TRAFICANT CASE Bucheit gets 2-year-term for bribery, lying

The retired contractor is paying his lawyer $25,000 with Florida property.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CLEVELAND -- Retired contractor Bernard J. Bucheit will spend two years in a federal prison for bribing expelled and imprisoned U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., then lying about it to a grand jury.
Bucheit, 71, who retired to Florida from Boardman, was sentenced Monday in federal court by U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells. The hearing, which lasted 90 minutes, focused as much on his finances as it did on how much time he'd be locked up.
At trial in April, a jury found Bucheit guilty of conspiracy to violate the federal bribery statute, paying a gratuity to a public official and perjury. In 1993, he provided nearly $30,000 in remodeling work at Traficant's horse farm in Greenford and collected political favors instead of cash.
Judge Wells sentenced at the low end of the 24- to 36-month range in the guidelines and fined Bucheit $5,000. She called perjury disruptive to the justice system.
Once out of prison, Bucheit will be on two years' supervised release.
Bucheit told the judge that he holds no malice and respects the jury's verdict. He said he didn't play by the rules and realizes he is going to prison for it.
The judge will decide sometime next week whether Bucheit stays out on bond pending appeal or reports to prison when notified. He requested the federal prison in Elkton.
Financial straits?
Before imposition of the sentence, Bucheit's Cleveland lawyer, Roger G. Synenberg, tried to establish that his client is practically penniless and therefore unable to pay a fine. Synenberg said he holds a $25,000 mortgage on Bucheit's West Palm Beach, Fla., home to pay legal fees when the place sells for $31,000.
The judge rejected as a liability a list of Bucheit's friends' names that he said represents about $38,000 in loans he must pay back. Bucheit had no other documentation to prove the loans.
After much dickering between Synenberg and Matthew B. Kall, an assistant U.S. attorney, a surprise document surfaced from the defense side -- one that disturbed Judge Wells.
Bucheit produced a Washington, D.C. federal court judgment dated Aug. 15 that awards him $1.5 million from the Palestinian Authority.
In the mid-1990s, Bucheit International Ltd. erected a precast cement factory in the Gaza Strip and sued the Palestinian Authority over equipment stolen or confiscated from the factory.
Judge Wells reserved her comments about the $1.5 million settlement until after sentencing, then called the defense and prosecution to the bench. She chastised Synenberg for going through nearly the entire hearing before turning over the document.
She called the failure to disclose it sooner irresponsible. Pointing to Bucheit's probation officer, the judge said: "This officer knew nothing about it."
Synenberg, who had gone to great lengths during the hearing to explain Bucheit's meager financial situation, apologized, saying it was the first he'd seen the $1.5 million judgment. The judge told him he knew the lawsuit was pending and should have asked better questions.
The judge said Bucheit's financial situation has been difficult to calculate from the beginning. He started out with a public defender.
1956 crime
During the presentence investigation, a federal crime Bucheit pleaded guilty to in 1956 came to light. While on the French Riviera, he snapped photos of topless women on the beach and, when he mailed in the film, a postmaster reported the nudity.
Bucheit received five years' probation for the crime.
Traficant, meanwhile, is serving eight years in a federal prison in central Pennsylvania. He was found guilty in April 2002 of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion after a 10-week trial.