A Seymour lawyer accused of trying to launder $30,000 of a client’s drug money said Wednesday he will take the stand in his own defense.
The lawyer, Ralph Crozier, said he has nothing to hide. The comments come after the second day of a trial at U.S. District Court in New Haven during which a parade of government witnesses have testified to just the opposite.
Prosecutors on Wednesday elicited testimony suggesting Crozier’s misdeeds ran far afield of just money laundering, the sole crime with which he’s charged.
But the jury also heard Crozier’s attorney exact a handful of damaging concessions — including the government’s star witness admitting he’d lie to get out of jail early.
After testimony ended Wednesday, Crozier said he’d take the stand in his own defense after the government rests its case.
“It’s my intention to testify,” he said. “I have nothing to hide. Never had anything to hide.”
He said his testimony will reveal the truth.
Which is?
Crozier chuckled, then said the investment with which he helped Bruce Yazdzik, his former client, was aboveboard.
“When you put money into people’s names, you’re not trying to hide it,” he said.
Federal prosecutors say otherwise, and have also said in a court filing that if he does take the stand, they want to ask him about the details of a 2007 conviction for making a false statement, one of a handful of state court convictions Crozier has to his name.
Article continues after the filing from federal prosecutors detailing the case against Crozier, and their plans to ask him about his prior conviction.
Background
Crozier was arrested on charges of conspiracy and attempted money laundering last April, after Yazdzik’s mother wore a wire to a meeting at his office to discuss what federal prosecutors say was another $11,000 in drug money Crozier offered to launder.
Yazdzik is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence in connection with a painkiller-trafficking scheme that spanned the Eastern seaboard to which he himself had alerted the feds.
Crozier pleaded not guilty to the charges last July and has been free on $200,000 bond while awaiting trial.
Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Money laundering, under federal law, means a person conducts or tries to conduct a financial transaction knowing the money involved is derived illegally.
Click here to read about the first day of the trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Janet Hall.
Drug Dealer Or Car Dealer?
Wednesday’s testimony began with Crozier’s lawyer, Michael Hillis, on the offensive against Yazdzik, the government’s star witness.
The defense contends Crozier thought $30,000 Yazdzik gave him to invest in a solar company was from Yazdzik’s dealing in used cars.
Hillis introduced documents from Yazdzik’s business and suggested Crozier believed the money was clean.
“To the world, you were a car dealer, right?” he asked.
“Yes,” Yazdzik replied.
But at the same time, Yazdzik said he was clearing upwards of $14,000 profit a week dealing painkillers, marijuana, and cocaine in the Waterbury area.
He drove expensive cars. He wore diamond bracelets and earrings and other gaudy jewelry, enjoying a lifestyle far above the reach of used car salesmen.
PCP And Perjury
Yazdzik also noted he was introduced to Crozier because he faced three years behind bars on domestic violence and drug dealing charges.
Crozier got him the “deal of a lifetime” which spared him from jail, he said. Then, a few months later, Crozier cleaned up another mess after Yazdik totaled a Lincoln while high on PCP and ran away from the wreck.
Yazdzik said he found a friend willing to lie about being behind the wheel of the car in exchange for cash. The pair approached a lawyer with the proposal, but they lawyer wanted nothing to do with it.
So they went to Crozier.
Yazdzik said Crozier interrupted their explanation with a suggested embellishment of his own — that Yazdzik’s friend should say he hit his head during the crash and that’s why he left the scene.
“He told us what to say,” Yazdzik said. “He told us what happened.”
That June, he got a $6,151.50 check from his insurance company. He gave it to Crozier to set aside.
‘Jail Sucks’
Hillis tried to turn the incident around on Yazdzik after suggesting the inmate would “do anything” to get out of federal prison.
“I wouldn’t say anything, but I’d prefer to stay out of prison,” Yazdzik said.
“Jail sucks,” he told Hillis. “But I’m still trying to better myself.”
Hillis highlighted Yazdzik’s constant lies.
He brought up Yazdzik totaling his car while under the influence, saying he lied to stay out of jail then.
“Yes,” Yazdzik answered.
Would he lie to get out of jail early so he could go see his son?
“Yes,” Yazdzik answered again.
Not The ‘Investing Type’
Yazdzik was followed on the stand by Eric Reichbart, whose short-lived solar power business is at the center of the case.
Reichbart told Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spector he thought of entering the solar business around 2010, and went to his longtime lawyer, Scott Maser, whose office is in the same building as Crozier’s in Seymour.
Maser became a partner in the business, but the company needed “up-front money” to finance its first projects.
He said he then got a call from Maser, who told him Crozier had a client who had just won a lawsuit and was looking to invest the proceeds.
He went to the law office to meet with Maser, Crozier, and the client — Yazdzik, who in fact had not won a lawsuit, unbeknownst to Reichbart.
But he said he was struck nonetheless.
“He didn’t seem like the investing type,” Reichbart said of the “streetish” Yazdzik. “He just seemed like a kid wearing a tracksuit with chains.”
He said he shut the business down after he learned about Yazdzik’s alleged drug dealing.
The Sting
Yazdzik’s mother, Debra Rost, testified next, detailing two trips she made to Crozier’s office last year during which she surreptitiously recorded her conversations with him.
For her troubles, she said the DEA paid her $400 for missing work and gas money.
Recordings of the conversations were also played for the jury.
Rost said she first went to Crozier’s office last February, after Yazdzik told her about his $30,000 “investment” in the solar company.
Crozier told her the money was legitimate, and said he’d look into whether the company could pay Yazdzik back.
She returned in April and Crozier told her he had set up a meeting with the solar company the next week.
But Rost said the lawyer “lit up” when she asked Crozier about something else — whether he could hide more of her son’s money.
‘I Don’t Want You Involved In Hiding Things’
Minutes before, DEA agents had given her a bundle of $11,000 cash in a plastic shopping bag.
Rost told Crozier she found the money in her house after Yazdzik told her where to look.
“He said he stopped for awhile but he should have a lot more than that,” Crozier told her.
Crozier took the cash, telling Rost he’d deposit it, and gave her a receipt in Yazdzik’s name.
Why Yazdzik’s name?
“I don’t want you involved with hiding things from the feds,” Crozier said during the conversation.
Minutes later, DEA Agent Dana Mofenson, who followed Rost to the stand, ordered a team of agents to move in on Crozier’s office, seizing the $11,000 and arresting Crozier.
Testimony in the case is scheduled to resume Thursday.
