DiMasi, the former speaker of the Massachusetts House, stands accused of pocketing bribes in exchange for steering state contracts toward Cognos, the software firm at the center of the charges.
Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi leaves federal court in Boston, where he is on trial on federal corruption charges.By KYLE CHENEY
BOSTON – Salvatore DiMasi, the former speaker of the Massachusetts House, fixed his gaze Tuesday upon a stack of legal paperwork, never glancing up as his friend of 20 years, Steven Topazio, entered a federal courtroom and swore to testify truthfully.
In a trial in which DiMasi stands accused of pocketing bribes in exchange for steering state contracts toward a favored software firm, Topazio, the prosecution’s second witness, has been identified by government attorneys as the “unwitting conduit” through which DiMasi received those bribes – monthly payments from Cognos, the software firm at the center of the charges.
Topazio, according to prosecutors, shared a law office with DiMasi, signed a sham $5,000-a-month lobbying contract and directed $4,000 of each payment to DiMasi as part of a preexisting fee-sharing arrangement. DiMasi, Topazio testified, had alerted him to anticipate the work from Cognos, which he said would be arriving in the form of a phone call from Richard McDonough, a Cognos lobbyist and friend to DiMasi who has been charged as a coconspirator.
The call eventually came, and Topazio signed the deal, but Cognos never asked him to perform any work, despite paying him monthly for two years, the bulk of which was immediately relayed to DiMasi. At the same time, Cognos was seeking the approval of a $15 million software contract and believed DiMasi was the key to getting it approved, prosecutors contend. Eventually, prosecutors said, Cognos got the contract, which was awarded by the Patrick administration.
On Tuesday, Topazio – who specialized in criminal defense – said he began to ask questions when Cognos offered to pay him for “contract interpretation” but was repeatedly reassured by DiMasi that he should accept the offer and be ready to perform work for the company, if it ever came.
Topazio, the prosecution’s second witness in a trial expected to last six weeks, told jurors DiMasi – 15 years his senior – had been a mentor and a guide for decades.
“I looked up to Sal,” he said.
In 1982, Topazio recalled, he had just gotten into law school when a friend at the State House introduced him to DiMasi. After he graduated, DiMasi, then a rank-and-file representative from the North End of Boston, helped Topazio get a job on a special commission dealing with “uniform sentencing.” Later, DiMasi hired Topazio as a clerk in his private law office, which DiMasi ran for most of his tenure as a state representative, including from 2004 to 2009, when he was speaker of the House.
After a brief stint as a lawyer in New Jersey, Topazio returned to Boston to work as a salaried employee for DiMasi’s law practice in about 1986. Eventually the two developed an agreement to refer clients to one another in exchange for a portion of their legal fees.
From the outset, Topazio made clear that he had no desire to testify against his former boss and friend.
“I don’t want to be here,” he said.
Topazio agreed to testify under an agreement in which he cannot be prosecuted for statements he makes unless he is untruthful. The agreement was read aloud to the jury.
At prosecutors’ urging, Topazio also highlighted a series of $4,000 checks he cut to DiMasi immediately after being paid by Cognos between March 2005 and March 2007.
Topazio told jurors that he once asked DiMasi, prior to 2004, whether the speaker could use his position as chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee to win legal business for them both.
“He liked to say to me, ‘It’s not worth doing anything to get into trouble. It’s better to have a clear conscience,’” Topazio said.
When DiMasi became speaker in 2004, Topazio testified, “he did not want to actively go into court anymore” and began referring criminal, real estate, probate and other types of cases to Topazio instead.
When the Cognos deal landed in his lap, Topazio said, he met with McDonough – the company’s lobbyist – and Joseph Lally, a Cognos sales executive who pled guilty in February to his involvement in the alleged kickback scheme.
Defense attorneys worked feverishly over the first few days of the trial to discredit Lally – who has since pledged to cooperate with prosecutors – as a desperate, dishonest, “degenerate gambler” who agreed to plead guilty to save his own skin.
Tuesday was no different. William Cintolo, one of two lawyers for DiMasi, suggested that Lally overstated his relationship with DiMasi, bragging to colleagues that he could get “Sal” to take actions on his behalf, even when other evidence indicated that some of those actions never took place.
But prosecutors countered by highlighting phone records suggesting that DiMasi and Lally had direct cell phone conversations that matched with at least one email Lally had sent to his colleagues. And, prosecutors noted, Cognos eventually got its contract, despite some setbacks along the way.
Topazio’s testimony will continue Thursday – jurors were given Wednesday off to accommodate a member of the panel whose grandmother passed away. Jurors will also get Friday off when Judge Mark Wolf, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts who has been presiding over the trial, travels to administer a wedding for his niece.
After Topazio, jurors are expected to hear testimony from former Rep. Lida Harkins, a Needham Democrat who was appointed by DiMasi to the speaker’s leadership team. After Harkins, Maureen Chew, a state official, and James Eisenberg, chief of staff to Speaker Robert DeLeo and chief of staff to the Ways and Means Committee when DiMasi was speaker, former Rep. Robert Coughlin, who sponsored the funding proposal for the Cognos contract, are expected to testify. Prosecutors said they’re still deciding whether to call David Driscoll, the former state education commissioner.
Lally, whose testimony has been presented as a critical part of the prosecution’s case, is expected to follow soon after Coughlin. Richard Vitale, DiMasi’s longtime friend and accountant, is also a defendant in the matter.