TRAFICANT ON TRIAL Contractor tells of bribes

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. continued his grilling of James R. Sabatine, a former paving contractor who says he bribed the congressman with $2,400.
Traficant asked Sabatine today if he had proof of paying the bribe.
Sabatine said, "All I know is the truth, and I'm willing to take a lie detector test. I performed the act."
Traficant wanted to know if he had evidence. Sabatine said that he had no physical evidence but that he knows what he did.
The congressman asked Sabatine what would happen if he took the witness stand and said he didn't pay the bribe.
"I wouldn't be up here if I didn't bribe Jim Traficant," Sabatine said.
During cross-examination Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Traficant asked Sabatine. "Did you bribe any public official not named here?"
"Not that I can recall," Sabatine answered.
Traficant was reading from an FBI interview report that listed officials with connections to paving contracts who were bribed by Sabatine, Traficant said.
The Canfield man once owned Hardrives Paving and Construction Inc. in Mineral Ridge, liquidating it in 2000.
Traficant, in an effort to discredit Sabatine's credibility, reviewed his past crimes. Sabatine awaits sentencing for a conviction that includes bribing the congressman with $2,400 in cash.
When Traficant read from the FBI report, some of the individuals were named by title only and no years were mentioned. The congressman did not always preface his question to Sabatine with "Did you bribe," but sometimes with "give" or "pay."
"The terms were 'bribes,'" Traficant told reporters after court. "There was only one time when I talked about campaign contributions and that was David Hines."
The 60-year-old congressman would get a chance today, with Sabatine back on the witness stand, to ask if he ever gave Hines, Trumbull County auditor, cash as a campaign contribution. Sabatine said it was a check, but the FBI report indicates cash, Traficant said.
"They know now they're up against an attorney," Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, told reporters as he walked down Superior Avenue, buoyed by his Wednesday afternoon cross-examination of Sabatine. "I may not have a degree, but they're up against an attorney."
People on list: On the FBI report that Traficant read was former Warren Mayor Dan Sferra, now a state representative, D-66th.
The list Traficant read to Sabatine included:
* Dick Smith ($4,000) and Jim Pluchinsky ($5,000), both of whom worked at the Mahoning County Engineer's Office.
* A Struthers road superintendent (no amount).
* Frank Lentine ($10,000 related to Trumbull County road projects).
* An Austintown road inspector ($10,000 over a period of years) and his replacement ($2,000).
* Mike (no last name) in Champion ("couple thousand").
* Sferra ($2,500).
* A Weathersfield road superintendent ($2,000).
* A mayor of New Castle ($2,500 or $5,000).
* A Columbiana road inspector (golf clubs).
Sabatine, who answered "yes" or "correct" to each name or title and amount, said he also gave Cleveland Indians tickets to road inspectors. He described Lentine as someone who has a vending business and was associated with "the underworld -- the mob or organized crime."
Last August, Sabatine reached a plea agreement with the government. He pleaded guilty to engaging in a pattern of racketeering between June 1993 and December 1999 and filing a false tax return for 1994, understating his income by $239,000.
He's required to testify for the government whenever asked. The agreement doesn't end with Traficant's racketeering trial.
Cautioning Sabatine to not say any names, Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor, asked if there are other ongoing investigations.
"Yes, there are," Sabatine answered. He acknowledged that he now faces a 27-to 33-month sentence and that his cooperation in Traficant's and other trials could reduce it to 10 to 16 months.
Convicted of bribes: Sabatine's conviction last August included bribing Traficant with $2,400, mail fraud and two more acts of bribery -- payments totaling $20,000 in 1994 to former Mahoning County Engineer William Fergus to ensure that Hardrives maintained a "favorable position" for future contracts. The government also linked the bribes to a 1993 contract Hardrives had to repave Meridian Road.
Fergus, charged in March 1998 with taking kickbacks, pleaded guilty and received an 18-month sentence.
Sabatine said "no" when asked if the government told him that he could get 20 years in prison and lose his property for conspiring with Fergus if he didn't testify against Traficant.
Traficant maintains that Sabatine is just one in a string of prosecution witnesses who got or will get greatly reduced sentences for saying they "bribed the congressman."
Account of bribery: Sabatine said he gave Traficant the $2,400 in cash -- 24 $100 bills -- rather than have his construction crews do $10,000 worth of work at the congressman's horse farm in Greenford in August 1998.
"I realized, with my experience in that field, that I wasn't going to get paid" for the work, Sabatine said. "When you did jobs for people in politics, you didn't get paid."
Sabatine said he handed the $2,400 to Traficant, who was kneeling or leaning in a horse stall, and told him: "Here's a little campaign contribution."
Was the $2,400 a campaign contribution? Morford asked.
"No -- a bribe," Sabatine answered.
Traficant wanted Sabatine to say what barn they were in and to describe the floor and the size of the stall and barn. Sabatine didn't know the name of the barn, said "various surface" for the floor, a 20-by-10-foot stall and "pretty good-size barn."
Later, after Sabatine said he was asked to testify truthfully, Traficant challenged the testimony, saying, "You don't even know the surface of the barn floor."
A discussion ensued of Traficant's not recalling what the inside of Sabatine's house looked like in the mid-1980s.
Traficant then asked if Sabatine had ever buried a horse at the farm.
"I personally didn't do it," Sabatine answered. Some of his workers did.
Turned down job: Angelo Delucia of Youngstown, a contractor and friend of Sabatine's, testified that he traveled to the farm and met Traficant, who showed him a barn that needed to be fixed.
Delucia, in a thick Italian accent, provided the comic relief Wednesday afternoon when he testified that the barn was ready to fall down and his advice was to burn it and call the firemen.
"I say, no way you can fix," Delucia testified, looking at Traficant. "I supposed to give you a price. I apologize I never give a price."
Traficant asked if Delucia agreed that not all of his farm was fancy.
Delucia said he was scared of the barn and didn't want to get too close.
"Did I give you a hug when we met?" Traficant asked.
"You can give me a hug anytime," Delucia said.
Everyone laughed.
"Did I expect a price?" Traficant asked.
Delucia said "Yes" and apologized again for not giving a price.
"Your apology is accepted, Angelo," the congressman said.
Sabatine said he gave the $2,400 to Traficant because the congressman helped in attempts to have Norfolk Southern use railroad tracks on Sabatine's Center Street property and deliver limestone for an asphalt plant. The plan never materialized.
Sabatine said he had just landed a $7 million to $8 million paving contract at the air base at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and didn't want his crews and trucks seen at Traficant's farm because word on the street was that he and the congressman were under investigation.
Sabatine said he sought Traficant's help with the railroad after a chance encounter at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty, where the congressman was speaking. Traficant, Sabatine said, punched him on the shoulder, grabbed his cheek and twisted it in "an Italian gesture."
Relationship with Buccis: Sabatine said he'd had nothing to do with Traficant until 1998 because until then, the congressman "was in bed" with his bitter enemies and fellow contractors, Anthony and Robert Bucci.
Sabatine said paving in Mahoning County was very corrupt, very competitive. "There was never enough work -- we would nosedive to get the job. ... There were things you had to do to survive."
He admitted setting up a minority contractor and "pass-through" contracts for which his crews actually did the work.
Anthony Bucci, meanwhile, testified last week to doing work at Traficant's horse farm in return for favors.
Sabatine called the Buccis tough guys who threatened people and got into screaming matches.
Call from O'Nesti: To illustrate Traficant's close relationship with the Buccis, Sabatine recalled that his former plant manager was threatened in 1996 by Charles P. O'Nesti, the congressman's district director. The plant manager, in explicit language, was told not to make any more phone calls or write any more letters about that year's Mahoning County paving project, which had been awarded to the Buccis, who didn't start it on time.
Sabatine said his company had the best bid. It turned out that Bucci didn't finish the project until 1997 and got approval for at least one $75,000 change order.
Sabatine's former plant manager, Edward Pannutti of Hillsville, testified that he "laid off" his attempts to get the 1996 contract for Hardrives after speaking to O'Nesti. He said he was a little scared of O'Nesti, who used a gruff, harsh voice.
Pannutti, convicted of mail fraud, also testified based on his plea agreement.
Lecture from judge: After the jury left, Traficant got another rules-of-evidence lecture from U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells.
Morford told the congressman that he continues to face peril without a lawyer.
"If I had a lawyer, I wouldn't have a chance here," Traficant shot back to Morford and the judge. "I'm not doing too damn bad."
Morford said in court that every time the judge rules, the congressman "doesn't understand or claims he doesn't understand."
meade@vindy.com