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May 12, 2008 6:19 pm US/Central
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Prosecutor To Rezko Jury: "He Did It For Money"
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko's defense attorney ripped into the government's star witness against his client Monday, describing him as an admitted lifelong liar and swindler whose brain was all but rendered useless by three decades of abusing powerful narcotics.
"He said he is a felon, he admitted he is a liar many times over, he said he is a thief, and I don't know if he said he was a drug addict, but he was a drug abuser," Joseph J. Duffy said as closing arguments got under way in the state's biggest corruption trial since the George Ryan case.
In dramatic fashion, Duffy denounced Stuart P. Levine as "a thief, a con man, a perjurer" as if to demolish the star witness by sheer force of words. Levine's testimony had formed the heart of the government's case.
"We caught him lying time and again on the witness stand," Duffy said of Levine. "Like Pinocchio, his nose grew."
As for Rezko, Duffy said, "There isn't a single charge against him other than Stuart Levine's illegal acts and that should shock you."
The prosecutor conceded Levine "is the embodiment of corruption. He's arrogant and unlikable. The issue is whether he is telling the truth."
Prosecutors claim his testimony was corroborated by independent evidence and other witnesses.
Federal prosecutor Reid J. Schar told jurors earlier Monday that Rezko had parlayed success as a fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich into the clout to engineer a $7 million shakedown scheme in state government.
But Duffy scoffed at that, saying he believed Rezko had raised more money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, President Bush and Sen. Barack Obama than for Blagojevich. He claimed that the prosecutors had greatly overstated Rezko's actual influence within the Blagojevich administration.
The trial had attracted the national spotlight at its March 3 opening because Rezko had been a fundraiser for Obama as well as Blagojevich. But the testimony barely touched on the Democratic presidential contender. And neither Obama nor Blagojevich has been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Rezko, 52, is charged with scheming with Levine to split a $1.5 million payoff from a contractor who wanted state permission to build a hospital in the McHenry County suburb of Crystal Lake.
He is also charged with scheming with Levine to shake down money management firms wanting to invest assets of the $40 billion fund that pays the pensions of retired downstate and suburban school teachers.
Rezko has denied that he took part in such a scheme.
Prosecutors had predicted that the centerpiece of Duffy's strategy at the close of the trial would be an effort to discredit Levine in the eyes of the jury, believing that without the government's star witness the case for the prosecution would be fatally weakened.
And Duffy delivered, telling the jury, "He lied to you over and over."
Cross examination of Levine had left plenty of ammunition to throw at him. He admitted his net worth plummeted from $79 million to the minus numbers in five years while he spent lavishly on fast cars and chartered jets and indulged in marathon drug-taking parties in various hotel rooms.
He admitted that bribery and fraud -- including the swindling of an estate of an elderly relative who had befriended him -- had long been his way of life.
"Maybe I'm dating myself, but remember the old advertisement -- this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs?" Duffy asked jurors, recalling the image of an egg frying in a pan. Two of the jurors smiled and nodded.
"Bang-o, they got it right," Duffy added. He recalled that Levine had once even been unable to recall a $3 million check that he had written.
"How high do you have to be to write a $3 million check and not remember it?" Duffy asked. A minute later, the attorney tapped his head with an index finger and told jurors: "He doesn't have it up here."
Levine's appetite for powerful, exotic drugs such as crystal methamphetamine and kaetamine (Special K) had been so spectacular that even Schar, in his closing argument, couldn't resist mentioning it.
Schar pointed to an FBI recording of a phone conversation in which Levine said that a threat by Hollywood producer and investment firm executive Thomas Rosenberg to report Rezko and Blagojevich fundraiser Christopher Kelly to federal authorities might be "sobering for them."
"When Stuart Levine says you need to be sobered up because your criminal activity has gotten out of hand, you know you have a problem," Schar said, drawing one of the day's few laughs from the spectator seats.
Schar told jurors Rezko's ability to raise funds for Blagojevich had bought him "access and clout" that he used to launch his scheme. He said that Rezko often operated through front men and was careful not to say much on the telephone that might be quoted back later at a trial.
But he said jurors could detect the hand of Rezko in the scheme by listening carefully to what Levine and other witnesses said about him.
"He became part of a corrupt ring of individuals -- a corrupt scheme that existed in the state of Illinois," Shar said. "He joined the corrupt scheme, he acted in furtherance of it and he did it for money."
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald sat in the courtroom during Duffy's remarks, taking notes and occasionally frowning.
CBS 2's Mike Parker and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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