Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1997 | 10:39 a.m.
"I've never taken any money in my life. I've never violated a trust. I wouldn't do that," former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni told the jury at his bribery and corruption trial.
"My God, I had a sick wife and two children," he said during his first day on the witness stand in his own defense. "I wouldn't jeopardize that for anything in the world."
Bongiovanni returned to U.S. District Judge Lloyd George's courtroom today to continue being grilled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson.
His testimony followed two Las Vegas Justices of the Peace and the reading of the prior testimony of former defendant and show producer Jeff Kutash, who failed to appear for the trial despite having been subpoenaed.
The 51-year-old defendant already has disavowed any knowledge that his onetime close friend Paul Dottore had solicited bribes on numerous occasions for purported judicial favors -- incidents that were memorialized in FBI wiretaps.
Dottore, 53, became the prosecution's star witness with his stories of being the point man in the bribery scandal that sometimes netted a few dollars or several thousand.
He told of passing on most of the funds to Bongiovanni while always pocketing some for himself for such favors as ticket fixing, no-bail releases for prisoners or pre-arranged rulings in court cases.
"He never paid me a penny," Bongiovanni said sternly in a voice that still carries the accent of his Buffalo, N.Y., upbringing.
Bongiovanni said the Dottore he knew was a compassionate man who had been an emotional support for the judge as his wife slowly deteriorated from the ravages of multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
"He was somebody I could talk to," Bongiovanni testified. "If my wife was in the hospital, he would be right there, asking to help."
"He was always there for me and I thought it was really for me ... (but) I found out it was really for him," Bongiovanni said in a voice filled with emotion. "I feel so betrayed. He took advantage of my name and reputation."
He downplayed the $500 in marked money that Dottore had given him on Oct. 17, 1995, and found by investigators when the FBI raided his the judge's house.
Dottore testified that while he owed Bongiovanni $500, the cash actually was used to bribe the judge in the case of Terry Salem, a friend of Dottore's who he said had participated with him in the theft of more than $100,000 from the bank account of a dead man.
Bongiovanni maintained that the money he received was repayment for a loan he and others had given Dottore and emphasized that he had told that to agents at his home.
He conceded that he originally had denied receiving any money from Dottore as agents, armed with a search warrant, fanned out through his house. He never explained why he hadn't been truthful.
When the judge went to tend to his stricken wife, a Metro Police detective accompanying the FBI spotted the money peeking through a hole in a pocket of Bongiovanni's shorts.
In addition to the charges that he accepted bribes for judicial favors, Bongiovanni is charged with helping friends by granting no-bail releases on the word of just one side in a case or arranging for special treatment of traffic tickets.
But Justices of the Peace James Bixler and Tony Abbatangelo said that traffic tickets are routinely disposed of expeditiously rather than setting hearings and trials in each case.
Bixler noted that 600 to 900 citations are issued each day in Las Vegas Township and it would be impossible for hearings to be held in each case.
The judges said referrals of cases to traffic judges for calendaring and disposition -- as Bongiovanni is alleged to have done -- are not unusual.
Bixler said that he has had cases referred by prosecutors, police, FBI agents and DEA agents in addition to private citizens and district judges who do no handle such minor matters.
Bixler noted, however, that receiving even minor gifts for handling cases is improper.
Bongiovanni was caught on tape talking about receiving golf balls from one person whose case was referred for disposition.
The JPs also said it is routine to release prisoners without bail at the request of one party if there is evidence to show the persons will appear for court hearings and not be a threat to the community.
Prosecutors have alleged that Bongiovanni handed out the "own recognizance" releases as favors to friends, but Bixler said it is proper for a judge to use his or her relationship with attorneys as a reliability factor in deciding whether to issue O.R.s.
Bongiovanni admitted he routinely would grant O.R.s to attorneys who were his friends and whose clients would show up for court hearings.
Absent from court Monday was Kutash, 52, despite having been served a subpoena to be a defense witness.
Kutash had gone through his own trial this summer on charges of paying Bongiovanni a bribe for favorable treatment in a civil case over control of his "Splash" show at the Riviera hotel-casino.
Kutash had denied at his trial paying the purported $5,000 bribe that Dottore said he brokered, and the jury acquitted him of all charges.
Defense attorney Tom Pitaro had wanted Kutash to repeat the denials, but his lawyer, Oscar Goodman, said the producer couldn't appear because he was in the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute at UCLA.
Kutash's psychiatrist told George that Kutash is suffering from "severe anxiety and panic and concerns about his safety" and it was "medically necessary" to hospitalize him Sunday night.
The problem with his testifying, according to some defense attorneys at the Clark County Courthouse, is that federal prosecutors could then charge him with perjury for denying what they believe to be true and force him to stand trial again on virtually the same allegations.
The jury in the Bongiovanni trial, however, got to hear from Kutash.
His prior testimony was read to the jury and a wiretap tape was played of him denying to Starlee Leavitt -- who was his show producer and became an FBI informant -- that he had agreed to pay the bribe or had given her an envelope of cash.
Dottore had testified that Leavitt gave him the envelope and he passed it on to Bongiovanni.
Leavitt is expected to be called as a rebuttal witness by prosecutors.
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