Dottore testifies at Bongiovanni’s new trial

Bill Gang

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 11:25 a.m.

Paul Dottore, the star prosecution witness in the federal corruption trial of former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni, came to court looking like the convicted scam artist, thief and liar he admitted being.

Once Bongiovanni's friend, he now is serving two years in prison for his crimes -- although that is only a third of what he likely would have served had he not agreed to testify against the judge whose influence he once peddled.

"I'm a prisoner, I wanted to look like one," Dottore explained when asked why he was wearing a jail uniform rather than civilian clothes. When he testified at Bongiovanni's first trial in December, he wore suits and his now-short cropped hair was well styled. Then, he was free on house arrest pending sentencing on a bank fraud charge.

The first trial ended with a hung jury; lawyers said it was leaning 10-2 in favor of acquitting Bongiovanni on the major charges of accepting bribes, funneled through Dottore, for judicial favors.

As he had at the first trial, Dottore testified that he solicited bribes for everything from reductions in traffic tickets to no-bail releases for prisoners to favorable rulings in a civil case involving a Strip show producer.

He told the jury in U.S. District Judge Lloyd George's courtroom that he passed along much of the money to Bongiovanni, who spent it on video poker machines, golf and bowling.

Dottore admitted he always held back some of the money for himself without the judge's knowledge and then accepted another payoff that he said Bongiovanni always offered.

Bongiovanni has denied any wrongdoing, but when he takes the witness stand later in the trial, he will have to explain how $500 in marked money found its way into his back pocket.

Dottore testified that he gave the funds to Bongiovanni to secure the release from jail of a friend, Terry Salem, who was working as an FBI informant.

Salem's phony indictment in state court and the marked money was part of a sting operation aimed at the judge, who was suspended from his job in late 1995 over the incident and lost his re-election bid the next year.

The judge has said the money was repayment for a loan and Dottore admitted he owed Bongiovanni that amount of money, but he testified the marked $100 bills were a bribe, not a repayment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker has told the jury that while Dottore has credibility problems, his version of events is supported by FBI wiretaps that covered two years.

Defense attorney Tom Pitaro said the wiretaps only favor the prosecution when interpreted by Dottore, who returned to the witness stand today for the conclusion of his testimony.

During cross examination, Pitaro hammered Dottore on his past decade of criminal activity, including the conviction for role in stealing more than $100,000 from a dead man's bank account.

Dottore admitted perjuring himself in his testimony in that case and lying frequently to friends as he worked scams for a few dollars or several thousand.

But he said he is telling the truth now about Bongiovanni's willingness to sell his favors.

Pitaro questioned him about the deal for his testimony that resulted in a two-year sentence in the bank fraud case rather than a prison term of nearly six years that normally would have resulted under federal sentencing guidelines.

"Is there something wrong with cutting a deal and telling the truth?" Dottore answered.

"Telling the truth depends on what your interest is, doesn't it?" Pitaro responded, reminding him that he has admitted lying on numerous occasions when it served his purposes.