At the time Picerno was a member of the town’s Planning Board, which could approve or veto developers’ building plans. As he talked to Daniel about the H&H property on Route 116, he also tried to get the West Warwick contractor interested in other deals he hinted he had on tap.

He implied he had two potential buyers or tenants for the H&H property, an unnamed condo developer and car dealer Robert Campellone.

He told Daniel that his involvement in any development plans will have to be kept secret and Daniel will have to be the public face of any project.

“You’ve got to come forward with the lawyers,” Picerno tells him. “ … I can’t do that, I could be sitting on the other end, listening.”

Ironically, Campellone, whose car dealership was down Route 116 from the site, was Picerno’s first bribery target for the H&H land. Campellone, who said in his testimony earlier this week that Picerno lied to his face about the terms of the deal, backed out and demanded his $25,000 bribe money back. Picerno sought the bribe from Daniel and Gelfuso to pay back Campellone.

Picerno hinted to Daniel that he might be able to convince Campellone to rent space to park cars from his dealership on the site and dangled the prospect of building a 7-Eleven store Campellone wants to build across the street from his dealership.

He suggests Daniel could offer a price that matches what another contractor could do, ”and you say can do it for, or maybe you can do it for 10 percent more, you know what I’m trying to say?”

Campellone testified earlier this week that he indeed wanted to build a 7-Eleven across from his dealership, but said he dumped the plan when Picerno said he’d need to be paid off to get it approved.

At the meeting, in Daniel’s office, which took place on Valentine’s Day 2002, Picerno showed Daniel a copy of the tax title document that he said would enable Daniel and his partner to take over the land. The agreement was that Daniel’s partner, Robert Gelfuso, would pay Picerno a $25,000 bribe and Daniel would pay $15,000 for what Picerno called legal fees and the Daniel would pay the town $105,000 for the land, which Daniel was convinced was worth more than $1 million.

When it came time for Daniel to pay the $15,000 in legal fees, Picerno had the check made out, not to a lawyer, but the car dealer Campellone. He then gave that check to Campellone as the final refund payment on Campellone’s returned bribe.