Judge delays Fumo's trial beyond primary

Handing State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo a legal and political victory, a federal judge yesterday pushed back Fumo's corruption trial by seven months - past next year's primary.

U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. agreed with Fumo that the senator's new lawyer needed more time to prepare for the complex trial.

Fumo was to go on trial in February. Yohn set jury selection for Sept. 8.

The trial is expected to be long, with prosecutors taking two months just to present their case. The delay means Fumo will be spared being on trial while running for reelection in the April primary.

Fumo was charged in February with defrauding taxpayers and a pair of nonprofit organizations, as well as with attempting to obstruct the long federal investigation of his conduct.

To help pay his legal bills, Fumo has put his Spring Garden mansion up for sale for $7 million. The asking price has stirred controversy given that the city values the four-story home at only $250,000 for tax purposes.

In a development unrelated to the criminal trial, a Fumo political rival yesterday pointed to records showing that city assessors tried to hike the value of the house in 2003 to $436,400.

For reasons that were not immediately clear, the city ultimately valued the mansion at $250,000.

In his criminal case, Fumo spent months this year fighting a move by prosecutors to force him to quit using well-known Philadelphia lawyer Richard A. Sprague. The U.S Attorney's Office contended that Sprague faced a conflict because his firm had provided legal advice to victims of Fumo's alleged schemes, such as the state Senate.

After Yohn ruled that Fumo could keep Sprague, Fumo reversed course. He dropped Sprague and sought to hire veteran Philadelphia defense lawyer Dennis J. Cogan.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Pease cited Fumo's reversals yesterday, saying the legislator had "wasted six months in an exercise in futility."

Pease argued that the whole matter was a ploy by Fumo. In court papers, Pease said unnamed "reliable sources" had alerted prosecutors that Fumo had been telling acquaintances that he intended to delay his trial.

A long delay would give Fumo time "to taint the jury pool by holding press conferences and blitzing the airwaves with campaign commercials," Pease declared.

Finally, he wrote, the public itself had a right to a "speedy trial," given Fumo's political prominence.

While prosecutors asked Yohn to grant a delay of just two months, Fumo's new lawyer, Cogan, told the judge that he was locked into seven trials in the near future.

Robert Scandone, a longtime friend of Fumo's who had helped him find a lawyer, told the judge that other topflight defense attorneys had similarly crowded schedules.

The judge, Cogan, and prosecutors Pease and Robert A. Zauzmer agreed that a summer trial would unfairly disrupt the vacations of jurors and witnesses. That left only next fall.

In calls to reporters yesterday, the campaign of Democrat Anne Dicker, who has announced plans to run against Fumo in the primary, raised new questions about the assessment of Fumo's mansion.

The campaign noted that according to Hallwatch.org, a Web site that makes city records public, tax officials had valued Fumo's house at $436,400 in 2003.

Ed Goppelt, who runs Hallwatch, said city officials had given him the data with that assessment.

Other city records show that the city valued the home at $250,000 in 2003, an increase from $200,000 the year before.

Asked late yesterday about the change, Kevin Feeley, a spokesman for the city's Board of Revision of Taxes, said the board would research the assessment history, but could not immediately explain the matter.

David Glancey, the board's chairman in 2003, said he wasn't familiar with the details of Fumo's assessments. But, he said, it appeared that assessors had rolled back the $436,4000 figure in response to a complaint or an appeal.

A call seeking comment from Fumo's office was not returned.

Last week, the Board of Revision of Taxes voted, 4-3, against an immediate reassessment of Fumo's house, in light of its sale price. The majority felt an increase would amount to an improper "spot assessment," Feeley said.