he resigned because "24 1/2 percent of nothing is nothing." He said Bucci didn't pay for the concrete he used for his own construction company and charged Tyson $3,000 rent each month.
Bucci had promised Tyson a lot of work, Sattarelle said.
"I wouldn't believe Tony Bucci if he said his name was Tony Bucci on a Bible," Sattarelle said from the witness stand.
He noted that Tyson could have been a good contractor, adding that Bank One didn't lend Tyson enough money to operate.
Minority or white, to lend $100,000, banks in the Youngstown area want you to put up $1 million in collateral, then you might get it, Sattarelle said.
Kall asked if Sattarelle knew what Tyson bought with some of the money lent by Bank One.
"He leased a brand new Cadillac," Sattarelle answered.
Was he a good businessman? the federal prosecutor asked.
"No -- he went and leased a brand new car -- he did things funny, not the way they should be done," Sattarelle said.
"Did I go to bat for you and Greg?" Traficant asked.
"Yes, that's what you said," Sattarelle answered.
Pressure on U.S. agency: The last witness Tuesday, Wilbert Baccus of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C., recalled a phone conversation with Traficant about Anthony Bucci and his brother Robert Bucci.
Baccus, an attorney, said that during the call Traficant talked loudly and used profanity and mentioned that a congressional investigation of Baccus' agency would take place if the Buccis were debarred (disqualified) from contracts. At the time, 1993, the Buccis had been convicted of crimes related to their paving work.
Although Baccus didn't specifically say Traficant was the reason, Anthony Bucci's original three-year debarment was reduced to 18 months. Robert Bucci, who has since fled the country, received six months.
meade@vindy.com