Bickering starts trial for ex-judge

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 10:11 a.m.

The day before jury selection was set to begin in the corruption trial of former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni, his attorney was complaining that prosecutors were hiding evidence from the defense.

Thomas Pitaro argued in federal court Monday that information in the Metro Police Intelligence Bureau files might help clear Bongiovanni of a slew of charges that he took bribes and committed other crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker said that Pitaro was on a "fishing expedition" and isn't legally entitled to any Metro reports because the two-year probe of Bongiovanni was an FBI operation.

But Pitaro said Shoemaker's position "defies logic" since government documents characterize the investigation as a joint FBI-Metro operation and "Metro police were present at every point."

"I think the Ninth Circuit (court of appeals) will say it's a lot of crap," he said.

Pitaro said that prosecutors are required to turn over any evidence that might explain away the charges, but he argued that, "I don't believe the government knows what is exculpatory."

"Quite truthfully, I'm concerned this evidence isn't being produced properly," said Pitaro, who has unsuccessfully sought a delay in the trial because of his inability to work through the piles of documents and hundreds of wiretap tapes gathered by federal investigators.

Although U.S. District Judge Lloyd George originally sided with prosecutors in prohibiting Pitaro from gaining access to Metro files, he agreed in the end to review the documents privately to determine if any should be made public.

Bongiovanni, 51, was indicted in April 1996 along with show producer Jeff Kutash and the judge's friend, Paul Dottore, 53.

After being convicted of bank fraud, Dottore agreed to testify against Bongiovanni and Kutash in a deal that would give him freedom on probation and put tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in his pocket.

He was the star witness at Kutash's trial this summer on charges of paying the judge a $5,000 bribe to secure a favorable ruling in a lawsuit over Kutash's Splash show at the Riviera hotel-casino. Dottore was a part-time employee at Splash.

But the jury didn't buy his story or the other evidence that was, in essence, a preview of the case against Bongiovanni. Kutash was acquitted on all charges and Pitaro said he will be called to testify as a defense witness in Bongiovanni's trial.

But the case against Bongiovanni will be somewhat different.

Much of the evidence in the Kutash case dealt with allegations of wrongdoing by Bongiovanni before Kutash even became involved in his legal dispute with Riviera owner Meshulam Riklis over control of the show.

While Dottore testified he picked up the bribe money from Kutash and passed most of it along to the judge, there was little physical evidence to corroborate the testimony.

In the case against Bongiovanni, the jury will hear how $500 in marked FBI money was found in the defendant's pocket when agents raided his home on Oct. 17, 1995.

Dottore has admitted that he received $1,000 from Terry Salem, who had been involved in the bank scam with him, and gave $500 of it to the judge as part of a bribe over a criminal case.

Bongiovanni told the FBI the money was repayment for a loan he had made to Dottore.

In addition to the testimony of informants, the jury will hear dozens of the more than 1,000 tapes of nearly two years of wiretaps by FBI agents.