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January 30, 2008

Oster trial: Prosecution plays a tape

PROVIDENCE -- The prosecution in ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster's bribery trial this afternoon played a tape in which Lincoln Town Council in 2001 talked about whether to settle a tax case involving the home of Robert R. Picerno, a former town planning official who is linked to allegations against Oster.

Among other things on the 40-minute tape of the Nov. 20, 2001, closed session, then-assistant Town Solicitor William Dickie recommended settling the suit for $15,000, even though $22,000 was owed on the Picernos' Preakness Drive home.

Dickie testified in Providence County Superior Court today that Picerno's wife filed the tax appeal in 2001 contesting the $22,000 in taxes assessed on the Picerno's house from 1998 to 2000.

On the tape, among reasons Dickie offered for settling at that time was that the $7,000 difference between what was owed and what was being offered, when looked at in terms of cost of litigating the case, was not worth fighting over.

Dickie testified he was subsequently advised the Picernos had not filed legally required appeals to justify such a suit and that he later recommended the council reverse its decision.

In earlier testimony today, Dickie explained circumstances of the filing of the complaint and the town's response. Dickie said that Oster told him he had talked about the matter with Picerno and that the town could settle the $22,000 claim for $15,000. Oster had agreed to reduce $7,000 off the delinquent tax bill.

Dickie also testified that Picerno never contested the tax bill with the assessor's office or the board of tax review. He also noted that if someone wished to appeal a tax bill, they had to pay it first. Picerno, Dickie said, had not paid taxes on the property since 1998.

Today’s testimony wrapped up with Oster's defense lawyer, C. Leonard O’Brien, cross-examining Dickie, particularly on how the town developed its response to the Picerno tax appeal. Dickie testified he relied on then assessor Emerson Johnston for most of the information on the Picernos’ tax status.

He said Johston told him the Picernos had filed an appeal of their tax bill, when in fact they hadn’t. He also said he never asked whether they had actually paid the taxes or not, another requirement for the suit to be legal, assuming Johnston would have told him that if it was relevant.

Yesterday, prosecutors sought to establish that Oster and Picerno, a former Planning Board member who was convicted in 2004 on his own bribery charges, had a close financial and political relationship.

The state's case alleges Picerno collected the bribes and Oster manipulated town government to favor ones who paid.

Allegations in part concern six acres on Route 116 in Lincoln known as the H&H Screw property. Oster, the state's case alleges, conspired with Picerno in two instances to solicit bribes to sell the property, which the town controlled.

Oster faces two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy in the trial.

Read about today's earlier testimony here.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 4:57 PM | Permalink

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