Ex-judge called victim of overzealous feds

Jury deliberations continued this morning in the racketeering trial of former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni.

Two weeks of testimony closed Thursday in the case, which is federal prosecutors second attempt to convict Bongiovanni. The first effort ended when another jury failed to reach a verdict in December after three days of deliberations.

Bongiovanni was the victim of an overzealous, misguided federal investigator who was determined to find corruption where none existed, defense attorney Thomas Pitaro said during closing statements Thursday.

The jury in Bongiovanni's racketeering trial began deliberating late in the afternoon, and U.S. District Judge Lloyd George instructed them to return this morning. They resumed their task at 8:30 a.m.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson used flow-charts to explain the complicated trail of events in the corruption trial, which prosecutors allege involves a judge willing to sell his influence for a few dollars.

But Pitaro argued there was never any evidence Bangiovanni ever did anything wrong, even after FBI Special Agent Jerry Hanford spent more than a year taping conversations between Bangiovanni and alleged middle men in the bribery schemes.

"There were 90,000 minutes of taped conversations, and in addition they (bugged) the judge's office phone for a year and a half," said Pitaro.

And when investigators couldn't find evidence in all those taped conversations, they enlisted the aid of two known con-men with extensive criminal records who were known to routinely lie, said Pitaro.

Pitaro was referring to Bongiovanni's former close friend Paul Dottore, who testified for the state, and Terry Salem.

He said Dottore befriended Bongiovanni at a time when he was vulnerable because of his terminally ill wife.

"We're not insects. We're not made of stone," said Pitaro, explaining why Bongiovanni would associate with someone like Dottore. "What does a fraud look like? Con artists take advantage of people."

Pitaro said the taped conversations between Dottore and Bongiovanni "are nothing more than abuse of friendship by Paul Dottore."

The defense attorney hammered away at Hanford's investigation.

"What was (Bongiovanni) supposed to do for the bribes?" Pitaro asked rhetorically. "Hanford's answer was, I don't know."

Pitaro said Hanford accused Bongiovanni of taking bribes for fixing traffic tickets, but he never bothered to investigate how the tickets were treated or whether the defendant influenced the outcome.

Salem and Dottore were convicted of bank fraud for the theft of more than $100,000 from a dead man's bank account. Both agreed to testify for the state in return for reduced sentences.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker, during rebuttal arguments Thursday afternoon, said the statements made by the two witnesses fit the facts of the case and were taped and therefore should be believed.

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