Fmr. Mass Speaker Sal DiMasi, Guilty

Boston.com is reporting that former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi is guilty of 7 counts of corruption including fraud and extortion.  A federal jury handed down the verdict on the second full day of deliberations. 

Link to Phone Conversations Used to Convict Judge Terry of Corruption

At this link you can listen to the phone conversations re-played in Federal court which were used to convict Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry. 

Details of the Jury's Verdict in Judge Terry Fed Corruption Trial

Former Judge, Convicted Felon Steven Terry

At Cleveland.com Jim McCarty has a detailed look at the former-Judge's conviction on 3 corruption counts and acquittal on two.

Judge Steven Terry Guilty of 3 Corruption Related Counts

Reporter Jim McCarty at the Cleveland Plain Dealer webstie reports that a federal jury convicted Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry on 3 corruption-related counts, acquitting Terry of two other charges.  This is from Cleveland.com:

A [federal] jury in Akron convicted Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Terry on Monday of three corruption-related counts.  [T]he 12 jurors, who began deliberations on Friday afternoon and resumed them on Monday, acquitted Terry of two other counts.

The judge, who was on leave, immediately resigned. He was accused of fixing a forclosure case at the request of his political mentor, then-county Auditor Frank Russo.

The guilty verdict came after a weeklong trial during which Russo testified that he asked Terry to deny a motion in the case and prosecutors played a secretly recorded telephone conversation of Terry telling the auditor he had denied the motion.  "Very good," Russo could be heard saying. "Very good."

Despite the damning testimony, Terry took the stand in U.S. District Court and argued that he had been unaware of Russo's interest in the case and did nothing wrong in denying the motion.  Terry is the second common pleas judge convicted of wrongdoing as part of a federal investigation of corruption in the county. In March, a jury convicted former Judge Bridget McCafferty of lying to the FBI about cases on her docket. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 11. [ . . . ]

The corruption investigation has implicated more than 50 elected officials, public employees and contractors since becoming public in July 2008 with FBI raids of businesses, homes and county offices.
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There arre at least ten other Cuyahoga County judges who are quivering in their wing tips and pumps this afternoon, if the trial testimony by Russo stands up to scrutiny. 

8 Years for Lawyer Convicted of Bribing Cuyahoga County Auditor

Lawyer William Mitchell (pic) unsuccessfully fought allegations that he was involved in bribing disgraced, felon, former-Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo in exchange for a piece of an elaborate scheme run by his law partners that ripped off millions from Cleveland-area public schools.

Russo, of course, was at the heart of a corruption scandal that cost more than 50 publlic officials, contractors and lawyers their reputations and livelihoods--and as I noted all last week, it is this former Cleveland-area public official who is at the center of the Judge Steve Terry trial that is awaiting a jury verdict, possibly this afternoon.  Unfortunately, for Mitchell who was a highly successful personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, his former partner, Bruce Zaccagnini was dieseled-in from FCI, Morgantown and testified against him.  So did Russon. This morning a US District Court judge. Sara Loi handed down an 8 year prison sentence. 

This is an interesting case as well as a cautionary tale for law partners.   Know what your law partner is doing, or pay the price.  If Mitchell is to be believed he did not know how his law partners led by the now deceased, Louis Damiani and Bruce Zacagninni (who I encountered at FCI, Morgantown) were raking in the millions that they brought to the law firm's bottom line.  But Mitchell benefitted as a firm owner in the monies stolen from the taxpayers and this is what Judge Loi "hung her hat on" in sentencing Mitchell to prison.  According to Cleveland.com, the following exchange occurred:

"I had nothing to do with this," he told U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi. "I wasn't involved in anything to do with this scam. With all due respect, I am not going to admit to a crime just to get some time off."

Countered Lioi: "You could not stick your head in the sand and reap the benefits."

Now, let's see--why aren't the equity partners at BigLaw going to jail when their law partners criminally overbill as we saw last year in the Chicago case of Mark McCombs, partner at Greenberg Traurig?   There were no criminal consequences for the equity partners, then, didn't they have their heads in the sand.?  Is it as I said then, the rules are made on the backs of small law?

Verdict Watch

Sal DiMasi awaits verdict 

Judge Steve Terry

In my experience when a trial wraps up towards the middle or late in the week it is customary to have a verdict by Friday afternoon or early evening, but this is not the case in three public corruption cases that went to their respective juries last week. 

You-Know-who

The juries are out in Rod Blagojevich's re-trial which featured the former Governor's 7 days on the stand; the Judge Steve Terry bribery trial in Cleveland that the Bad Lawyer found so riveting; and, former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi's corruption and graft trial. 

So Monday, afternoon or Tuesday expect verdicts. 

Free Drinks!

Yesterday, the folks at the Albany Times Union told you about the special student loan break given a former local prosecutor at the same time reporter Brendon Lyons was reporting on the local bar owner, Timothy Rnakins who established a free drinks and meals program for local prosecutor while facing tax  and assault charges.  Here's an excerpt:

"An Albany bar owner facing trial for tax and assault charges wants a special prosecutor appointed in the case because he alleges members of the Albany County district attorney's office have gotten free meals and drinks from his restaurants, including Envy Lounge.

Paul DerOhannesian II, an attorney for Timothy Rankins, who owns Envy Lounge, filed the motion last week. It asks Albany County Judge Thomas A. Breslin to disqualify the office of District Attorney P. David Soares from Rankins' criminal case and appoint a special prosecutor.  Criminal charges against Rankins include allegations that he failed to pay more than $190,000 in state sales taxes from his bar's receipts. DerOhannesian said the 'computation of sale tax ... does not accurately reflect the significant complimentary meals provided to individuals.'

'Establishing these complimentary meals or drinks potentially involves testimony from both the provider and recipient of these meals, such as an Albany County prosecutor,' DerOhannesian wrote to the judge. He said Soares and his office, therefore, have a conflict if they were recipients of any free meals or drinks.

In a brief interview Wednesday Soares called the allegations 'absurd and desperate.'  He provided a copy of a sworn affidavit that he said will be filed in the case in the coming days. The affidavit, signed by Soares, calls the allegations 'false.' 'Neither the ownership, management nor staff at either restaurant has ever given or offered to give me a free or 'comped' meal or drink at either Pearl Albany, Inc. or the Envy Lounge,' the district attorney's affidavit states.

DerOhannesian also requested a court order directing prosecutors to identify any employees who "have received complimentary meals from the Envy or Pearl restaurants," and to supply "photographs of its employees from the period 2005 to 2008." The photos could be shown to Rankins' bar employees to identify those who received a complimentary drink or meal, the attorney said.

Rankins is a popular bar owner who has operated tavern restaurants in the city dating back years. He has developed close relationships with city officials and police. In January the Times Union published a story disclosing uniformed, on-duty police officers, including high-ranking supervisors, were regularly receiving free meals and drinks at Envy Lounge. The department responded by directing uniformed officers not to congregate in restaurants while on duty.

Weeks later, following an investigation by the state Department of Taxation and Finance that began in early 2008, Rankins was indicted on felony charges of failing to pay more than $191,000 in state sales tax. The charges relate to the operation of Rankins' former nightclub, Pearl Restaurant & Lounge, which closed in 2008."
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If true, Mr. Rankins, who knew quite a few of these public servants, had reason to believe a free drinks and meals policy might benefit his situation.  What does that tell you?

Sweetheart Breaks on Your Dime

The ABAJournal.com tips to the Albany Times-Union report involving the sweetheart deal given Albany prosecutor Michael McDermott (pic, left) on his student loan payback by the contract agency in charge of protecting the public dime. 

This is reporter Brendan Lyon's story in excerpt:

An investigation by the state Inspector General's office has found that employees of a state agency that oversees student loan collections gave preferential treatment to an employee and to a well-known Albany attorney, [and former prosecutor] Michael P. McDermott.

The report, released Thursday morning, also accuses officials with the Higher Education Services Corp. (HESC) of making false entries in a computer system to prevent outside collection vendors from receiving the information. The inspector general said the false entries were intended to prevent the loss of state worker jobs by thwarting the transfer of $1.25 million in HESC collection accounts to private companies.

The report, which was forwarded to the state Attorney General's office for possible criminal prosecution, contends the actions of the state workers were 'unlawful.' Among the people targeted in the report are Joseph Catalano (pic, right), assistant vice president of collection and default management at HESC.

Catalano 'prompted his subordinates to unlawfully arrange special treatment for former Albany County prosecutor Michael P. McDermott by reducing his student loan payments 60 percent, purging his collection debts and blocking the garnishment of his wages, at a cost of more than $24,670 to state and federal taxpayers,' the report states.

Catalano, 54, of Delmar, told investigators that he met McDermott after being called as a witness in the 2006 high-profile murder trial of Christopher Porco, who was convicted of murdering his father and attempting to murder his mother in their Delmar home. Catalano, Christopher Porco's former youth minister, testified that he went to the hospital the week of the 2004 attack and spoke to Porco for about three hours.

On the witness stand, Catalano testified about Porco's state of mind at the hospital, where his mother was undergoing multiple surgeries, and about conversations they had regarding the couple's home-alarm system and Porco's treatment by Bethlehem police.

The inspector general's report prominently recounts McDermott's role as a prosecutor in the murder case, which drew national attention. 

McDermott, now in private practice with the law firm O'Connell & Aronowitz, issued a statement Thursday saying he cooperated with state investigators and that his student loan debts were not reduced by any of the actions taken by HESC on his behalf.

'I never requested preferential treatment and did not believe that my account was being handled differently from those of others similarly situated," McDermott said. "Indeed, I was told that any action taken on my account was in compliance with HESC policies and regulations. At the end of the day, my monthly loan payment remained the same after I contacted Mr. Catalano as it had been before I contacted him.'

McDermott said he contacted Catalano because he knew he worked for HESC and he wanted to speak to someone after his account manager there had died.
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This may seem like an arcane story, but it is in fact one of those situations where you as a taxpayer should be pissed,  It is one of those situations where two grown men fall in love with their egos in the form of how much "juice" they have to help one another out, even if it sort of screws the taxpayers.  The former prosecutor should have known better and he used his office and profile to get a break he didn't deserve.  Wanna bet that this happens all the time? 

The thing is, this is a n-o-t-h-i-n-g but what it leads to, let's say: duck hunting with the Vice President of the United States then being blind to the appearance of impropriety when a case comes along that you shouldn't sit on.   Not that that sort of thing ever happens.

Here in OurCounty, local government is going through major gyrations including a wholesale electoral uprising dumping the former form of County government because well everyone was corrupt. Many, many public officeholders and employees in OurCounty were doing favors for one, another--they loved their prerogatives.  Our crooks fell in love with "their juice," their perception that the property tax revenue stream was theirs to dole out to friends and family.  That's what the Blagojevich trial was about, this story from Albany, NY tells you, at a seed level, how such things begin.

Blago's Mouthpieces

The Chicago media and Internet Blawg's (including the ABAJournal) are full of profiles of disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's lawyers especially, former R.Kelly lawyer Sam Adam, Jr and patriarch Sam Adam, Sr.

The Chicago Tribune biography of Sam Adam, Jr. was the most interesting.  You should also take a peek at the Adam's website for a glimpse of an exotic hothouse snapshot of lawyers not bound by self-imposed ego limits. 

As you may recall if you follow such things, the hip-hop "artist" R. Kelly was accused of having sex with underage fans and video-taping the "performances," which could be obtained on the street.  Kelly was acquitted on state charges at a trial where the Sam Adams, Jr. delivered the opening and closing statement and arguments and is credited with some of the most colorful cross-examination of prosecution witnesses in recent Chicago legal history.

Father and Son: Sam Adamses--are not the only attorneys involved in the defense of former Governor Blagojevich, as in most of these celebrity trials, as you will recall from OJ--there is a team of brilliant lawyers including workhorses and showhorses.   Look for coverage of great lawyering on both sides of the Blagojevich trial.   Despite the "clownish" aspect of Blago--the issues in the case go to the very core of what is right and wrong with modern democratic government.  Maybe some light will be revealed. 

A Meditation on Corruption in Our Counties

I've talked a lot about Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, at this point, probably ad nauseum. In Maricopa County we have a modern American county-wide government so dysfunctional that the State of Arizona was moved to enact and enable oversight by a retired Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice.  This, after Arpaio and County Attorney Thomas criminally indicted and civilly sued all other county officials who dared question their notorious terrorist governing practices and more importantly, their self-seeking budget expenditures.  These elected County clowns have spent millions of dollars for BigLaw representation in lawsuits that defy logic. You can read my prior posts on Maricopa County meltdown at the link.  Better yet the ABAJournal and the Arizona New Times have brilliant summary discussions.  The games go on, with contempt proceedings this last week and the County shutting down the Sheriff's credit card accounts.

While Maricopa County represents one extreme, Cuyahoga County, Ohio encompassing Cleveland probably better represents what goes on more traditionallyy here, there and elsewhere.  Cuyahoga County on Lake Erie is a huge metropolitan area surrounding a rust bucket town that has not been able to get traction.  Like Detroit, Cleveland has many attractive natural attributes, i.e. an enormous fresh body of relatively clean and attractive (in a recreational sense) water and shorelines.  At one time, Cleveland--which is believe it or not very beautiful and temperate-- home to international headquarters to many of the largest corporations in the world, including British Petroleum. 

But like Detroit, Cleveland suffers from some of the worst local governments in the United States.   As I reported in my 6 AM post the longtime, Irish-named Cuyahoga CountySheriff has been criminally charged with a few representative counts of theft in office after nearly a half century of collecting a paycheck and benefits from the citizens of Cleveland and the local County.  So it was surprising that over the weekend, my pal Chuck sent me a link to another reporter, Mark Puente article on that wanna-be-president of the United States, Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Bill Mason (pic) who you may remember from an earlier post on Bad Lawyer that talked about Mason's ambitions and the free pass he and a drunk driving buddy got from the local constabulary.

The link from Chuck was to the weekend Cleveland.com article which as I said was reported by Mark Puente about how Prosecutor Mason put the taxpayers on the hook for a part time law job to politically-connected Michael Climaco (pic: happy, he should be!), brother of the famous Ohio lawyer John Climaco (one of the tobacco-litigation big hitters), to enable the younger Climaco to collect not only a paycheck, but a lifetime sinecure in the form of a tax payer-funded pension and gold-plated health insurance.  It is one thing to hire a first-rate lawyer to do first rate law stuff for you and the community, it is quite another to hire a non-specialist, political hack to provide legal services in an area of law requiring expertise--while letting the taxpayers foot the bill for a lifetime of financial obligation which is what Mason did.  You see, Michael Climaco, who needed public employment like Gerry Spence needs more cowboy hats--was hired part time to represent the County in the defense of workeres' compensation matters.  This area of law involves a great deal of specialization and knowledge, which Climaco most assuredly did not have, so when he failed to provide the anticipated expertise the taxpayers got the added exposure to liabilities related to added premium costs.  Mr. Climaco's qualifications to be the prosecutor's workers' compensation attorney stemmed from Mr. Climaco's tenure as a former City of Cleveland councilman and of course his relationship to John Climaco, a local political powerhouse.  John Climaco is so powerful that Vice President Biden went to Climaco's downtown Cleveland office for a little elite fundraiser for the sitting Governor of Ohio.

As I observed the other day, all roads are toll roads, this being both a personal injunction and a larger observation.  One part of our government is busily investigating and indicting another part of our government.  The Feds are investigating the local governments with whole armies of big and little fish marched into federal custody.  Corruption is not new, or particularly shocking although there sure seems to be a level of prosecutions that I don't recall from prior periods in history.  Still, those of you as old as the Bad Lawyer can look back to Spiro Agnew, the former Vice President and nolo contendre, ex-Governor of Maryland. Then there are all of our mayors, city council men and women, county commissioners and public servants of all stripes being prosecuted in stings and bribery.  There are towns like East Chicago, Indiana, Birmingham, Alabama, Detroit, Michigan, well, then there is almost all of Illinois.

So why is this happening? 

Part of what is going on it seems to me is a product of nepotism, part of the corruption is the attitude of entitlement that overwhelms rational and ethical thought.  But really, do you think these people, our public servants come into power thinking to themselves:  I'm going to rip off the public?  Aside from Blago, I doubt it. 

We pride ourselves on the notion of wheeling and dealing, entrepreneurial smarts--make it happen.  We honor the risk takers, the innovators, the people who can "network." We structure our tax laws to incentivize and enable perverse movements of money. 

Here's a for instance: who gets the best stadium and concert and event tickets?  Who eats in the expensive restaurants? Of course, the operators and owners of our large local corporation, BigLaw firms, wealthy contractors, and filthy rich bankers and insurance companies.  Who do they treat to these seats?  Take a wild guess?  Did you guess, those of us who can help them in their businesses: the Commissioner Italian Name, Councilwoman Irish Name? Guess what--these big corporate fish want nothing from local government, and local government offers them nothing in exchange for the munificence.  Just kidding.

From petty favors, larger and dicier corruption flow. 

Should we do away with these little toll roads?  Yes.  But the dining and entertainment venues and service employers and employees will argue that the tax codes and rules create employment.  These restaurateurs and entertainment folks and their lobbyists will argue that we should not reform away jobs and health insurance for servers, cooks, farmers, ushers, carpenters, electricians and so forth.  Every road is a toll road. 

My employer is a wonderful guy, a real decent and generous guy.  The blond super lawyer and I were fortunate to be included in an invitation to attend a lecture by a local Orthodox Rabbi on the subject of adversity (a particularly apt subject), at my employer's beautiful east side home.   After the formal portion of the talk, I spoke to an old friend of mine who objectively dealt with adversity--her charismatic husband of many years having killed himself over unmanageable tax liabilities stemming from the operation of one of OurTown's most popular diners.  She and I talked about the notion of "peace." My friend, Ruthie is an Israeli-born American.  Ruthie said she feared that there would never be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, implying that the vision laid out by the Rabbi who spoke was Utopian.  My take away from the Rabbi's talk was that absolutely nothing in this life is free, or right, or the way it should be, and ultimately the only place we can effect change is on the inside.  Inside me, inside you, inside our families and friends. 

I am sad for corruption and violence and suffering in the world.  If I think too much about it I become overwhelmed and crazy with stress.  But there is much that is right and hopeful, and miraculous.  I'd like to be around to see my daughter get married and have children, my son to graduate from high school and maybe college.  I'd like to see what they become.  I'd like to contribute more.  But my days of freedom may not last, and my options may turn out to be pretty limited.  Still, I see only a little, I have a limited view of the world, and of time, and certainly of space.  Corruption is something I obsess about, corruption in the police, the courts, government, corporations, employers, and especially the church.  While I can point to certain solutions, the only place I can change is in my own heart.  I can root it out.  I can confess it and try day by day to be a better person.  That is my only purpose.

Bill Mason, the Climacos, Arpaio, Thomas, Blago, Pope Benedict, the Israeli-Palestinian violence and the rest are compelling distractions from what really matters.  Which is, what do I do to exemplify for my children a willingness to reform my own angry and corrupt heart?

Note:  Most of my posts are typed and scheduled for posting at a latter date or time, unfortunately my Cat loves me so much she was not able to stay away as I worked on this post, Isabelle stepped on a key that posted this item a day earlier and out of sequence.  There is a reference to a Sheriff that will not make sense until that item runs at its regularly-scheduled moment.  Oh, well.

BL

Harry "the Hook" Is Dead

Harry "the Hook" Aleman, a legendary Chicago hit man is dead at 69.  Aleman died in an Illinois prison while serving a 100 year sentence for the 1973 shotgun murder of Teamster union official William Logan. At the link you'll find the Wikipedia entry on Aleman.  Aleman may have murdered more than a dozen victims, but he wasn't saying.

The Chicago Tribune article on Aleman's death is at the second link. 

The most interesting aspect of the notice of Aleman's death is the connection to the public corruption in Chicago.  You see at one time you could buy your way out of a murder rap, and in fact Aleman bribed the trial judge, Cook County Judge Frank Wilson for the grand sum of $10,000. He was acquitted after a bench trial (meaning the case was tried without a jury.)  The defense lawyer, Charles Cooley turned snitch, and Judge Wilson blew his brains out while awaiting federal charges.  Since Aleman beat the rap on a bribe, his second trial, a jury trial, was not deemed "double jeopardy." 

Aleman was until May 15, a survivor of a wild era of union and public corruption in the Second City.

Classic Schemes to Defraud

Where I live, the local government was so corrupt that the voters threw the entire system into the trashbin in favor of a "reform" which I am sure we are hoping works out to the benefit of the taxpayers/citizens.  The Bad Lawyer has always been poitically moderate, although my rightie friends think, (and my late-father thought) I'm a socialist/commie.  My friends on the left are equally aghast at my politics--oh well.  My education and life experiences have biased me towards "representative democracy" so I tend to view reform as anti-democratic--elites choose your representatives instead of you.  While I am repulsed by the overall quality of the elected judiciary; I am deeply suspicious of merit-selection schemes.  The new local government "reform" has me deeply suspicious, but I can't argue with the need to do something to rid ourselves of the crooks who are fleecing the folks they were supposed to be representing. 

In Boston.com (website of the Boston Globe) has this article describing the indictment of the Massachusets Speaker of the House, Salvatore Di Masi (pic, right) and a number of his cronies for what they term, "classic schemes to defraud."  According to the Boston Globe, "DiMasi and the other defendants are charged with steering two contracts worth $17.5 million to [. . . ] a Burlington firm, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments, including $57,000 for DiMasi. Also indicted were DiMasi’s friend and former accountant Richard Vitale; DiMasi’s friend and [ . . .] lobbyist Richard McDonough; and [a . . . ]former sales agent, Joseph Lally."


"Defense lawyers argue that their clients did nothing wrong and that the money paid to DiMasi and the other defendants represented legitimate legal, consulting, or lobbying fees."

Recently, prosecutors in New York State prosecuted former State Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno (pic, left) who had turned his office into a lobbyist boiler room.  His decades-long legacy, a legisaltive institution that is openly mocked on the editorial pages of the leading newspapers of New York as a carnival of greed heads, crooks, and ego maniacs. 

I have a friend who likes to say that you get the government you deserve, I find that notion, absurd and reductionist.  These people like Bruno and DiMasi are old school guys who came into power motivated by decent impulses.  We enable their exploitation by not requiring them to serve us, and not special interests, corporations, and lobbyists.  If we care about representative democracy we will take radical steps to reign in the system of private finance of our politics. 

As a young lawyer, I was frequently stunned by the easy corruption of political and judicial figures.  Years ago I stood in shock as opposing counsel openly-pandered a Judge's visit to his lawfirm's lodge for skiing and drinking in front of me as we argued the repective merits of competing motions to this Judge.  The Judge granted his pal's motion for summary judgment and it took two years to obtain an appellate court reversal with an award of attorney fees.  Think about this.  My client was screwed by a corrupt judge.  It took two years to undo the damage--what if we lacked the resources to pursue an appeal?  What if the court of appeals panel had not done its job as it so often does not?   The corrupt judge, ran for the court of appeals, his campaign poster touted his "integrity."  He won.