ABSCAM: Guilty

The jurors side with Mel

Did the jury want to break for the night? At 11 p.m. last Friday, Judge George Pratt put the question to the twelve men and women who had been deliberating for eleven hours on the guilt or innocence of the four defendants in the first trial stemming from ABSCAM, the investigation in which FBI agents, posing as Arabs, tried to bribe Congressmen and other public officials. Back from the jury room came the answer: "No, give us another hour."

Something was obviously up, and Defense Attorney Ray Brown warned his client, Mayor Angelo Errichetti of Camden, N.J., to expect the worst. Just over an hour later, the jurors returned to the federal courtroom in Brooklyn with a verdict: all four defendants were guilty of bribery, conspiracy and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. In addition to Errichetti, the defendants were Democratic Congressman Michael ("Ozzie") Myers, City Councilman Louis C. Johanson and Lawyer Harry Criden, all from Philadelphia. The four were accused of sharing in a $50,000 bribe from FBI agents posing as representatives of an Arab sheik in return for help on an immigration bill. The defendants face up to 25 years in prison.

As evidence, the prosecution had shown the jurors several video tapes. In one, Myers pocketed the cash; in another, he complained of having to share the money with his associates. On the witness stand last week, Myers said he had spent his $15,000 share "in a couple of weeks." He paid his three children's private school tuition bills, repaid a $1,000 loan from his father and bought some household furniture. But he insisted that he had accepted the money reluctantly and never intended to do anything in return for it. Said he: "I was just blowing smoke. Almost everything I said was not the truth. It was all b.s."

In the closing arguments, the defense emphasized that the case, which is the first of separate trials of five more Congressmen on ABSCAM charges this month and next, rested chiefly on the testimony of Melvin Weinberg, an admitted swindler who was one of the principals in the undercover operation. Countered Prosecutor Thomas Puccio: "Do you really believe that a U.S. Congressman took $50,000 in an envelope when he really didn't want to do it?" Said Defense Attorney John Duffy: "It's Mel vs. Ozzie. That's what it boils down to."

The jurors obviously believed Mel, much to the dismay of Ozzie Myers, who like the other defendants plans to appeal Said the Congressman, as he left the courtroom: "The jury was confused. I may be guilty of being an ass, but I have done nothing criminal."

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