'02 trial figure pleads to bad checks

The Vienna metalworker had supplied Traficant with a so-called alibi.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- A Trumbull County man who tried to give former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. an alibi in his racketeering trial has pleaded guilty to bad-check charges.
During his 10-week trial in Cleveland federal court in 2002, Traficant called mostly friends and congressional staffers to the witness stand. One of them was Brian K. Kidwell, 32, a Vienna metalworker.
Kidwell appeared Wednesday before visiting Municipal Judge Emmor Snyder on two counts of passing bad checks.
Kidwell was found guilty of writing two checks totaling $350 on the Cortland Bank in April 2002. He was placed on one year of probation and ordered to make restitution to the bank.
Kidwell supplied Traficant with a so-called alibi for Nov. 14, 1998, the day J.J. Cafaro of Liberty said he handed Traficant $13,000 in cash as they drove around Youngstown State University.
Kidwell testified that Traficant came out of the building at YSU with a short gray-haired man -- not with Cafaro. Traficant got into his pickup truck and they went to the congressman's office in Boardman, Kidwell said.
There, they picked up parts of a tree stand they were building for deer hunting, Kidwell testified.
Welder
Cafaro also gave a $2,900 welder to Traficant in 1999 that Traficant gave to Kidwell, wanting him to build an aluminum horse trailer with sleeping quarters, testimony showed.
Kidwell testified that the welder was on his property, but later said at a press conference that three men took the welder, which Traficant wanted brought to Cleveland as an exhibit for the trial.
Kidwell testified that he needed the welder to make aluminum trailers for Cafaro's now-defunct USAerospace Group. When questioned by prosecutors, Kidwell admitted that he had no letter, no contract and no orders from USAG.