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Fumo: Jury says "Guilty" 137 times

HE WAS a political powerhouse in Harrisburg who boasted of securing $8 billion in state largesse for Philadelphia. He had about 90 state-paid aides and contractors at his beck and call to do his personal and political bidding.

Former state Sen. Vince Fumo, accompanied by girlfriend Carolyn Zinni, returns to federal courthouse for bail hearing after his conviction (above); at right, Ruth Arnao, who was also convicted, arrives at court.
Former state Sen. Vince Fumo, accompanied by girlfriend Carolyn Zinni, returns to federal courthouse for bail hearing after his conviction (above); at right, Ruth Arnao, who was also convicted, arrives at court.Read more

HE WAS a political powerhouse in Harrisburg who boasted of securing $8 billion in state largesse for Philadelphia.

He had about 90 state-paid aides and contractors at his beck and call to do his personal and political bidding.

He paid a private eye with state money to spy on his political enemies and tapped a tax-exempt nonprofit he founded to finance a lawsuit against a powerful Senate rival.

But today, former state Sen. Vince Fumo stands as a disgraced pol after a federal jury of 10 women and two men yesterday found him guilty on 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and related offenses.

The convicted Philadelphia Democrat showed no visible emotion as the jury forewoman said "guilty" after each of the counts.

Afterward, Fumo, 65, hugged his son, Vincent, and daughter Allie, and embraced his girlfriend, Carolyn Zinni. The ashen-faced Fumo had three burly bodyguards clearing a path for Zinni and him to get to his curbside SUV when he left the U.S. courthouse on Market Street after the verdict.

Fumo brushed off questions from reporters as his entourage pushed its way to the vehicle.

Also convicted yesterday was Ruth Arnao, 52, a former Fumo Senate aide who became executive director of Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods in 2004.

She was likewise silent as she passed by reporters, accompanied by her husband, Mitchell Rubin, chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter did not set a date for sentencing yesterday. Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Fumo could face more than 10 years behind bars.

Defense lawyers were disappointed by the guilty verdicts.

Fumo lawyer Dennis Cogan said Fumo was "heartbroken." Cogan said he planned to file a number of post-trial motions, including one for a new trial, in the coming weeks, adding, "This is not over yet."

Arnao attorney Ed Jacobs Jr. said: "We defended this case in good faith."

U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid said the guilty verdicts struck a blow for good government.

"Vincent Fumo didn't just cross the line between proper and improper conduct. He completely ignored it, as if it wasn't there, as if it had been painted over," she said.

Jurors praised the government's presentation of evidence but they were not so complimentary of the defense (see accompanying story).

After the guilty verdicts were handed up, prosecutors said Fumo was a flight risk and should be locked up, but Buckwalter quickly nixed that idea.

Instead, at a bail hearing yesterday afternoon, the judge increased Fumo's bail from $100,000 to $2 million, secured by property he owns here and in Margate, N.J., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Halifax, Dauphin County. (Arnao's bail was increased to $500,000 secured by a Fairmount home she owns on Green Street.)

Buckwalter also scheduled a forfeiture hearing for Thursday. The feds want Fumo to forfeit almost $4 million and Arnao about $1.4 million - the estimated fraud perpetrated by both.

The verdicts, which came after five days of deliberations, almost didn't happen. Defense lawyers filed court papers Sunday night to dismiss a juror, Eric Wuest, after they discovered he had been posting comments about the case on Facebook and Twitter.

After interviewing Wuest behind closed doors for about 30 minutes yesterday morning, Buckwalter found his testimony "credible," denied the defense's motion and sent Wuest back to the jury room to resume deliberations with fellow jurors.

Wuest said outside the courtroom that he wasn't discussing the case in any of his posts.

During the trial, which lasted almost five months, the feds portrayed Fumo as a pampered prince who spent extravagantly - using the resources and personnel of both the state Senate and Citizens Alliance - to support a luxe lifestyle that included five homes, a condo, a farm, boats and part-ownership of a jet.

Fumo's ex-girlfriend, Dottie Egrie, testified that Fumo's philosophy was to spend "other people's money," or OPM, as Fumo referred to it.

The feds said that Fumo repeatedly bent Senate pay-management rules to reward staffers and consultants with "excessive" pay to ensure they would continue to serve his personal and political wants.

The verdict was a devastating fall from grace for Fumo, long considered the most powerful and feared politician in Philadelphia.

But no elected officials were present in the courtroom as the verdicts were announced.

Mayor Nutter said yesterday that Fumo did many beneficial things for the city during his 30 years in the state Senate. "But . . . no matter how much good you do in public life, no matter what your good intentions may be, none of us - none of us -are above the law and we will all be held accountable for the things that we do," Nutter said, adding that the trial had been "pretty stunning."

The trial, which featured testimony from 107 witnesses and produced more than 1,700 exhibits, cast a light on both Fumo's political and personal side.

Former Senate staffers - including his estranged son-in-law - testified that they performed personal chores for him at his homes on the taxpayers' dime and did not keep track of their time.

The onetime chief of Verizon's operations in Pennsylvania testified Fumo tried to shake him down for $50 million in donations and favors, including millions in business for his family bank and the law firm where he is employed as a "rainmaker." (Fumo was never charged with any wrongdoing in the Verizon matter.)

Fumo, who is estranged from his eldest daughter, Nicole, dispatched a political crony to help defeat her when she ran for a supervisor post in Whitemarsh Township, according to court testimony.

Nicole's husband, Christian Marrone, testified he spent 80 percent of his time from May 1997 to December 1998 as a legislative aide for Fumo overseeing contractors renovating his Spring Garden mansion.

Fumo took the stand for almost six days in his own defense.

He said he had been the victim of a political prosecution by former President Bush's Justice Department.

Fumo said any personal or political work Senate staffers or contractors did for him was on their own time.

He admitted he received at least $63,000 in "perks and gifts" - tools, farm equipment and other goods - from Citizens Alliance but said he was entitled to them because of all the work he did for the nonprofit.

Cogan said in his closing argument that the feds "demonized" Fumo, a charge prosecutors denied.

Fumo said he never intended to, and did not knowingly, defraud the state Senate, Citizens Alliance or the Independence Seaport Museum, where he took free cruises on the museum's yachts.

Fumo had persuaded PECO Energy to give Citizens Alliance $17 million beginning in 1998. (PECO made a secret deal with Fumo to donate to the money after Fumo negotiated a settlement with PECO over its deregulation.)

In one of the trial's epic moments, Fumo said he had ordered staff to destroy e-mails to and from him and wipe traces of the e-mails from their computers and BlackBerry devices based on the advice of his former attorney, Richard A. Sprague.

Sprague, whom Fumo once considered a "father figure" before a bitter split in the fall of 2007, testified for the government that he gave no such advice. *

Staff writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.