Ethics panel chief rejects key Fumo defense point

The head of the State Ethics Commission yesterday rejected a central theme of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's defense - that Senate employees may do personal or political errands if that made a legislator a more effective public servant.

Testifying as the fifth prosecution witness in Fumo's federal corruption trial, John J. Contino, executive director of the commission, said the better option would be to "pay somebody to do what he's having the state do for free."

Contino said that any "public official can accomplish more by having government officials go take care of their personal life," but that the state "ethics law would prohibit that."

Fumo, 65, a Democrat who has held tremendous power in Philadelphia and Harrisburg for decades, is accused in a sweeping corruption indictment of using Senate employees and contractors for a variety of personal and political work.

Prosecutors said that the work ranged from cleaning Fumo's Spring Garden mansion and overseeing renovations there to snooping on an ex-wife and a former girlfriend.

Fumo's defense team, however, has portrayed Fumo as a hard-charging, driven lawmaker who was so busy doing public service that devoted staff members occasionally would run errands for him in their spare time.

In his opening address, defense attorney Dennis J. Cogan told the jury that Senate rules allowed aides to do nonlegislative work as long as it made Fumo a more effective public official.

Defense attorney NiaLena Caravasos, a member of the Fumo team, tried during cross-examination to get Contino to say a senator's accomplishments could be considered.

But Contino told the jury that a senator's accomplishments were not relevant - the issue was whether he derived a financial benefit from what an employee had done.

Contino gave a personal example. He told the jury that he might get so busy at work that he wouldn't have time to cut his lawn. The grass would have to stay high, he said, "or I'm going to pay somebody to do it - but I am not going to dispatch one of my investigators or my clerical staff to go mow my lawn."

The prosecution also called to the witness stand carpenter Patrick Harrison, who said he spent about 21/2 years working full-time at Fumo's Spring Garden mansion, starting around 1997.

His testimony corroborated a key point of what former Fumo aide Christian Marrone, who is also Fumo's son-in-law, told the jury last week.

Marrone testified that he spent about 80 percent of his first 18 months working for Fumo overseeing major renovations at the historic mansion on Green Street.

Harrison testified that Marrone did oversee renovations for about 18 months, and that Marrone came to the mansion "mostly every day, sometimes twice a day," to check on the progress.

"He'd just pop in and pop out," said Harrison, who said he would receive memos from Marrone listing things to do at the mansion.

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer, Harrison said that later during his time at the mansion, a woman he knew only as Lisa showed up "a couple days a week" and cleaned Fumo's kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

The prosecution contends that she was a Senate clerk typist and that Fumo had her clean the mansion every week once renovations were completed.

During cross-examination, Cogan suggested that one of Fumo's companies paid for the house cleaning.

Cogan also tried to raise doubts about the extent of Marrone's supervision of the renovations - especially whether he spent 80 percent of his time overseeing the major reconstruction effort.

"Would you agree that this man never spent like 80 percent of the day over on Green Street?" asked Cogan.

"No, he did not spend 80 percent. He'd pop in maybe an hour or less, maybe twice a day," replied Harrison.