Longtime Providence, R.I., Mayor Convicted in Corruption Case

AP ^ | Jun 24, 2002 | By Brian Carovillano

[krodriguesdc]

Longtime Providence, R.I., Mayor Convicted in Corruption Case

By Brian Carovillano Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2002

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr. was convicted of corruption Monday in a blow for the irrepressible politician who was accused of turning City Hall into a den of thieves even as he revitalized Rhode Island's biggest city.

Cianci, 61, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, but he was acquitted of nine other charges, including racketeering. The jurors said they were hung up on two charges related to allegations that Cianci extorted a free lifetime membership to a health club. They were ordered back to work by the judge.

As the verdict was read, Cianci was expressionless, occasionally donning a pair of reading glasses as he stared at some papers on the defense table. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

City Hall officials have said they believe Cianci can remain in office until all appeals are exhausted. The mayor has also said he planned to run for a fourth consecutive term this fall.

The verdict came after a seven-week federal trial in which prosecutors alleged Cianci, his former top aide and two businessmen solicited bribes in exchange for city jobs, contracts and tax breaks.

The mayor turned Providence into a "city for sale," prosecutor Richard Rose told jurors during his closing argument. Defense attorneys called Cianci's accusers liars and thieves, and said one witness was "a pig, plain and simple."

The mayor's co-defendants - former top aide Frank Corrente and tow-truck operator Richard Autiello - also were convicted of racketeering conspiracy. Corrente was convicted on seven of 16 counts, including racketeering, while Autiello was convicted on three of seven charges.

The judge had earlier acquitted a fourth defendant, businessman Edward Voccola, of racketeering.

Despite the allegations, Cianci has enjoyed approval ratings of more than 60 percent. The stocky bachelor with a gift for gab has presided over a renaissance in Providence that includes new parks, a $460 million shopping mall and more than $300 million in transportation improvements.

During the trial, he never cut down on his daily duties as Rhode Island's omnipresent politician, appearing on a national radio talk show during the trial and continuing to hawk his own brand of spaghetti sauce.

Prosecutors said Cianci brought corruption with him when he returned to the mayor's office in 1991 after a six-year hiatus. They presented a colorful array of witnesses who testified that city officials routinely shook them down to curry favor with the mayor.

Convicted felons boasted in surveillance tapes about their City Hall connections and salty tow-truck operators testified they set up straw donors to illegally contribute to Cianci's campaign fund. A woman who said she paid $5,000 to get her son a job on the police force and a man who said he paid a $5,000 bribe for a $9-an-hour temporary city job testified against Cianci.

Defense attorneys sought to portray the contributions as strictly voluntary, or bribes solicited by others who traded on their City Hall connections to enrich only themselves.

The government's star witness was businessman Antonio Freitas, who agreed to work undercover when he lost out on a bid to lease property to the city's school department.

Freitas secretly recorded about 180 conversations with city officials from April 1998 to April 1999. At the FBI's direction, he paid bribes for tax breaks and city-brokered deals.

Among the dozens of video and audiotapes played at trial by prosecutors was one showing Freitas handing Corrente an envelope filled with $1,000. Corrente's lawyer called it a moment of weakness.

One of the most celebrated witnesses never appeared on the stand: former tax board Chairman Joseph Pannone, who was caught on many of the Freitas tapes boasting about widespread corruption.

Pannone has twice pleaded guilty to charges related to the FBI's City Hall investigation, dubbed Operation Plunder Dome. On the tapes, Pannone told Freitas that the mayor gave him advice on how to take bribes in exchange for favors and tax breaks from the city. He also described Cianci as a man addicted to money.

"He needs the green. He's got to fix his hair," Pannone says of Cianci, who wears a thick salt-and-pepper toupee.

"That's how the city of Providence is run," Pannone told Freitas on another tape. "If you don't pay, forget it. ... This has been going on since day one."

"So, since Buddy got in, this has mushroomed and mushroomed and mushroomed?" Freitas asks.

"Yeah. ... There's no control no more," says Pannone, who is serving time in a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts.

Cianci is a former state prosecutor who was assigned to the state's anti-corruption strike force. He rode his courtroom success into City Hall in 1974, running first as a Republican but later switching to an independent. His first two terms were marred by the extortion and fraud convictions of 22 city workers.

His political career was put on hold in 1984 when he pleaded no contest to charges he beat his estranged wife's lover with a fireplace log. After spending his five-year suspended sentence working as a popular local radio host, he returned to office in 1991.

AP-ES-06-24-02 1347EDT

[LouD]

The mayor turned Providence into a "city for sale"

BS - Providence has always been for sale. Rhode Island's third-world politics and the resulting high taxes to support a bunch of patronage hacks is one of the big reasons I no longer live there.

[NativeSon]

Just for kicks I decided to look at what party this Mayor is of. I could not find what his party listed with his name but I did find this:

(this appeared in The Brown Daily Herald on Thursday, April 5, 2001)

By David Rivello
Herald Staff Writer

Leading state politicians are split along party lines over whether Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. should resign, as the city’s embattled chief executive awaits arraignment this Friday on federal racketeering charges.

U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., joined governor Lincoln Almond in demanding Wednesday that Cianci resign his post, but U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and U.S. Reps. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and James Langevin, D-R.I., said only Cianci can determine if the charges will hamper his ability to govern.

[LouD]

He used to be a Republican, then ran into some legal trouble a few years ago during his first stint as Mayor. He took a few years off, as a radio talk show host, then made a comeback as an independent.

(An aside: His legal problems involved assault on a guy who was fooling around with his wife. I think a lot of Rhode Islanders were actually proud of Buddy for that - especially since my uncle, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Cianci, told me that the kids called him "Porky" and routinely beat the crap out of him as a child. He's come a long way ;-) )

However, in Rhode Island, party affiliation is pretty unimportant - All the Republicans are RINOs, blurring party distinctions, hence people like Chafee, as liberal a Republican as you will find in the U.S. Senate. People tend to vote for the lesser of two evils: A prime consideration is who is less crooked - or who is more crooked, and likely to throw some good old fashioned patronage my way.

Sadly enough, in the small city outside Providence where I grew up, I actually favored the Democrats - The verdict is still out as to whether it was incompetence or malfeasance which destroyed the city's finances. However, knowing the former mayor (not Cianci), I suspect it was a little of both.

The sad thing about Buddy Cianci is that he actually did a reasonably good job for Providence - The city is a much better place than when he took over, and I have to say that much of the improvement is a direct result of his leadership. Too bad he's a crook.

[Semper911]

Cianci, 61, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, but he was acquitted of nine other charges, including racketeering.

So he is guilty of rackettering conspiracy, but not of racketeering. Whatever. That town has been corrupt from day one, but a lot of good has come to Providence since Buddy has been Mayor. Everyone loves the guy. I am watching the local news feed right now, and the anchors have referred to him as "Buddy Cianci, the Mayor who has turned this city around."

Right now they are interviewing one of the witnesses who testified against Buddy, and the anchor asked with a sneer, "You feel victorious??? Then she ended the interview.

I am telling you, this city loves their Buddy. He is, btw, America's longest serving Mayor.

To sum up: He is a made man, and he does whatever it takes to get things done. For better or for worse.