Categories: Courtroom Buzz
      Date: February 05, 2009
     Title: Will Vince Take the Stand After Fast Eddie?

Live from the Fumo trial as the defense gets ready to wind up its case

By Ralph Cipriano


Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan found a pack of reporters waiting for him outside the courtroom. "Uh-oh," Cogan said as he faced down his questioners. "Ok, take out your guns and start shooting."

As Cogan stood there, with client Vince Fumo by his side, the defense lawyer was repeatedly asked the big question: will Vince take the stand in his own defense?

"I cannot say," Cogan said. He also indicated that he hasn't even decided yet whether Fumo should testify. Or maybe Cogan didn't want to telegraph his decision to government prosecutors monitoring news accounts of the trial. All Cogan would say was an enigmatic "The decision will be made."

Cogan did confirm that when the trial resumes Monday, the lead-off defense witness will be Gov. Ed Rendell, who is expected to testify for about a half an hour about what a hard-working and dedicated public servant Vince Fumo was. Rendell is expected to be the last defense witness unless Fumo or his co-defendant, Ruth Arnao, decides to take the stand.

Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter announced before he dismissed the jury for the weekend that lawyers on both sides of the case had assured him they will be "completely done with testimony next week." The judge added that "the following week," he would present his instructions to the jury.

So, courtroom observers were left to speculate about the few facts in evidence. If Rendell is the only witness to take the stand Monday, and he's only going to testify for 30 minutes, what will the defense do with the rest of the week? From that scenario, it seemed like a safe bet that Fumo would take the stand on Monday, after the governor got through, and the rest of the week would be devoted to Fumo's direct testimony and cross-examination.

But Cogan wasn't going to confirm any theories, and his client wasn't talking either.

In court today, Edwin Jacobs, the defense lawyer for Arnao, called a certified public accountant, Donna Busby, to the witness stand. Busby was there to counter prosecution arguments that the Citizens Alliance for Better Governments had spent state grant money to buy Fumo personal items such as power tools.

The Citizens Alliance was a nonprofit founded by Fumo; Arnao was the nonprofit's former executive director. In her brief courtroom appearance Busby testified that the nonprofit account that state grant money was kept in, after hundreds of transfers in and out of the account, ended up with a $300,000 surplus. And of $490,000 in original grant money, after numerous repayments from private donations, only $6,500 had not been repaid to the Citizens Alliance.

The point of Busby's confusing testimony seemed to be there was no large chunk of money missing and unaccounted for. Government prosecutors on an extensive and even more confusing cross-examination got Busby to admit that she had found no proof that non-grant money had been used to buy power tools for Fumo. 

It was a fuzzy finish for the 16th week of testimony in the Fumo case. Tune in again Monday for further developments. At this point, all we can say for sure is that when court resumes, Fast Eddie will be there. Whether Vince will join him is still up in the air.