Fumo's recovery has trial on track
Out of a hospital, he is due back in court tomorrow. Meanwhile, his team asked the judge to toss 10 counts.
Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo was released from the hospital yesterday, clearing the way for his federal corruption trial to resume on schedule tomorrow.
A spokesman for Hahnemann University Hospital, which admitted the 65-year-old Fumo on Thursday after he became dizzy and nauseated in court, said his condition had improved. Before Fumo went home, his health status was upgraded yesterday to good from fair.
"We're going to court on Monday," Dennis J. Cogan, the leader of Fumo's defense team, said yesterday. "We are going to proceed with the trial."
In court Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Backwater called a halt to the trial for the day about 80 minutes early after an extremely pale Fumo complained that he was unusually anxious, light-headed, and short of breath.
Before paramedics took Fumo out in a gurney, he apologized to the judge for the disruption. He also said he hoped to avoid a hospital stay.
Even while Fumo was hospitalized, his lawyers kept up the fight on his behalf. At 11:35 p.m. Friday, they filed a legal notice asking Buckwalter to summarily acquit Fumo on 10 of the 139 counts against him. The charges at issue involve allegations of tax violations and Fumo's free cruises on a museum's yachts.
Yesterday, prosecutors filed a reply urging the judge to reject the request.
Since Fridays have been off-days during the trial, Fumo's medical drama will have little impact on the marathon trial.
He became ill just as the prosecution was wrapping up its case after 14 weeks. Fumo's lawyers will likely begin making their cases tomorrow afternoon.
While Fumo's health has rebounded, his sudden medical drama is sure to shadow the trial as it proceeds.
"A criminal trial is just a terrible ordeal, physically and mentally," said L. George Parry, a former prosecutor who practices law in Center City. "If you start out with a bad heart, a trial is no way to improve your health. I'm sure it complicated everything."
Fumo suffered his first heart attack in 1977, the year before he was first elected to the Senate. He had a second heart attack in March, and doctors performed angioplasty to open an artery that was completely blocked.
Fumo, who had been one of the state's most powerful Democrats, is charged primarily with conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors contend that he defrauded the Senate by getting employees to do personal and campaign errands on Senate time and defrauded a South Philadelphia nonprofit, Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, by sticking it with a bill for thousands of tools and other items. He is also charged with orchestrating a coverup to try to block the federal investigation.
In addition, Fumo is charged with playing a role in allegedly false tax forms filed by Citizens' Alliance.
In a filing late Friday, defense lawyer Peter Goldberger argued that Fumo, who held no official title with Citizens' Alliance, had "nothing to do with these returns, never discussed them, and never reviewed them."
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John J. Pease and Robert A. Zauzmer countered that the jury had heard ample evidence that Fumo controlled Citizens' Alliance and was well-versed on its tax disclosures. In fact, they said, he was bent on keeping its finances secret from the public.
Fumo is also charged with defrauding the Independence Seaport Museum by taking a dozen free cruises worth a combined $110,000 on its luxury boats. Fumo was then a museum board member.
On Friday, Goldberger contended that there was no fraud because the museum's president at the time approved the trips. Prosecutors have argued that Fumo and the president conspired to violate museum rules.