Zaccaro Acquitted of Shakedown Counts

A jury on Wednesday acquitted John A. Zaccaro, husband of former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, of charges that he tried to shake down a cable television company seeking a franchise in the borough of Queens.

Ferraro, clutching a handkerchief, her eyes filled with tears, lambasted Queens Dist. Atty. John Santucci, the prosecutor who brought the case.

“We’re not bitter, we’re relieved it’s over,” Ferraro told reporters. “But we’re also angry. . . . I have a four-letter word for John Santucci--dumb.”

“I just want to forget the past,” Zaccaro said. “It’s been a bad experience.”

“The jury has spoken,” Santucci said in a statement. “We gave our best effort. The problems of the case became obvious at trial.”

Jurors, who deliberated six hours over two days before finding Zaccaro not guilty of bribery and extortion charges, said the evidence did not merit a conviction. They said that from the beginning eight jurors stood firm for acquittal.

“There wasn’t sufficient evidence,” said Lester Anthony, the jury’s foreman. “That’s about it.”

“We did feel there was something there,” added Ronald Forte, another jury member. “But it wasn’t deep enough to convict.”

Zaccaro, 54, was charged with plotting with former Queens Borough President Donald Manes to solicit a bribe from Cablevision Systems Corp., which six years ago sought the cable contract for Queens. Manes, who was implicated in a separate scandal involving New York’s Parking Violations Bureau, committed suicide in March, 1986.

Prosecutors charged that Cablevision lost the franchise after it allegedly declined to pay a $1-million bribe Zaccaro sought for Manes.

But the testimony of the prosecution’s chief witness proved weak--so weak that furious prosecutors had him declared a hostile witness.

Richard Flynn, chairman of the New York State Power Authority, and at the time a lawyer for Cablevision, refused to testify that Zaccaro actually was asking for a bribe. Flynn said Zaccaro merely delivered a message that the process was corrupt and that it would require “a substantial amount of money” to gain the franchise.

Authorities Not Informed

Flynn said he reported the conversation to Cablevision officials, but not to law enforcement authorities.

“Did you urge Mr. Zaccaro to report it to any law enforcement agency,” Assistant Dist. Atty. Paul Pickelle asked.

“No,” Flynn replied.

In summing up, Zaccaro’s lawyer Robert Morvillo ridiculed the case against his client.

“Every one of the witnesses that was called by the people--every one of them--said something here that would lead you to believe that my client committed no crime,” Morvillo told the jury.

“So I say to you again: Where’s the beef? Where’s the crime? Where’s the proof? What are we doing here?”

Ferraro sat with the couple’s children in a front row of the courtroom when the jury announced it had reached a decision. Throughout the trial, she had occupied a front row seat, giving encouragement to her husband.

And when the verdict was not guilty, Ferraro and the children burst into tears.

“John is going back to being John Zaccaro, real estate broker, not John Zaccaro, husband of former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro,” Ferraro said.

A reporter asked if the former congresswoman planned to return to politics. “Perhaps,” she said.

Zaccaro has faced criminal charges before. In 1984, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau, a Democrat, conducted an investigation of Zaccaro’s real estate business. Zaccaro eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of taking part in a fraudulent scheme to buy several Queens apartment houses and was sentenced to perform community service work.