Fumo defense begins, tries to discredit government witnesses

After listening to 14 weeks of testimony from 77 government witnesses, former state Sen. Vince Fumo finally began his defense yesterday against federal corruption charges.

Fumo's defense team first called Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor, a former district attorney, to the witness stand. He quickly attacked the credibility of star government witness Christian Marrone.

When he was D.A., Castor hired Marrone after he left Fumo's employ in 2002.

Castor testified that when he hired Marrone as an assistant district attorney, Marrone was "very vehement" in conveying that he didn't like Fumo because of family matters. (Marrone is married to Fumo's estranged daughter, Nicole.)

Castor told jurors that he fired Marrone two days after the Republican primary for state attorney general in May 2004, after he learned that Marrone had supported his opponent in the primary.

"I dismissed him because I didn't trust him," Castor said, adding that "having a guy like that sneaking around my back was not somebody I wanted in the office."

Before that time, however, working relations between the two men were much friendlier.

Under a withering cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pease, Castor admitted that Marrone had offered to help him politically and that Castor had encouraged Marrone to contact key fundraisers in Philadelphia as he pondered a run for state attorney general.

The former D.A. said that he "probably" had political fundraising meetings in his office with Marrone.

The jury heard of e-mails - sent on the county's e-mail system - between Marrone and Castor in which the two discusssed Castor's campaign and fundraising in 2003 and 2004.

Pease asked if Castor recalled meeting with the FBI and federal prosecutors about using the county's e-mail system to do campaign-related work.

"I shouldn't have done that," Castor replied.

Pease also reminded Castor of a glowing performance evaluation Marrone had received in 2003. He also questioned Castor about a 4.5 percent raise Marrone got in December 2003, which Castor said wasn't a decision he had made.

"All I did was notify him," Castor said. "I did not decide who got it."

Fumo attorney Dennis J. Cogan also tried to undermine Marrone's credibility with the testimony of former Fumo housekeeper Rita Jensen.

Marrone had testified last October that he spent almost 80 percent of his time during his first 18 months in Fumo's employ from May 1997 to December 1998 as a "project manager" overseeing renovations and arranging for contractors to do work at Fumo's Fairmount mansion.

Jensen testified that she had seen Marrone at Fumo's house only two or three times, but on cross-examination admitted she hadn't started working for Fumo until September 1998 and had no knowledge about renovations done before then or about who had tabs on contractors.

Defense attorneys for Fumo and co-defendant Ruth Arnao, a former Fumo aide, declined to say yesterday whether their clients would testify in their own defense.

Fumo and Arnao are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and related tax offenses.

The defense could take several weeks.

It expects to call two process servers, who serve subpoenas for defense lawyers, and two top Fumo aides on the Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee - Paul Dlugolecki and Christopher Craig - to the witness stand today. *