ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A federal jury on Thursday began deliberating two fraud charges against the former New York state Senate leader after prosecutors and defense attorneys accused each other of using half-truths and misrepresenting testimony.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Coombe argued that Sen. Joe Bruno did no actual work for bribes disguised as consulting payments while directing state grants of $250,000 and $1.5 million to one of Jared Abbruzzese’s technology companies. Bruno also helped the businessman in his attempt take over the New York Racing Association by naming his partner to the board, she said.
“No one at all could tell you what the defendant did for all those $20,000 (payments),” Coombe said of actual consulting work. She said there was no evidence of it in weeklong testimony from former aides and business associates of the two men.
Prosecutors accuse Bruno of accepting $360,000 in consulting fees in monthly installments in 2004-2005, plus $80,000 for his share in a worthless racehorse, from Abbruzzese in return for helping his businesses with state grants and advancing his interest in New York’s thoroughbred racing.
The Rensselaer County Republican led the Senate’s majority for 14 years before stepping down in 2008. Prosecutors called him one of the three most powerful men in Albany.
The jury deliberated for two hours late Thursday afternoon then left, planning to resume Friday morning.
In closing arguments Thursday, defense attorney E. Stewart Jones emphasized that Abbruzzese, shielded from prosecution for anything except perjury, had testified that he “absolutely” never bribed Bruno or intended to. Consulting arrangements aren’t unusual in business, and the only person who can decide if it’s an improper amount for the work done is the person paying, the lawyer said.
At time shouting and then nearly whispering to the 12 jurors, Jones said prosecutors have “a bloodlust” for the 85-year-old Bruno, having pursued the case against him for eight years. He argued they have often omitted or misrepresented key facts in bringing their case.
He said Abbruzzese only had a minor investment in Evident Technologies, the business that got grants and that federal authorities never actually asked anyone direct questions about bribery and kickbacks before he did. He also said the attempt to privatize the racing association was an effort to fix it in 2005 that came when the nonprofit state racing franchise was “a cesspool of corruption” under federal indictment and facing bankruptcy.
Before a group including Abbruzzese bid for the franchise, he and Bruno ended their horse venture, Jones said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak, in rebuttal arguments, said it would be up to the jury to decide whether Abbruzzese testified truthfully. The businessman’s statements about Bruno introducing him to Donald Trump and others in 2004 as his consultant were actually wrong by two years, he said. “He was making stuff up.”
“Sophisticated politicians and businessmen don’t use the word bribe,” Pericak said. “They sniff each other out.”
U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe, who presided at Bruno’s first fraud trial in 2009, told the jury that to convict him they had to conclude there was bribery or a kickback, though specific payments for specific official actions didn’t have to match up. He also said good faith on Bruno’s part, with no scheme or intent to deny New Yorkers of his so-called honest services, is a valid defense.
Bruno did not testify.
“It’s going to be a good day,” he said before walking into the courtroom Thursday. “Trust in the Lord.”
Bruno was acquitted of five charges in the first trial and convicted of two, which were overturned on appeal. Prosecutors refiled those two.
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