Vince's Carpenter Didn't Like Vince's "Cocky" Son-In-Law
Courtroom Buzz
Beasley News Service
November 05, 2008
At the Vince Fumo political corruption trial today, Vince's carpenter, Patrick "P.J." Harrison, testified that he thought Vince's turncoat son-in-law, Christian Marrone, was "cocky," and also, that he didn't see too much of Marrone while working inside Vince's 33-room castle on Green Street.
Harrison, who worked on the mansion for two and a half years, between 1997 and 2000, told jurors that Marrone would stop by "mostly every day" and stay no more than an hour and a half at a time, although sometimes he'd stop by twice a day.
"From time to time, he asked me to do something and I'd do it," Harrison testified. Harrison said Marrone's main job was to hand out "typed memos" to the construction crew at the mansion, telling them whatever jobs Vince wanted done. Harrison added that Marrone would sometimes intimate to the carpenter that he didn't know what he was doing, which Harrison did not appreciate.
Marrone, a key prosecution witness, told jurors last week that during his first 18 months as a Fumo aide, he spent 80 percent of his time supervising construction at Vince's mansion on Greet St.
The prosecution called Harrison today to have him testify about all the work that was going on inside the Fumo castle. Harrison told jurors he was part of a construction crew that included a stucco worker, a bricklayer, a plumber, an electrician, an interior decorator and a housekeeper. Harrison also testified that a truck from Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit founded by Fumo, also stopped by every week to pick up Vince's trash.
Fumo is charged in a 139-count federal indictment with using state contractors and state employees as servants to cater to his personal and political needs, allowing the former state senator to lead a lavish lifestyle and allegedly bilk the taxpayers out of $3.5 million. Fumo, a political titan as a state senator for three decades in Harrisburg, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and filing false tax returns.
On cross-examination, Cogan asked Harrison if it was possible that Marrone spent "80 percent of his day on Green St."
"No," Harrison replied, "He did not spend 80 percent of his time on Green St."
The next witness was Stephen Coulahan, a private investigator who testified how he spent two hours one night in 2002 videotaping people who attended a fundraiser at "Doc's Union Pub." The bar was owned by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, the business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 98, and a political foe of Fumo's.
Coulahan told jurors how he sat in the back seat of an SUV with tinted windows and aimed his 8 mm camera at anybody who walked into the bar.
"If I remember correctly, a lot of the gentlemen were wearing suits," Coulahan told the jurors. He said the instructions he received from Frank Wallace, Fumo's main private investigator, was to "go there and videotape whomever comes and goes."
Coulahan told jurors how he met Wallace near the I-95 bridge in South Philadelphia, and swapped the video for $150 in cash.
The trial resumes Thursday morning.
