The defense attorney for former House speaker Salvatore DiMasi told jurors today that the key prosecution witness in the federal corruption trial was not only a liar ? he was a bad one, too.
Delivering the final closing argument in US District Court, attorney William Cintolo reminded jurors about a part of the testimony of Joseph P. Lally, Jr., who was a defendant in the case but cut a deal with prosecutors and testified against his former allies. Lally testified about a conversation between the two men in which DiMasi allegedly used the phrase, ?let?s make hay.??
?Can you imagine a North End kid, a North End lifer, saying, ?let?s make hay?? ? Cintolo asked scornfully. ?Ladies and gentlemen, two and two always adds up to four -- not what Joe Lally wants it to be.?
DiMasi and his friends, Richard Vitale and Richard McDonough, have been on trial for the past six weeks in US District Court. All three are charged with conspiracy to use the power of the speaker?s office to help a Burlington software company, Cognos, win two state contracts totaling $17.5 million in exchange for secret payments.
?We don?t work on rumors in this court,?? Cintolo told jurors. ?We work on hard facts, hard evidence that you can look at, touch, see and appreciate.??
Cintolo was the last of three defense attorneys to deliver closing arguments to the jury, which is expected to begin deliberations on Monday after Chief Judge Mark Wolf gives them instructions on how to interpret the law.
Cintolo told jurors that in order to convict DiMasi, prosecutors must have drawn an unbreakable link between DiMasi, the Cognos contract, and his friends. Prosecutors, Cintolo said, failed miserably and jurors should vote to acquit the North End resident.
?They [federal prosecutors] must convince you that Salvatore DiMasi is guilty,?? Cintolo said. ?There?s got to be that linkage, something. That?s what this case is about, quid pro quo. ? You didn?t see it because it doesn?t exist.?
Lally testified last month that McDonough approached him about ways to financially support the speaker in 2004, marking the beginning of the conspiracy. Lally said he put former DiMasi law associate Steven Topazio on the Cognos payroll because McDonough told him the money would be paid to DiMasi in referral fees.
DiMasi allegedly received $65,000 that was funneled through Topazio, and prosecutors say he also planned to benefit from $600,000 paid to Vitale as part of the deals. McDonough received $300,000 for his alleged role in helping to secure the contracts for Cognos.
Today, Assistant US Attorney S. Theodore Merritt got the final word.
In a 20-minute rebuttal, Merritt told jurors that the defense -- which called just three witnesses this week -- has tried to confuse them by insisting that Lally is the heart of the prosecution evidence. Nothing could be further from the truth, he said.
?Lally is the centerpiece of the defense case,?? Merritt said. ?This kind of phantom defense just wants you to make sure to overlook?? the corrupt actions of the defendants.
Earlier today, the attorneys for DiMasi?s co-defendants attacked Lally as a liar who readily shaped his testimony as prosecutors asked him to do.
Thomas Drechsler, McDonough?s attorney, said, Lally?s testimony should not be relied to convict anyone of a crime. ?The next time he tells the truth, I suggest to you, would be the first time he tells the truth,?? Drechsler said.
He also said that if McDonough was able to get DiMasi to do his bidding, wouldn?t McDonough have more legislative successes to brag about?
?If my client had corrupted Mr. DiMasi, where are those slot machines ? at Suffolk Downs?? the attorney asked rhetorically.
McDonough previously represented the owners of the East Boston track who were pushing to have slot machines legalized and installed at race tracks when DiMasi was in office.
Vitale?s attorney, Martin Weinberg, said the case against his client was built on ?quicksand.??
?This case is built on a foundation of quicksand ? because [Lally] does not believe in the moral character of truth,?? Weinberg said. ?The government has offered you no conversations in which Mr. DiMasi said, ?pay my friend Richard Vitale.? ??
Weinberg added: ?Not proven is not guilty.??
But Assistant US Attorney Anthony Fuller depicted DiMasi as a powerful politician with a depleted bank account who conspired with his friends to transform his high office into a money-making machine.
?This gentleman owed a duty to provide honest service, and the scheme to defraud ? would involve breaching that duty,? Fuller said.
Fuller told jurors the evidence clearly shows that DiMasi and his partners illegally profited from the Cognos deal.
?Sal DiMasi was on the retainer [for Cognos] ? he was ready, able, willing to perform, and he did,?? Fuller said. ?The money was paid -- those are called kickbacks, ladies and gentlemen.?
Fuller told jurors that once DiMasi took over control of the House, his finances suffered significantly because of lost income from his law practice.
?You know from the evidence his finances were difficult, to say the least. ? One, his income went down,?? Fuller said. ?But two, he got a lot of power.?
He said that Vitale planned to funnel some of the cash to DiMasi.
?What Vitale is going to receive from one hand with the kickbacks, he?s going to pay DiMasi with the other hand,? Fuller said in court.
Fuller acknowledged to jurors that Lally has his flaws ? which is why he was ?just the kind of guy you?d expect to be mixed up in this type of scheme.?? But Fuller also said Lally had unusual access to DiMasi.
?He?s a salesman, an ordinary software salesman,?? Fuller said of Lally. ?How was he able to do it? He?s got [DiMasi?s] cellphone number. Ask yourself if that makes sense.?
Topazio testified that he was an unwitting participant in the alleged scheme and that he turned over checks to DiMasi.
Several members of Governor Deval Patrick?s administration, including the governor himself, testified that DiMasi lobbied them for the type of software at issue in the case, though they acknowledged that DiMasi never mentioned Cognos by name.
Fuller tried to focus the jury?s attention on the conversations between Patrick and DiMasi. He told the governor, remember, ?that contract is important to me,? ? Fuller said.
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