Saturday, March 9, 2002
The FBI doesn't think it's worthwhile to record someone who may be suspicious and offer a staged monologue, an agent said.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. is downplaying the government's case against him, saying that the prosecution has "no principal evidence" and that he understands why the witnesses have testified.
"You look at the plea agreements and you look at the maximum they could have been charged with," Traficant said Friday as he left federal court. "Look at the pressure that these witnesses were under. I don't blame one of these witnesses, and I consider them all to be my friends."
Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, said he understands why A. David Sugar Sr., for example, will testify. "I understand why he will testify the way he will testify, and my defense will bring that out."
Time ran out for Sugar to testify Friday, which means the contractor will travel to Cleveland again Monday. He has admitted that his Honey Creek Contracting in Petersburg did work at the congressman's horse farm in Greenford and created after-the-fact invoices to cover up the fact Traficant got the work for free.
Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor, has said the work was valued at $10,000.
The work included trenches and the use of hay equipment at the farm and a concrete floor in a barn at Traficant's Poland home,
Sugar's former secretary, Sue Beegle, testified that Traficant sent or brought in a check for $1,142 dated Dec. 23, 1999, partial payment for delivery of stone and gravel.
The congressman's office and phone records had been subpoenaed by Morford on Dec. 8, 1999. The investigation continued until May 4, 2001, when a grand jury indicted Traficant on 10 counts.
On March 17, 2000, after a tip that machinery was being hauled away from Traficant's farm, the FBI set up surveillance and followed the flatbed to western Pennsylvania. The equipment, described by FBI Special Agent Deane Hassman as hay baling equipment, was delivered to Dean Foods property, owned by Kurilla Construction.
The equipment, described by Traficant as hay mowers, was towed by Gobel's and remains in storage. Hassman said it was taken after being declared abandoned property.
Computer evidence: Hassman first visited Sugar's company April 26, 2000. At the time, Traficant's file had three documents in it, including the partial payment of $1,142.
When Hassman returned May 18, 2000, he gave advance notice that he would arrive about 5:30 p.m. The Traficant file then contained a dozen documents.
On Hassman's third visit, May 23, 2000, a check of Beegle's office computer showed that some invoices had been created nearly a year after the date they represented. They had also been modified about 20 minutes before Hassman's May 18 visit, the computer showed.
Beegle said Sugar had directed her to create and back-date invoices showing billing and create a file for the FBI.
Beegle said she initially lied to the FBI, at Sugar's direction, confirming that her handwritten mailing dates on the invoices were accurate. Later, Beegle said she admitted to the FBI what she had done.
"I didn't want to lie," said Beegle, who now lives in Lexington, Ky.
Beegle, again at the direction of Sugar, also created invoices in March 2000 for hauling hay machines.
She will be back on the witness stand Monday for cross-examination by Traficant. The driver who hauled the equipment to Pennsylvania is also expected to testify.
Cell phone calls: Hassman, using Sugar's cell phone records, showed several calls made from Sugar's phone to Traficant's home in Poland, his farm in Greenford and his offices in Youngstown and Washington, D.C. The calls were made in late 1999 and early 2000.
Traficant is accused of accepting the work from Sugar and, in return, intervening on the contractor's behalf to move his son from a Licking County jail to a Youngstown halfway house. The congressman is also accused of contacting the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corporation for Sugar, who wanted to win a contract to demolish the Higbee building downtown.
In Hassman's review of phone calls made from Sugar's cell phone, three calls were made the day the CIC had a meeting about the contract. Two calls went to Traficant and one to MS Consultants, which recommended who got the bid. Sugar lost to a lower bidder.
Last October, Sugar pleaded guilty to perjury before a grand jury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering in the Traficant case. He faces 18 to 24 months in prison, but his cooperation -- testifying -- could reduce the sentence to 10 to 16 months.
Number of agents involved: At Traficant's prompting, Hassman listed the number of agents who may have taken part in the investigation. Hassman explained that only two agents served as principal investigators, and the others pitched in for large interview sessions, for example, putting in as little as two hours.
The number of agents who made minor contributions reached 17, including a few from Cleveland.
Traficant, though, seized on the number of FBI agents after court:
"Well, we went up from five to seven to 13 to 20 to 28, uh, but this was no vendetta now, there's no obsession," Traficant told reporters. "No tapes, no ploy, and the FBI didn't have the ability to come up with a scheme to memorialize my voice or catch me in the commission of a crime and they have no principal evidence."
The congressman's defense remains unchanged -- he believes that the FBI has pursued him since 1983, when he won acquittal on bribery charges by representing himself. He also believes the witnesses testifying now were pressured, although none has said that when asked.
Traficant asked Hassman if the FBI had threatened Sugar's wife. Hassman said no and that he never met Sugar's wife.
In questioning witnesses, Traficant always asks if they wore a body wire to record him. So far, none did.
Explanation: Hassman explained Friday that when the FBI comes on the scene, as with Sugar, it's often after the crimes have been committed, and secretly recorded conversations would only be the "remember when" type. Also, if the subject of the recording is suspicious, the conversation would be staged or rehearsed and self-serving, he said on the witness stand.
Traficant and the prosecution team traveled to Youngstown on Friday afternoon to videotape the testimony of David Manevich, a carpenter recovering from heart surgery. He has been described as an essential witness who built a deck and two-story addition at Traficant's farm in the early 1990s.
At the time, Manevich worked for Bernard J. Bucheit, who once operated Bucheit International in Boardman. Bucheit, 69, of West Palm Beach, Fla., is under indictment, charged with conspiracy to violate the federal bribery statute, giving an unlawful gratuity to Traficant and perjury.
meade@vindy.com