Defense: Adelphia Trial Is ‘Rigas-cide’

A defense attorney for an executive on trial with Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and two of his sons likened the prosecution of the four men Wednesday to the practice of killing kings and their staff in centuries past.

U.S. prosecutors needed scapegoats after Adelphia, the No. 5 U.S. cable television operator, disclosed in March 2002 that the Rigases had borrowed $2.3 billion backed by the company, defense attorney Mark Mahoney said in closing arguments for his client, former assistant treasurer Michael Mulcahey.

The criminal charges filed against the men were like regicide, or the killing of kings, by mobs who blamed a few so that the community could take comfort and move on, Mahoney told jurors at the 3 1/2-month-old trial in New York. Mulcahey, 46, fell victim to a modern version of the phenomenon after Adelphia filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2002, Mahoney contended.

“John Rigas was a king,” Mahoney told federal jurors in New York. “His sons were the princes. When the time came for blaming, all the fingers were pointed at them and they were overthrown. It wasn’t regicide, it was Rigas-cide. With them went Mike Mulcahey, a member of the household staff who refused to join the mob pointing fingers.”

Mahoney delivered the last of four defense summations given over the last week. Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Owens then began a rebuttal argument urging jurors to ignore the excuses and appeals to emotion and sympathy by defense attorneys.

“You’ve heard 20 hours of excuses to explain all the facts away,” Owens told jurors.

Jurors may begin deliberations today.