Bribery, gambling at issue in R.I. corruption trial

Lisa Marie Pane

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The course of the racketeering trial of Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr. took an abrupt turn Wednesday afternoon, as a casino employee was called to the stand to rebut defense charges that a government witness used bribes solely to finance his own chronic gambling.

Richard Egbert, Cianci's attorney, suggested that former city tax board Vice Chairman David Ead kept the bribes he allegedly arranged for Cianci and took the money to casinos in Connecticut, where he laundered it by buying chips and playing blackjack.

Earlier in the trial, Egbert produced records from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun showing that Ead made hundreds of visits over three years to the two casinos while free on bail for bribery and extortion charges.

On Wednesday an official from Foxwoods told jurors that Ead won $150,000 between 1992 and 2002.

Prosecutors are using Richard Tesler's testimony to rebut claims by Egbert that Ead was a compulsive gambler who gambled $897,000 over a three-year period at the casinos. They're also seeking to rebut Egbert's claim that Ead simply took the bribes and gambled the money at the casinos, without ever passing the money to higher-ups.

After the jury had left the courtroom, Egbert told U.S. District Court Judge Ernest Torres he wanted to prove that Ead kept the bribes to line his own pockets and used the casinos to launder the loot.

"His average bet started to increase during the period of time that these bribes were coming into his hands."

Ead's average bet was $79 for the entire 10-year period, Egbert said, but it was $178 in 1998, the year he was accused of taking bribes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rose said he put Tesler on the stand to disprove Egbert's claims during what Rose called a "reckless cross-examination" of Ead.

"It turns out he's a pretty good blackjack player," Rose said.

Ead testified earlier in the trial that he arranged $25,000 in bribes for the mayor in exchange for tax breaks.