TRAFICANT TRIAL Judge halts defense

The judge was accused of being part of a conspiracy to 'screw a targeted member of Congress.'
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.'s defense has ground to a halt.
After a stop-and-go session Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells released the jury until Monday.
Overnight, she expected the congressman to do his legal homework, as the government had to do before it presented Jackie Bobby and Grace Yavorsky Kavulic to repeat a dead man's words.
Could he do it overnight? "I know how to do it; the courtroom is a theater," a grinning Traficant said as he left court Thursday without an overcoat in blistering cold wind.
Bobby and Kavulic testified that, over the years, Charles P. O'Nesti had grumbled about having to kick back $1,000 a month of his congressional paycheck to Traficant. O'Nesti resigned in March 1998, then pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes. He died Feb. 29, 2000, before being sentenced.
Bobby and Kavulic quit working for Traficant in 1998, angry that he hired Claire Maluso at their salary and expected them to train her.
"The two women hated the fact that Claire Maluso was hired, and they know it's bull----," the congressman said after court of their allegations regarding O'Nesti. "I got a tape and a lot of other things, and I feel very good about it."
Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, said his witnesses will show there were no kickbacks.
First witness: His first witness, William Coleman, testified that he was with Dennis C. Johnson when O'Nesti pulled Johnson aside for a private talk at the Open Hearth Grill on Steel Street in Youngstown. Coleman is a former bailiff for the 7th District Court of Appeals and also worked 15 years for J.J. Cafaro.
Coleman said he was again with Johnson at Chrystal's Restaurant on Belmont Avenue when Cafaro pulled Johnson aside for a private talk.
That was about the extent of Coleman's testimony.
Traficant's second witness -- Johnson, a congressional staffer -- testified for about five minutes Thursday. Johnson, Columbiana County Democratic Party chairman, tried to repeat the conversation he had with O'Nesti.
Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor, objected, based on hearsay.
A witness can testify to what another person said in a conversation only when certain exceptions to the hearsay rules can be established.
More outbursts: Traficant exploded when Judge Wells halted Johnson's testimony, yelling that the judge had allowed the government to use Bobby and Kavulic's hearsay evidence.
After two more attempts by Traficant to get Johnson to recall the conversation, Morford threw his legal pad on the prosecution table to emphasize his objection.
Judge Wells sent the jury to the back room, which isn't really out of earshot.
"Why do you allow them and not me?" Traficant roared.
"The rules of evidence would be one reason," Judge Wells answered.
Morford complained that the jury could hear Traficant, which, the prosecutor said, is what the congressman wanted.
"We've been over this so many times," Judge Wells said, exasperated with Traficant's outbursts about hearsay evidence.
The judge said Traficant continually misrepresents the hearsay rules.
"Don't call me a liar again!" the congressman shouted.
The judge said that was his word, not hers.
He said the law should be applied equally and accused the judge, as he has every day, of siding with the prosecution.
Traficant said he has witnesses who had conversations with O'Nesti, J.J. Cafaro and A. David Sugar. Sugar and Cafaro pleaded guilty to their part in the Traficant case and testified as government witnesses.
"This is illegal," Traficant bellowed, pacing between the judge's bench and Morford. "I object to this carnival!"
Morford said Traficant's behavior should not be allowed.
"This is not a sandbox," the judge told both men.
"I don't want the prosecutor to ever speak to me, demean me again," Traficant said, enraged. "He has intimidated witnesses in this case!"
"Oh, stop it," Judge Wells shouted back. "If you continue to yell ... we won't be able to proceed."
"He has intimidated my constituents. This is a congressman speaking now!" Traficant screamed, his voice nearly hoarse.
"Do that in Congress, not here," the judge shot back.
Back to trial: The trial resumed for a short time Thursday afternoon with Traficant's third witness, Harry Manganaro, a demolition contractor who's been longtime friends with both Traficant and Sugar, owner of Honey Creek Contracting in Petersburg.
Manganaro testified that Sugar was frightened by the FBI agents who came to Sugar's office. Sugar has said just the opposite, that the FBI agents were very nice.
Morford asked Manganaro if he understood that the person he was testifying about can come back and testify. Manganaro said he did.
Manganaro also knew O'Nesti and said he spoke to O'Nesti in January 2000.
Traficant, who had recorded a conversation he had with Manganaro about Sugar, asked that it be played for the jury.
Judge Wells sent the jury out again, very upset with her high-profile defendant.
She told Traficant, who has nine audiotapes of his conversations with witnesses or co-defendants, that he has to take the time and effort to see if the tapes can be admitted as evidence under the hearsay rules. She told him, as she has every day, to get organized and repeated an order that he must have each tape transcribed before anything else can happen.
"We're in the seventh week of trial," she reminded him, weary with his procrastination.
The congressman said he'd have the transcripts sometime next week.
"No, no, no, no, no," Judge Wells said.
Judge Wells told Traficant to have his witnesses in court this morning for a session without the jury. He can ask them questions that the prosecution has objected to, based on hearsay, and she will rule on whether the answers can be heard by the jury next week.
Traficant said the only witness who could come back today is Johnson.
The congressman's fourth witness, Michael S. Terlecky of Canfield, waited three days to testify this week and is expected back next week.
Morford asked that Judge Wells prohibit Traficant from mentioning the tapes again to the jury before a decision on their admissibility is made.
"You will not mention the tapes in front of the jury," the judge warned the congressman.
"I'll only do it to prejudice the jury to win," he said.
The judge ignored him.
Conspiracy issue: Thursday morning, with the jury not present, the government asked that the judge rule that statements made by Anthony R. Bucci (about O'Nesti), R. Allen Sinclair (about Henry A. DiBlasio) and Albert Lange Jr. (about Richard E. Detore and Cafaro) showed a conspiracy existed and that Traficant was involved in it. Bucci, Sinclair, Lange and Cafaro testified for the government; DiBlasio and Detore are under indictment.
Judge Wells found that the government, by a preponderance of the evidence, proved that a conspiracy existed and that Traficant was a part of the conspiracy. The ruling has no bearing on his guilt or innocence, which the jury will decide.
Traficant then spent more than 30 minutes asking that the charges against him be dismissed. He faces 10 counts, including bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
The 60-year-old congressman complained that the government produced no physical evidence -- no audiotapes, no fingerprints, no videotapes.
"I never even looked at their evidence because I knew they had no evidence!" he screamed.
Traficant said the judge would rewrite the Constitution if she didn't dismiss the case.
"You have violated every damn right I have," he shouted at Judge Wells. He also accused her of being part of the conspiracy to "screw a targeted member of Congress."
The congressman stood at the podium, waving his arms as he ranted.
"This case should be thrown out on Superior Avenue," Traficant shouted, using his left arm to point north out the courtroom window. He actually pointed to Rockwell Avenue.
Bernard A. Smith, an assistant U.S. attorney, in a calm voice, took about five minutes to point out that no physical evidence is necessary; witness testimony is sufficient.
The government, he said, presented as evidence $24,000 in cash from kickbacks, deposit slips, handwritten notes, bank records, letters, photos, false invoices, checks, receipts for boats repairs, receipts for a welder and generator and a "boatload of documents." Smith said some of the photos show the addition to Traficant's farmhouse, paid for by one of the co-conspirators.
meade@vindy.com