By Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
The invulnerability profession for one-time House orator Salvatore DiMasi told jurors currently that the key lawsuit declare in the sovereign crime hearing was not usually a liar ” he was a bad one, too.
Delivering the last shutting evidence in US District Court, profession William Cintolo reminded jurors about a segment of the be evidence of of Joseph P. Lally, Jr., who was a suspect in the box but cut a attend to prosecutors and testified against his one-time allies. Lally testified about a review between the two group in that DiMasi allegedly used the phrase, “let’s make hay.”
“Can you suppose 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 4 — not what Joe Lally wants it to be.”
DiMasi and his friends, Richard Vitale and Richard McDonough, have been on hearing is to past 6 weeks in US District Court. All 3 are charged with swindling to use the power of the speaker’s office to help a Burlington program company, Cognos, win two state contracts totaling $17.5 million in swap for secret payments.
“We do not 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 3 invulnerability attorneys to broach shutting arguments to the jury, that is approaching to start deliberations on Monday after Chief Judge Mark Wolf gives them instructions on how to appreciate the law.
Cintolo told jurors that to be able to crook DiMasi, prosecutors contingency have drawn an non-breakable couple between DiMasi, the Cognos contract, and his friends. Prosecutors, Cintolo said, unsuccessful wretchedly and jurors should opinion to discharge the North End resident.
“They [federal prosecutors] contingency remonstrate you that Salvatore DiMasi is guilty,” Cintolo said. “There’s got to be that linkage, something. That’s what this box 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 encouragement the orator in 2004, imprinting the commencement of the conspiracy. Lally mentioned he put one-time DiMasi law friend Steven Topazio on the Cognos payroll because McDonough told him the allowance would be paid to DiMasi in referred fees.
DiMasi allegedly received $65,000 that was funneled by Topazio, and prosecutors say he moreover programmed to gain from $600,000 paid to Vitale as segment of the deals. McDonough received $300,000 for his purported purpose in assisting to secure the contracts for Cognos.
Today, Assistant US Attorney S. Theodore Merritt got the last word.
In a 20-minute rebuttal, Merritt told jurors that the invulnerability — that called just 3 witnesses this week — has attempted to upset them by insisting that Lally is the heart of the lawsuit evidence. Nothing could be serve from the truth, he said.
“Lally is the centerpiece of the invulnerability case,” Merritt said. “This type of haunt invulnerability just wants you to ensure to overlook” the hurtful activities of the defendants.
Earlier today, the attorneys for DiMasi’s co-defendants pounded Lally as a liar who straightforwardly made his be evidence of as prosecutors asked him to do.
Thomas Drechsler, McDonough’s attorney, said, Lally’s be evidence of should not be relied to crook any person of a crime. “The next time he tells the truth, we indicate to you, would be the initial time he tells the truth,” Drechsler said.
He moreover mentioned that if McDonough was able to obtain DiMasi to do his bidding, wouldn’t McDonough have more legislative successes to show off about?
“If my customer had depraved Mr. DiMasi, where are those container machines … at Suffolk Downs?” the profession asked rhetorically.
McDonough formerly represented the owners of the East Boston follow who were pulling to have container machines ratified and commissioned at race marks when DiMasi was in office.
Vitale’s attorney, Martin Weinberg, mentioned the box against his customer was built on “quicksand.”
“This box is built on a substructure of swamp … because [Lally] does not think in the dignified disposition of truth,” Weinberg said. “The supervision has offering you no conversations in that Mr. DiMasi said, ‘pay my friend Richard Vitale.’ ”
Weinberg added: “Not proven is not guilty.”
But Assistant US Attorney Anthony Fuller decorated DiMasi as a absolute statesman with a burned out bank account who conspired with his friends to renovate his high office in to a money-making machine.
“This lady due a task to supply honest service, and the intrigue to deceive … would engage breaching that duty,” Fuller said.
Fuller told jurors the evidence evidently shows that DiMasi and his allies illegally profited from the Cognos deal.
“Sal DiMasi was on the servant [for Cognos] … he was ready, able, peaceful to perform, and he did,” Fuller said. “The allowance was paid — those are called kickbacks, ladies and gentlemen.”
Fuller told jurors that once DiMasi took over manage of the House, his funds suffered significantly since mislaid income from his law practice.
“You know from the evidence his funds were difficult, to say the least. … One, his income went down,” Fuller said. “But two, he got a lot of power.”
He mentioned that Vitale programmed to flue a few of the cash to DiMasi.
“What Vitale is going to take from one palm with the kickbacks, he’s going to pay DiMasi with the other hand,” Fuller mentioned in court.
Fuller concurred to jurors that Lally has his flaws ” that is why he was “just the type of man you’d design to be churned up in this type of scheme.” But Fuller moreover mentioned Lally had out of the ordinary access to DiMasi.
“He’s a salesman, an ordinary program salesman,” Fuller mentioned of Lally. “How was he able to do it? He’s got [DiMasi's] cellphone number. Ask yourself if that creates sense.”
Topazio testified that he was an oblivious member in the purported intrigue and that he incited over checks to DiMasi.
Several members of Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, inclusive the commissioner himself, testified that DiMasi lobbied them is to type of program at situation in the case, even though they concurred that DiMasi never mentioned Cognos by name.
Fuller attempted to concentration the jury’s concern on the conversations between Patrick and DiMasi. He told the governor, remember, ‘that stipulate is critical to me,’ ” Fuller said.
