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« Healthcare career fair this afternoon in Warwick | Today | State police lieutenant to run N. Providence police » February 19, 2008Oster trial: In the jury's handsPROVIDENCE -- Was ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster being tricked, or was he actively involved in soliciting bribes? It's for a jury to decide now; they went into deliberation this afternoon. Prosecutor Bethany Macktaz today repeatedly called the jury's attention to a tape of a Feb. 16, 2001, meeting between Oster and Robert R. Picerno, which she said showed not a law-abiding town administrator being tricked by a duplicitous friend but a knowing co-conspirator accepting a bribe. In her closing arguments, Macktaz told the jury to consider a point on the tape where Oster and Picerno stand outside Oster's law office near the building mailboxes. At that point, Picerno put an envelope with $10,000 in cash inside Oster's office mailbox and said, "This is from Wayne, this is for that H & H bull-[expletive]." State police found that envelope during a search of Oster's office later in the day. Oster, who served as town administrator from 2000 to 2002, has been on trial in Providence County Superior Court for two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with what the state says were two efforts to extort bribes from potential buyers of town-controlled land on Route 116 known as the H&H Screw Co. property. The state's case alleges Oster and Picerno conspired to sell the land for $105,000, an amount far below what the state said it was worth. Picerno, a former Lincoln Planning Board member and former Oster political ally, pleaded no contest in 2004 to bribery and conspiracy. Read about the final day of case testimony. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill Macktaz today also pointed out to the jury that Oster had moved the meeting outside after telling Picerno that lawyers' offices could be bugged. "What admininstrator who is doing the lawful business of the town is going to worry about that?" Macktaz said in court. " ... A criminal, that's who does that." Because Oster is charged with conspiracy, the state does not have to prove he had specific knowledge of Picerno's specific actions as part of the state's allegation that Oster was involved in a bribery scheme. Under conspiracy law, if the state can prove a conspiracy existed and then prove that Oster was part of it, Macktaz said, it does not matter if Oster knew what Picerno was doing. Posted by Mike McKinney CommentsFrank Martin | February 19, 2008 2:28 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
By this logic anyone in the state could be found guilty.