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Was it a 'good deed' or a bribe? Farnese's trial over $6,000 payment begins

As State Sen. Larry Farnese's federal fraud trial opened Tuesday, lawyers put a simple question to the jury: Was the $6,000 he gave five years ago to help the daughter of a Democratic city committeewoman pay for a study-abroad trip a "good deed" for a deserving constituent or a bribe to buy her mother's support in Farnese's latest political campaign?

File photo: Pennsylvania State Senator Larry Farnese, who was indicted on a vote buying scheme on Tuesday, walks to a town hall meeting with the Center City Residents Association on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel.
File photo: Pennsylvania State Senator Larry Farnese, who was indicted on a vote buying scheme on Tuesday, walks to a town hall meeting with the Center City Residents Association on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

As State Sen. Larry Farnese's federal fraud trial opened Tuesday, lawyers put a simple question to the jury:

Was the $6,000 he gave five years ago to help the daughter of a Democratic city committeewoman pay for a study-abroad trip a "good deed" for a deserving constituent or a bribe to buy her mother's support in Farnese's latest political campaign?

"Don't let [the Justice Department] make this into something dirty," defense lawyer Mark Sheppard implored the panel of seven women and five men during his opening statement.

But prosecutors balked, maintaining that evidence would show that the senator's gift came with a clear expectation.

She "sold her vote," said Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis. "She agreed to vote for Senator Farnese, and in exchange Senator Farnese was going to pay her daughter's tuition. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a crime."

The gulf between those two views laid out clear stakes in a trial that threatens to end Farnese's eight-year career in Harrisburg and to make him the third consecutive legislator from his district to trade his office for a federal prison cell.

The senator has denied the allegations. But unlike former Sens. Henry "Buddy" Cianfrani and Vincent J. Fumo, Farnese was quick to point out in a Facebook post to constituents just hours before the trial began that his alleged misdeeds had nothing to do with his elected role as a senator.

"There's no allegation that government funds were misused in any way," he wrote. "I didn't give anyone a job or get someone a grant they didn't deserve, and I didn't sell my office. . . . I hope, and I expect, that I will be fully exonerated because I believe that I did nothing wrong."

Farnese, himself an attorney, said far less in court Tuesday, listening attentively but displaying no emotion as his lawyers and those for Ellen Chapman, his codefendant and the committeewoman at the center of the case, accused prosecutors of twisting facts in an effort to convict yet another Philadelphia politician.

"This case will offend your sense of justice - your sense of right and wrong," Chapman's lawyer Stuart Patchen told jurors.

Farnese, 48, and Chapman, 62, face charges of conspiracy and mail and wire fraud stemming from what prosecutors described Tuesday as a clear quid pro quo arrangement.

The senator, Kravis said, was desperate in 2011 to secure a spot as the leader of the city's Eighth Democratic Ward, a position that helps decide party endorsements and supports Democratic candidates seeking elected office.

And Chapman, one of the 52 committee members who would cast a vote, was desperate to find funding for her daughter's trip, part of a prestigious study-abroad program in Kyrgyzstan.

If the $6,000 that Farnese directed his campaign fund to pay the school administering the program was not a bribe, Kravis asked, why did Chapman make a tearful confession to the candidate whom she had been supporting for ward leader before switching her support to Farnese?

That man, Stephen Huntington, is expected to testify Wednesday along with Farnese's longtime political consultant Ted Mucellin, as the government concludes its case.

The defense wasted no time Tuesday attempting to poke holes in the government's account.

As the case's first witness, FBI Special Agent Chad Speicher, walked jurors through a series of emails among Farnese, Mucellin, and Chapman that allegedly tracked the negotiation of their deal, Sheppard noted that at least one message the government found incriminating - a May 2011 missive in which Farnese thanked Chapman for her support - was actually a form letter that he also had sent to the 51 other committee members.

Outside the jury's presence, Sheppard added that he had collected affidavits from each of the other committee members swearing that Farnese hadn't offered them anything of value in exchange for their votes. All of them voted for Farnese in a unanimous voice vote, after Huntington dropped out of the race.

"It makes no sense," Sheppard said. "If you're going to bribe someone, you're going to bribe enough people to win. There was nothing special about [Chapman's] vote."

What's more, he added, Farnese's financial contribution for Chapman's daughter violated no state campaign finance laws.

Farnese, whose Senate district includes Center City and spans from Philadelphia International Airport to Brewerytown and Port Richmond in the north, put it more plainly in his Facebook message to constituents.

"I have always believed in helping people . . . and I will never apologize for it," he wrote. "That's all I was trying to do here: help someone pursue their dream."

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608 @jeremyrroebuck