By Ralph Cipriano

It was a rough job, providing computer assistance to Vince Fumo. Ask Mark Eister, a former Fumo computer consultant who turned the witness stand into a confessional.

You had to work long hours. You had to do personal errands for Vince, like help move his hot tub, spy on his girlfriends’ emails, and also do tech support for Vince’s kids. And then the FBI shows up at your house with an arrest warrant.

"I am guilty," a forlorn Mark Eister told Prosecutor John Pease today in federal court. "I broke that statute of the law," he said, explaining how in purging countless Fumo emails and wiping clean numerous Fumo office computers, Eister may have been following the boss’s orders, but he was also leaving himself open for multiple counts of obstruction of justice.

Eister told the prosecutor that even his own lawyer told him he had broken the law. "My defense lawyer kept telling me that," Eister testified. This was after the FBI showed up at his house with an arrest warrant. And Eister, who said he lives "120 miles away" from Philadelphia, had to ponder the practical implications of hiring defense lawyers for a trial that has already gone on for three months.

That’s why, Eister told Pease, he concluded it would be "financially disastrous to mount a defense." Eister was explaining why he decided to plead guilty, and become a cooperating witness in the case against Fumo.

Fumo is charged in a 139-count federal indictment with using state contractors and state employees such as Eister as servants, allowing Fumo to lead a lavish lifestyle and defraud the state Senate and two nonprofit agencies out of goods and services worth $3.5 million. The former state senator, who served three decades in Harrisburg, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, obstruction of justice and filing false tax returns.

Eister was cross-examined today, and the most useful thing he gave the defense was his comments on an email from Leonard P. Luchko, another former Fumo computer consultant in a world of trouble.

Luchko is the guy who agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice and testify against Fumo. And then Luchko proceeded to send thousands of emails to Vince and all the guys and gals in the office who used to work for Vince. Now, the government says they don’t plan to call Luchko as a prosecution witness, and they’ll have plenty to say about his lack of cooperation when it’s Luchko’s turn to be sentenced before a judge.

The Luchko email that the defense pounced on today was an oldie, sent to Eister when both were providing tech support and running personal errands for Vince. In the email, Luchko was giving Eister advice on what to do when you have to tell the staff a new office rule that nobody’s going to like. Luchko’s advice was to invoke the boss’s name, and tell ‘em, hey this wasn’t my idea, this is what Vince wants.

Prosecutor John Pease tried to do damage control by asking Eister if he was ever aware of Luchko falsely invoking Vince’s name, but the defense quickly objected, and the judge sustained the objection.

When the jury left for the day, the lawyers in the case were still slugging it out over the admissibility of more Luchko emails. The one that set the lawyers off involved Luchko explaining to a co-worker how tough it was to be a computer consultant working for Vince.

In the email, Luchko said that other people in the office who might have been envious were unaware of his heavy workload. "If people understood how hard my job is," Luchko began in the email, before proceeding to complain about the menial tasks he was asked to perform, such as taking out the trash, driving Vince’s girlfriends to get their hair done, and even wrapping up Fumo bobble-head dolls, and mailing them off to Vince’s adoring fans.

"I would like to see their reaction when they are told to support the Senator, his family, girlfriends and business associates, along with the staff, their friends and their kids 24 hours a day," Luchko wrote.

"P.S. I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for any job in the senate."

Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan told Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter that he had a problem with the judge’s decision to admit that email into evidence. Cogan said he didn’t know whether Luchko was being sarcastic, and he added that he was probably not going to get a chance to cross-examine Luchko about it.

Prosecutor Robert Zauzmer countered that the email showed two co-conspirators in Vince's office commiserating. "It’s a powerful piece of evidence," he said, adding that the defense had the right to call Luchko as a witness if they wanted to.

Zauzmer also contended that Luchko’s emails were crystal clear and unambiguous in their meaning. "He (Luchko) is passionately devoted to working for Senator Fumo, and that’s why he’s in the fix he’s in today," the prosecutor explained to the judge.

The judge said he would give the email another review, but that he didn’t expect to change his mind. The case is scheduled to resume tomorrow at 10 a.m.