"An unfortunate chapter in the town of Lincoln's proud history," current Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond said in a statement today. He added that "these disgraceful but brief actions were quickly halted by the efforts of the Rhode Island State Police with the cooperation from members of the Lincoln Police Department.

"We can now place this unfortunate incident behind us and move forward, ensuring both residents and business owners in the town of Lincoln that all of their elected officials are working honestly, openly and in the best interest of the community to enhance the longstanding integrity of their government."

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in a statement that Lincoln and Rhode residents deserved "faithful, true and honest" service from public officials. "What they got from Oster, however, was pure greed and corruption -- conduct so glaring and objectionable that a jury unanimously found it to be criminal. Thanks to outstanding police work from and cooperation with the Rhode Island State Police, and the sheer persistence of our current prosecutors, Assistant Attorneys General Bethany Macktaz and Bill Ferland, as well as the many people in our office who assisted them along the way, we have secured a very important victory against public corruption today."

In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Bethany Macktaz in part focused on a meeting in which Picerno went to Oster’s law office wearing state police transmitters. A state trooper was outside videotaping.

Picerno had met over several weeks with contractors David Wayne Daniel and Robert Gelfuso, who were working with the state police, to get them to pay the $25,000 bribe in exchange for getting the town to sell them the H&H Screw Co. property, on Route 116, for $105,000. Picerno had an envelope filled with $10,000 when he went to Oster’s office -- money Picerno was to say was from Daniel.

On video, Oster and Picerno are standing outside and Picerno puts the envelope in a metal mailbox, saying, “All right, that’s from Wayne, for that H&H [expletive].” A police search later that day found the cash-containing envelope in Oster's office, according to testimony.

“There’s the proof,” Macktaz said in closing arguments. “The hard, direct evidence to convict this man.”

Before the attempt to extort money from Gelfuso and Daniel, Robert R. Campellone, whose car dealership was down Route 116 from the land, was Picerno’s first bribery target for the H&H land, according to testimony. Campellone, who faced his own bribery charges in the state police investigation, testified earlier in the trial that Picerno lied to him about the deal's terms -- and Campellone said he backed out and sought his $25,000 back. Picerno wanted the bribes from Daniel and Gelfuso to pay back Campellone. Daniel testified Picerno had him make out the $15,000 “legal fees” check to Campellone, whom he didn’t know.

Before the trial started, O’Brien had objected to a decision Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia made to allow the state to introduce other persons’ bad acts, particularly those of Picerno, into evidence. Oster was not charged with any crimes related to those actions, was never present when those acts took place, O’Brien said, adding the state could not prove he knew of them.

“Jon has options,” O’Brien said after the verdicit, “and one of the most important is to appeal this ruling.”

The conspiracy charges were a particular challenge for Oster. Under state law, if the prosecution can prove a conspiracy existed between the two men, Oster’s legal exposure was huge because a criminal conspiracy is in itself is a crime. The state ddin’t have to prove a bribe was ever paid, only that Picerno and Oster schemed to get it.

All members of a conspiracy are culpable for the acts of other conspirators whether they knew what they were doing or not, Indeglia said. One conspirator could even order another not to commit a specific crime, but if the other did it anyway, both are equally liable.

Or, as Macktaz put it during trial, “Mr. Oster is criminally responsible for all of Mr. Picerno’s actions, even if he wasn’t there.”

O’Brien argued during trial that Picerno was an extortionist who was doing whatever he could to get the state police to give him a break less than two days following his arrest.

The defense also used testimony to argue that the land Oster was accused of selling at a too-low value might actually have so much industrial contamination as to have a negative value, so that any offer for it a good one.

And O’Brien established that the car dealer had done favors for Picerno for at least a year prior to Osters' taking office. O'Brien also got Campellone to say he had never talked to Oster about bribes he paid Picerno.

Read about the case's closing arguments.