Case Against Rigas Is Attacked
Prosecutors “don’t have a case” against Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John J. Rigas but have tried hard to “dirty him up” in their rush to score a high-profile victory, Rigas’ lawyer told a federal jury Thursday.
Rigas, 79, founder of what grew to be the nation’s fifth-largest cable television company, could have sold Adelphia five years ago and pocketed $2 billion, defense lawyer Peter E. Fleming Jr. said in his closing argument in the 3 1/2-month conspiracy and fraud trial.
But Rigas instead chose to risk his personal fortune rebuilding the company so it would stay competitive in the digital age and remain the economic engine of tiny Coudersport, Pa., Fleming said. He argued that such a decision was starkly at odds with the government’s portrait of a man driven by greed and selfishness.
Rigas, his sons Timothy and Michael, and former Adelphia executive Michael C. Mulcahey are accused of driving Adelphia into bankruptcy by looting it of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and securities and hiding $2 billion of loans to the Rigases. If convicted of the most serious of the 24 felony counts, they each face 15 to 30 years in prison.
Fleming asked the jury of nine women and three men not to hold it against John Rigas that he did not take the stand in his own defense, implying that the cable pioneer’s advanced age was a factor in that decision.
“Someday, God willing, each of us will be 80,” he said of Rigas, who will turn 80 in November.
Prosecutor Christopher Clark, in his closing argument Wednesday, said Adelphia purchased $25 million of timberland to “protect the view” from Rigas’ house. But Fleming defended the deal as an attempt by the family to protect Coudersport’s rural character.
A clause in the agreement would keep a future buyer of Adelphia from “mowing down the trees” and denuding that section of town, Fleming said.
Fleming portrayed Rigas as a leader who stepped back from daily business operations in 1999 after undergoing triple-bypass heart surgery and being diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Fleming cited the words of an Adelphia financial manager in an e-mail to a colleague: “You know about 10,000 times more than Mr. Rigas. He’s basically in the dark.”
Fleming spent much of his time Thursday attacking the credibility of star prosecution witness James Brown, a former Adelphia vice president of finance who pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to testify against his former colleagues.
“You may find the man is essentially without conscience,” Fleming said. He asked the jury to recall how Brown had shed tears on the witness stand while describing his relationship with Timothy Rigas, yet then performed a “calculated assassination” of his former “best friend.”
Fleming said John Rigas’ name was not signed to any of the documents presented as evidence that the defendants engaged in bank fraud and wire fraud by lying to lenders and bondholders about Adelphia’s financial condition.
The only thing linking him to such a crime is Brown’s testimony about a meeting with John, Timothy and Michael Rigas in which Brown described the ways he could manipulate the company’s books to show stronger growth, Fleming said. But Brown acknowledged on the stand that he didn’t tell prosecutors about this crucial meeting until months after his plea agreement, Fleming added.
“He’s bargaining for his freedom -- or a reduced sentence -- and he forgets this meeting?” Fleming asked. “Or does he decide sometime later on to make it up?”
