TRAFICANT ON TRIAL Former contractor takes witness stand

The trial recessed for today. The congressman still plans to wrap up next week.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- Greg Tyson never took "Sarge," the stallion that U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. used as pay for farm work, but Tyson considered the horse as payment nevertheless.
Tyson testified Thursday in U.S. District that he didn't really want a horse and had no room for one. The Youngstown man, who once owned Big G Construction and Capitol Ready Mix, is listed by title in two counts of Traficant's 10-count indictment.
Tyson was not charged and was not called to testify when the prosecution presented its case. Traficant wanted Tyson to verify that.
"You didn't call me, did you, Mr. Morford?" Tyson asked from the witness stand. Laughing, Craig S. Morford, lead prosecutor, said he hadn't.
Tyson had been given immunity when he testified at the grand jury March 29, 2000, and that immunity extended to his testimony in federal court.
Learning he had immunity came as a surprise to Tyson, who quipped: "I'm glad to hear that."
Traficant's racketeering trial, which began Feb. 5, recessed today and will resume Monday. Traficant of Poland, D-17th, said he plans to complete his defense next week.
He is still undecided about whether he will testify.
Accusation: The government said the 60-year-old congressman interceded on Tyson's behalf to obtain more than $900,000 in loans from Bank One in 1994. In return, Tyson installed concrete floors in a barn, drainage pipes and waterlines and delivered and spread gravel at the congressman's 76-acre horse farm in Greenford, the government said.
Tyson testified Thursday that he "got slapped around like a criminal" at the grand jury. He believed the timing was to generate press coverage to influence Traficant's March 2000 primary election but acknowledged under cross-examination that his lawyer asked for a delay and he appeared after the primary.
Tyson said he willingly gave testimony at the grand jury against his business associates, contractors Anthony and Robert Bucci. He invoked his right against self-incrimination when the questions turned to Traficant and was compelled to testify with immunity.
Tyson described himself Thursday as an ex-contractor trying to regain his health after dealing with blood clots last November.
Until Thursday, Traficant's defense has been marred by not enough witnesses to fill the court day and hearsay testimony tossed out by U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells. With Tyson, the congressman appeared confident and prepared as he had Tyson counter previous testimony.
Students visit: Youngstown State University students Bonnie Bodnar of Youngstown and Tia Barrett of Liberty found Tyson to be a good witness for Traficant. About 15 YSU students traveled to Cleveland with their instructor, Paul Sracic, assistant professor of political science.
Barrett thought Tyson was funny, saying people could relate to him. Bodnar said Tyson was "quite colorful."
The young women said everyone knows Traficant tries to help people and Tyson was an example of that.
Tyson was at ease and self-assured on the witness stand.
"We went round and round with that stupid horse," Tyson said in response to questions from the congressman about payment for work at the farm. "You wanted more work. The horse was all you could pay me with. I said, 'Yeah, I'll take the stupid horse.'"
Tyson said he didn't record on his books the $400 Traficant paid for the first work done at the farm, a water pump. The contractor said he used the money to buy political tickets for city and county officials.
"It was a chickens--- amount," Tyson said when asked why he didn't record the payment. He also didn't declare the horse as payment.
Under cross-examination by Bernard A. Smith, an assistant U.S. attorney, Tyson acknowledged that he never took the horse off Traficant's property and doesn't know if it's dead or alive.
Tyson said he considered it free room and board to have the horse, Sarge, stay at Traficant's farm.
Sought Traficant's help: Tyson, who is black, said he contacted the congressman after being "racially put down by the banks in Youngstown." Tyson described the number of black minority loans as being minuscule.
"After Big Jim got involved, the doors opened," Tyson said.
Bank One in Youngstown lent Tyson $415,000 in March 1994 to buy a cement batch plant for his Capitol Ready Mix and loaned him "in excess" of $500,000 in May 1994 for Big G Construction, Perry J. Chickonoski, a Bank One vice president, testified March 5. The loans had first been denied when the loan officer determined that Tyson had very poor credit, marginal collateral and insufficient cash flow.
In January 1994, Michael Brenan, then-president of Bank One, handed Chickonoski a letter from Traficant.
Chickonoski said the decision was then made to lend Tyson the cash he needed to buy the cement manufacturing plant from Anthony R. Bucci.
By the end of 1994, Tyson defaulted on the loans, Chickonoski said.
Of the reversal, Traficant had asked: "My power did that?"
"Your influence, yeah, absolutely," Chickonoski said. "The transaction was declined, congressman."
Walter T. Diehl of Struthers, Tyson's former personal and business bookkeeper at Capitol Ready Mix, testified March 5 that materials used at Traficant's farm were billed to "whatever job we were doing at the time," never to the congressman.
Bucci's testimony: Anthony Bucci, awaiting sentencing in an unrelated case, testified against Traficant on Feb. 26 with the promise of immunity from prosecution. He described Tyson's role in a contracting scam.
Tyson had 51 percent of Capitol Ready Mix, Bucci and Joseph Sattarelle of Liberty each had 24 1/2 percent.
"He was black -- he was gonna be our minority," Bucci testified. The scam, Bucci said, was to set Tyson up as a "paper contractor" and, being black, he would pre-qualify for minority contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation.
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 loan Tyson the money, Bucci said.
Bucci described Tyson's Big G Construction as a dilapidated plant Tyson bought and never operated.
Thursday, Traficant asked Tyson if he was ever the "front man" for anyone. "Not on your life," came the reply.
Tyson described the Bucci brothers as hogs. If you had a goose that laid a golden egg, they'd kill it and make chicken soup, he said.
Tyson said he tried to get control of the cement business from the Buccis but couldn't because of the way the bank loan was structured. He said the bank agreement reminded him of treaties signed with Indians. "I was set up," he said.
Tyson said the Buccis, whom he didn't trust, "don't have a friend on the earth."
Went to lawyer: In May 1999, Anthony Bucci pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. A few months later, Bucci, looking for a way to reduce his pending 18- to 24-month sentence, went with his lawyer to the FBI with what he knew about Traficant.
Bucci said he tried in vain in the late 1980s to collect nearly $13,000 from Traficant for work done at the farm and even threatened a lawsuit. Bucci said he and his brother decided they had a choice: "Basically we were gonna sue a congressman or for $13,000, own him."
Sattarelle testified March 5 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." Bucci, he said, didn't pay for the concrete he used for his own construction company and charged Tyson $3,000 rent each month.
Bucci, Sattarelle said, had promised Tyson a lot of work.
"I wouldn't believe Tony Bucci if he said his name was Tony Bucci on a Bible," Sattarelle said from the witness stand.
Tyson, Sattarelle said, could have been a good contractor, adding that Bank One didn't lend Tyson enough money to operate. Sattarelle, however, did not know how much the bank did loan.
"He leased a brand-new Cadillac," Sattarelle said when asked what Tyson did with some of the money loaned by Bank One.
Was he a good businessman? Matthew B. Kall, an assistant U.S. attorney, asked.
"No -- he went and leased a brand new car -- he did things funny, not the way they should be done," Sattarelle said.
Left out: Tyson testified Thursday that the city of Youngstown "screwed me into the ground." Traficant said after court that he tried very hard to secure a federal loan for the contractor but he was left out and the city was wrong.
According to Vindicator files, in May 1996, Traficant announced in a press release that Youngstown was awarded a $675,000 federal loan guarantee by HUD's section 108 program. The city was to re-lend the funds to Big G, which would use part of the money to buy out a bank debt.
The remaining funds were to be used by Big G for a working capital loan that would allow the company to bid on larger contracts. The HUD loan was to help Big G create 18 construction jobs.
By January 1997, then-Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro said the HUD money had not arrived and believed an investigation of city and county government fraud was the reason.
"Happy holidays, happy Easter, happy Passover," Traficant told reporters as he left court Thursday. "I've had it for the week. I have no more comments for the week. I'm tired. I'm gonna rest."
meade@vindy.com