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| Is That All There Is? |
for BigTrial.net
Stephen Huntington is a retired lawyer who, back in 2011, aspired to be the Democratic leader of the city's 8th Ward.
Today, Huntington told a federal jury about the call he got from a distraught Democratic committee woman, explaining why she couldn't vote for Huntington as ward leader.
"Ellen was crying," Huntington told the jury. She was "very emotional."
The committee woman, Ellen Chapman, supposedly told Huntington that she was going to vote for state Senator Larry Farnese as ward leader. Why? Because Farnese was lining up a $6,000 donation so that Chapman's daughter could study abroad.
"I felt sorry for her," Huntington explained about Chapman. "I regarded her as a mother who was concerned about her daughter's education. Who can argue with that?"
The answer to Huntington's question: an army of government prosecutors and FBI agents, who saw in a committee woman's tears and a $6,000 educational loan from a state senator a federal conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud through a bribery scheme. The end result was a 13-count federal indictment where Chapman and Farnese are both facing jail time.
The government indicated today that it was close to being done in presenting its case, after two days of often tedious testimony. Judge Cynthia Rufe announced that she was going to give the jury the day off tomorrow, rather than let them brave the traffic nightmare in Center City expected from President Trump's visit.
The judge, however, told the lawyers in the case that she wasn't taking the day off. And that the defense had until 11 a.m. tomorrow to submit their motions, which may include a motion to dismiss this turd of a case.
The judge said she wanted to give the government plenty of time to be able to respond to the defense motions. So maybe, just maybe, the judge will perform an act of mercy and pull the plug on this case rather than waste any more of the taxpayers money.
Before Huntington came to the witness stand today, the government called its star cooperating witness, Theodore Mucellin, a former political consultant who claimed he was still a friend of Farnese's.
Mucellin explained how Farnese told him he was going to try to find someone else to underwrite the $6,000 donation to pay for study abroad for Chapman's daughter. But if he couldn't find another sponsor, Mucellin told the jury, "We were gonna cut the check."
Mucellin told the jury how Chapman told him, "I have a deal with the senator, and I'm gonna honor it."
On cross-examination, Mucellin said that it wasn't unusual for Farnese to come up with money to pay for educational expenses of kids in his district. Farnese came from a family of teachers, Mucellin said, and when it came to education, "He cared a great deal about it."
In today's sleep-inducing court session, there was plenty of inside baseball. Such as Mucellin telling the jury that his wife worked for the U.S. Attorney's office. And that it was one of his wife's friends in the U.S. Attorney's office who found him a defense lawyer after the FBI knocked on his door.
When the feds showed up to question him, Mucellin told the jury, it was two days before doctors induced labor on his wife, who was expecting a child.
Then, Mucellin received a target letter from the feds, explaining that he was looking at jail time. That's when Mucelin got very interested in becoming a cooperating witness to testify against his old pal, Larry Farnese, in exchange for a government grant of immunity.
If the judge doesn't grant a motion to dismiss, the trial is expected to resume Friday.