When did James Botti tell his buddy about an alleged $50,000 bribe to Mayor Mark A. Lauretti?
Botti’s defense attorney, William Dow III, questioned the timing Wednesday, the seventh day of testimony in Botti’s federal corruption trial at U.S. District Court in New Haven.
For almost two hours, Dow tried to poke holes in the testimony of Andre Czaplinski — Botti’s former friend and a key witness for the government in the case.
Memory Problems?
During his cross examination of Czaplinski, Dow suggested the conversation with Botti about the bribe happened several months prior to a Planning and Zoning Commission vote on the 828 Bridgeport Ave. retail development.
Czaplinski testified on Tuesday that Botti told him about the bribe only weeks before the vote.
The vote took place on June 20, 2006.
The timing is relevant because Czaplinski testified the bribe was specifically related to the 828 project — but Dow’s timeline suggests the conversation about the bribe may have taken place before Botti even filed an application for the project.
Dow used Czaplinski’s own words against him in the questioning — bringing up his testimony from Botti’s first trial in November 2009 and his testimony to a grand jury in February 2007.
In 2007, Czaplinski told the grand jury he counted stacks of cash with Botti after he had the conversation about the alleged $50,000 bribe.
But previous testimony about the timing of the cash-counting incident calls into question the timing of the conversation about the bribe, Dow said.
At Botti’s first trial, Czaplnski dated the cash counting incident to the first quarter of 2006 — that’s January, February or March. In his testimony, Czaplinski said: “the first quarter, or a little bit more.”
“So when you say Jim Botti told you he paid the mayor, that happened in the first quarter,” Dow said.
U.S. attorney Richard Schechter questioned the ambiguity of the phrase “or a little bit more,” saying it could mean up until June 2006 — preserving the accuracy of Czaplinski’s testimony Tuesday.
Schechter brought up the same grand jury testimony, where Czaplinski said the conversation about the bribe happened right before the vote on the 828 project.
“That is my best recollection is that it happened right before the vote,” Czaplinski testified Wednesday.
Dow responded by asking Czaplinski: “Do you have memory problems a lot?”
Off Limits
Testimony Wednesday twice inched toward off-limits topics — prompting objections from prosecutors and leaving some questions unanswered.
The first instance was when Dow questioned Czaplinski about receiving immunity in exchange for his testimony. That means the government can’t prosecute him for any crime based on his testimony, unless he lies under oath.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Czaplinski started to answer. “Once I got an attorney, he advised me to plead the fifth … “
Schechter cut Czaplinski off before he could finish, citing attorney-client privilege as prohibiting Czaplinski from revealing more.
Then Dow questioned why Czaplinski didn’t ask Botti to repay an $80,000 loan when he found out about the $870,000 in cash Botti had in his office. Czaplinski testified earlier that in 2004 he loaned Botti $80,000.
“Did you say to Jim: ‘Jim, you owe me 80,000 bucks … Can’t you pay this thing off?’” Dow said, questioning why Czaplinski didn’t demand to be paid with the cash.
“Because I recall Jim Botti telling me … “ Czaplinski started to say before Schechter again cut off the questioning.
After a brief, private conference with Judge Charles Haight, Dow’s questioning about the loan didn’t continue.
Deja Vu
Much of the testimony Wednesday was a repeat of Botti’s first trial in November, at which he was found guilty of structuring charges.
Botti’s former employee Greg Fracassini repeated testimony about seeing cash in a box in Botti’s safe.
“The money had a very musty smell to it,” Fracassini said.
He detailed how Botti kept a cash bundle — with an estimated $10,000 — on him to pay for lunch or make cash payments on credit cards.
Fracassini also testified about cash deposits Botti made — similar testimony that was made during the structuring trial.
Bernadette Mole, the corporate secretary for Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan bank also testified Wednesday about cash deposits Botti made at her bank.
The testimony will resume on Thursday morning.
