Witness' e-mails snarl Fumo trial

Prosecutors in the trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo abruptly abandoned plans to call a key witness yesterday after learning that he had sent thousands of e-mails to Fumo and others.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer said the witness, Leonard P. Luchko, who had been a top computer technician for Fumo, also posted comments via the Web site philly.com on Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News stories about the trial.

The surprising development caused a temporarily halt in the trial, which is set to resume this afternoon with testimony from a computer technician from Fumo's Harrisburg office.

In the end, the e-mails and postings might have an impact on the sentence Luchko gets for obstructing justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 18.

Some of his Internet postings conveyed his wrath at the government and his continued loyalty to Fumo.

"Am I a Fumo fan? You bet I am!" Luchko posted as a comment on the Inquirer's trial blog on Oct. 30, eight days after the trial began. He put the message up under the name lpeagle, a screen name that sources identified as one of several Luchko used.

In another message, he said he did not believe prosecutors had proved their case.

A posting on another Web site by someone who used the pseudonym lpeagle666, declared: "I can tell you first-hand that the FBI is completely out of control."

Zauzmer told U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter that he and Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Pease learned of the e-mails late Friday and had spent the weekend going through them and providing copies to the defense. He said they learned Sunday of Luchko's Internet postings.

"He has been corresponding by e-mail with the defendants, and with witnesses and other former members of the Fumo staff," Zauzmer said of Luchko, who had been slated to testify yesterday.

He said the e-mails began before the trial.

"It's a very, very voluminous set of documents," Zauzmer said.

Luchko was in charge of computers in the once-powerful Democrat's South Philadelphia legislative office. He had been expected to be an important government witness as prosecutors try to show that Fumo obstructed the FBI inquiry.

When Luchko, 52, of Collingdale, Delaware County, pleaded guilty in August to 28 counts of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy, he said that he followed Fumo's orders to erase e-mails the FBI was seeking.

Buckwalter recessed court early after Zauzmer's disclosure and later ordered testimony to resume this afternoon to give defense lawyers time to go through the thousands of e-mails that Luchko sent.

One person familiar with Luchko's private e-mails said the former Fumo aide conveys his antipathy toward the government and expresses regret about becoming a prosecution witness.

The flap about Luchko arose as the prosecution is winding down after a three-month presentation of evidence. Instead of Luchko, Mark C. Eister, the Harrisburg office computer technician, is scheduled to take the stand this afternoon. He pleaded guilty in August to obstructing justice and conspiracy.

In addition to obstruction of justice, Fumo, 65, is charged in the 139-count indictment with defrauding the Senate by getting employees to do personal and campaign work on Senate time and defrauding a South Philadelphia nonprofit. He also is accused of getting free yacht cruises from the Independence Seaport Museum.

His codefendant, Ruth Arnao, former head of Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, is charged with 45 counts, mostly accusing her of defrauding the South Philadelphia nonprofit.

Though Luchko's actions appeared to undermine the prosecution's obstruction case, prosecutors may have avoided an even bigger blow: the prospect that the defense, furnished with his exchanges between Fumo and Arnao, would have subjected Luchko to a devastating cross-examination.

Fumo's lead defense attorney, Dennis J. Cogan, said he needed time to go through the profusion of e-mails because they may affect how he questions other witnesses.

Zauzmer told Buckwalter they were leaning toward not calling Luchko. By late yesterday, it remained unclear whether Luchko would be called at a later point in the trial.

Luchko's affinity for e-mail might lead to a more severe sentence.

He had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and signed a formal agreement in which prosecutors said they would recommend a prison sentence of no more than two years if they determined he had fulfilled all of his obligations.

But the agreement specifies that if the government determines that he has not provided full and truthful cooperation or has "otherwise violated any provision" of the agreement, prosecutors could file other charges or seek a harsher sentence. Luchko, however, could argue that the criminal case has put him under enormous pressure.

His defense attorney, James C. Schwartzman, a longtime Fumo friend, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Luchko, a tall man with a steel-gray crew cut, said in pleading guilty in August that the computer-cleansing campaign was carried out from November 2003 through October 2005.

When he was asked in court in August whether he was guilty of the crimes in his plea agreement, he replied: "Yes, I am."

But in his postings and e-mails, he seemed very angry with the government - and sounded like he considered himself more of a victim than a defendant.

In another post, under the pseudonym Justice4All, he said he didn't think the prosecution "has proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt at all! All they have proven is that Fumo's staff works 60 to 70 hours work weeks and that [Citizens' Alliance] bought Fumo some tools . . . I am a friend of Senator Fumo's and I am proud of it!"