CLEVELAND Traficant: Drop case; Judge: No

The judge refused to quash a subpoena issued to the congressman's co-defendant.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- Judge Lesley Brooks Wells rejected U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.'s request today to dismiss all the charges in his racketeering case.
The congressman told the judge that the government offered no proof of his guilt.
Traficant noted that all the government had is paperwork, not one bit of physical evidence, no recordings of his voice, no fingerprints, etc.
Before the judge's ruling, prosecutors reviewed the evidence they've presented during the trial.
Traficant, who was expected to begin his defense this afternoon before the jury, and the felon now waiting to testify on the congressman's behalf share a mistrust of the FBI.
A year ago, Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, submitted two affidavits into the Congressional Record from Michael S. Terlecky, who admitted that he took mob bribes while he was a Mahoning County Sheriff's Department lieutenant in the mid-1980s. The affidavits backed up Traficant's assertion that certain Youngstown FBI agents were on the mob payroll.
Terlecky and Dennis C. Johnson, Columbiana County Democratic Party chairman and a member of Traficant's staff, were in Cleveland on Tuesday and Wednesday, waiting to testify. Both were expected back today.
Last prosecution witness: The government called its 55th and final witness Wednesday, FBI Special Agent Bruce Hess. Hess said Traficant failed to report $33,123 in bribes, kickbacks and free boat repairs in 1998 and an additional $45,200 in 1999.
Traficant faces 10 counts, including bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. The trial is in its seventh week.
Congressman's defense: As his own lawyer, Traficant has tried to get across to the jury (nine women and three men) that the witnesses were pressured and threatened by FBI and IRS agents and the prosecution team. The congressman's defense is that the government has relentlessly pursued him since 1983, when he won acquittal in a bribery case.
Terlecky is one witness who shares Traficant's assessment of FBI intimidation.
Terlecky's version of his long-ago legal problems depicts him as a raider of gambling operations "neutralized" by FBI Special Agent Robert G. Kroner Jr. to prevent the truth about Kroner's criminal wrongdoing from being revealed.
In the affidavits last year, Terlecky said he feared more drastic tactics from Kroner, Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington and sheriff's Maj. Mike Budd.
Kroner investigated Traficant in the early 1980s, and Traficant erroneously assumed that Kroner was one of the agents assigned to the current case.
Terlecky, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence and claims he pleaded guilty in 1990 for a number of reasons. Traficant has expressed a desire to get Terlecky a presidential pardon.
Charges against him: A federal grand jury indicted Terlecky in April 1988 and charged him with two counts of operating an illegal gambling business, violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct state and local law enforcement.
A month before the indictment, he went on disability leave with a back injury after a shotgun blast to his car window caused him to swerve into a shallow ravine.
In 1990, he pleaded guilty to RICO violation and the other charges were dismissed. He received one year and one day in prison.
The government said that he'd met monthly with gambling figures at the Palmer House in Beaver Township and took bribes ranging from $2,500 to $7,500. FBI agents caught him coming out of the motel with $5,000 in 1986.
In exchange for the bribes, Terlecky, head of former sheriff Edward Nemeth's vice unit, allowed gambling to flourish, the government said.
Among Terlecky's co-defendants was mob boss Lenny Strollo, who also pleaded guilty. In February 1998, Strollo again pleaded guilty to RICO charges and turned government witness.
In July 1999, Terlecky was called as a defense witness in the racketeering trial of his friend, Phil Chance, Mahoning County sheriff at the time. Chance was found guilty and is in a federal prison.
Questioning from case: Chance, who took the stand, was questioned about going to Strollo's home in Canfield in 1995, during the race for sheriff. The following is an excerpt of the testimony, with Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor in Traficant's case, asking Chance the questions:
Q. You drove to his house by yourself, and you met with him by yourself, correct?
A. That's correct, yes.
Q. And you say there was one other person that was supposed to meet you there. Let's talk about that person. That person was Beef Terlecky, correct?
A. Mike Terlecky, yes.
Q. Well, he goes by the nickname Beef, correct?
A. That's correct.
Q. And at the time that you were counting on him to be present with you to meet with Lenny Strollo you knew that he had pled guilty himself to accepting bribes from Lenny Strollo at the time he was a Mahoning County sheriff's deputy, correct?
A. That's correct.
Q. So the only witness you intended to have at this meeting between you, the candidate for Mahoning County sheriff, and Lenny Strollo, the boss of the mafia, was a former deputy who himself had accepted bribes from Lenny Strollo, correct?
A. That's correct.
Johnson, meanwhile, took a leave of absence in March 1999 from General Motors in Lordstown to work for Traficant.
Johnson works out of Traficant's unlisted office at 4590 Boardman-Canfield Road (U.S. Route 224 in Canfield).
Johnson testified in the October 2001 racketeering trial of James A. Vitullo of North Jackson and Russell J. Saadey Jr. of Austintown, who goes by the nickname Champ. Vitullo was found innocent. Saadey was found guilty and will be sentenced next month.
Johnson testified that he intervened in a Columbiana robbery case at the request of Saadey, whose family contributed to the Columbiana Democratic Party.
Another of Traficant's witnesses, Richard E. Detore, is reluctant to testify.
Denied motion: On Wednesday, Judge Wells denied a motion by Detore's lawyers to quash his subpoena. Detore is Traficant's co-defendant, named in one count only, conspiracy to violate the federal bribery statute.
Detore, who lives in Virginia, intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Judge Wells said he must take the witness stand to invoke his right, "then we'll take it from there."
Traficant wants Judge Wells to grant Detore immunity from prosecution and compel him to testify. Detore's trial is set for July.
A taped conversation Detore had with Traficant is among nine audiotapes the congressman wants the jury to hear to show what he calls FBI and prosecutorial misconduct and intimidation.
Morford has argued against use of the tapes, calling them hearsay. Some of the tapes are both hearsay and "totally irrelevant" to the charges in the case, the prosecutor said.
Detore's alleged involvement in the case can be traced back to his time as chief operating officer of J.J. Cafaro's now-defunct USAerospace Group, once based in Manassas, Va. Cafaro fired Detore in December 1999 and promoted Albert Lange Jr. to the position.
Cafaro's testimony: Cafaro testified this week that he provided Traficant with an illegal gratuity of nearly $40,000 in cash and boat repairs. In return, Cafaro said Traficant used his influence to promote USAG laser-guidance technology with federal agencies.
Traficant, Cafaro, Detore and Lange agreed to conceal Cafaro's attempted purchase of the congressman's boat by making it appear as though Lange bought the boat, the government said.
meade@vindy.com