Fumo seeks an order for a new trial
His lawyers said that the evidence against him was insufficient, and that the judge had erred.
Five weeks after former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo was found guilty of all 137 counts against him, he and his lawyers yesterday asked a federal judge to order a new trial.
Fumo, 65, a once-powerful Philadelphia Democrat who spent 30 years in the Senate before stepping down late last year to deal with the federal indictment, was convicted March 16 of conspiracy, fraud, tax violations, and obstruction of justice after a hard-fought, five-month trial.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek a prison sentence of more than 10 years.
Fumo's lawyers Dennis J. Cogan and Peter Goldberger contended in court documents that the evidence presented during the trial had been insufficient to support the tax counts and the fraud and conspiracy convictions involving the Senate, the South Philadelphia nonprofit Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, and the Independence Seaport Museum.
They also asserted that U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter had erred in allowing "the grossly overwritten, argumentative, and unnecessarily detailed indictment" to be given to the jury, along with a verdict form that did not specify what was charged in each count.
As a result, the lawyers said, the jury "would use the government's version and theory of the case as its essential guide to their deliberations."
Cogan and Goldberger also contended that the judge had erred in refusing to remove a juror who acknowledged, they said, "commenting publicly about the progress of the deliberations" through Internet postings on Facebook and Twitter.
A jury of 10 women and two men found Fumo guilty of defrauding the Senate by using his employees for personal or political-campaign work on state time and of defrauding Citizens' Alliance by getting it to pay for tools, vacuums, and other consumer items for him. He also was convicted of defrauding the seaport museum by getting free yacht trips and of obstructing the FBI investigation by presiding over a campaign to permanently delete e-mail.
Buckwalter is scheduled to sentence Fumo on July 13.
Fumo's codefendant, Ruth Arnao, the former head of Citizens' Alliance, was found guilty of 45 counts involving the nonprofit and of obstructing justice. She joined in the motion filed by Fumo's defense team.