Trial draws few of Fumo's friends, foes

SO WHO attended opening arguments in the city's biggest corruption trial in a generation?

The beginning of the drama that could end state Sen. Vince Fumo's colorful and contentious career yesterday attracted relatively few Fumo friends or detractors. It did attract a handful of curiosity seekers and many wearing the fitted suits and trim haircuts of lawyers, prosecutors and federal agents.

Turnpike Authority chairman Mitchell Rubin, a longtime Fumo friend and husband of Fumo's co-defendant, Ruth Arnao, sat in the third row and explained during a break why many Fumo loyalists couldn't attend.

"Everybody's on the witness list," Rubin said.

One man sitting in the last row of the courtroom caught the eye of Rubin and other Fumo supporters: Ed Kirlin, a communications consultant who has worked for years with electricians' union Local 98, the power base of Fumo's arch-adversary, John Dougherty.

Kirlin said that he wasn't there to monitor the trial for Dougherty or the union.

"I'm a journalist," Kirlin said. Asked whom he was reporting for, Kirlin said, "I'm not at liberty to say." He left after opening statements from prosecutors and Fumo's attorney, and didn't return for the afternoon court session.

Besides the reporters, many in the packed courtroom were prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney's Office, dropping in to watch their colleagues open a big case.

Cathy Henry, an attorney for the Philadelphia Federal Defender Office, brought a half-dozen students from her Temple law-school class for the opening statements.

"I wanted them to see [Fumo attorney] Dennis Cogan," Henry said. "It's good experience."

Most of the handful of spectators in street clothes declined to talk with this reporter. One who did was Frank Graff, a retired administrator for PennDOT who frequently e-mails journalists with expressions of outrage at corrupt politicians.

Graff said that Fumo gets the presumption of innocence, but he said that he's troubled by the government's charges.

"I want to know if the senator I've known for 30 years really did these things," Graff said.

Fumo himself arrived in court wearing a dark gray suit and pink tie. He appeared pensive while prosecutors detailed the charges against him. But he was relaxed and cheerful during breaks, engaging in friendly banter with friends, reporters and even federal agents.

Fumo's son, Vincent, attended the proceedings along with a handful of friends.

Arnao said after the session that she was glad to have made it through the day, during which, she knew, prosecutors would forcefully describe her alleged crimes to the jury.

"It's hard sitting there, especially when they point the finger at you," Arnao said. Asked what she would do with the evening, she smiled at the thought of the Phillies in the World Series.

"I'm going to watch the ball game," she grinned.

The trial is expected to last three months. *