Worst Trials of the Century - Jan 14 Transcript

3 (Whereupon, the following takes place in the
4 absence of the jury.)
5 THE COURT: What happened to my bench. Did you
6 do anything, Mr. White, here? It is like Goldilocks and
7 the Three Bears.
8 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, I hope I am not the big
9 bad wolf in that story.
10 THE COURT: You might very well be.
11 Let's put the appearances on the record right

12 now.
13 MS. SCOTT: Ceci Scott for the United States.
14 THE COURT: I can't hear you. First rule, talk
15 up. You want everybody to hear what you are saying,
16 right?
17 MS. SCOTT: Right.
18 THE COURT: That's the first rule. The second
19 rule is to talk slowly so the jury will hear the things
20 that you have been studying for the past six months or
21 more, which you expect them to digest in a space of a
22 split second.
23 In order to do that you have to speak slowly and
24 loudly.
25 Do you see the way I speak? Or do you hear the

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

4
1 way I speak?
2 Do the same thing, please.
3 MS. SCOTT: Ceci Scott for the United States.
4 MR. WHITE: Ronald White for the United States.
5 MR. TRABULUS: Norman Trabulus for Bruce Gordon.
6 MR. JENKS: Edward Jenks for Who's Who Worldwide
7 Registry, Inc. and Sterling Who's Who.
8 MR. SCHOER: Gary Schoer for Tara Garboski. Good
9 morning.
10 MR. NELSON: Alan Nelson for Oral Frank Osman.
11 MR. LEE: Winston Lee for Laura Weitz. Good
12 morning, your Honor.
13 MR. DUNN: Thomas Dunn for Mr Shortcuts ,.
14 MR. NEVILLE: James Neville for Scott
15 Michavelson.
16 Also with me is a student, Jonathan Schechter,
17 S C H E C H T E R. And I was wondering if I could get
18 some guidance from the Court whether or not he could sit
19 up at the table with me.
20 THE COURT: It depends what law school he is in.
21 MR. NEVILLE: He is not in law school. He is a
22 college student.
23 THE COURT: What college does he go to?
24 MR. NEVILLE: The University of Vermont.
25 THE COURT: Okay.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

5
1 MR. NEVILLE: Thank you.
2 MR. GEDULDIG: Martin Geduldig for Annette Haley.
3 THE COURT: You are farther away, you have to
4 talk louder, Mr. Geduldig.
5 MR. GEDULDIG: Martin Geduldig for Annette Haley.
6 THE COURT: Good.
7 MR. WALLENSTEIN: John Wallenstein for Martin
8 Reffsin.
9 THE COURT: Let us discuss some of these
10 procedures.
11 First of all, when witnesses are sworn, please
12 remain seated. Do not stir around going over papers and
13 so forth, or discussing things with your colleagues. I
14 consider the administration of the oath to be a solemn
15 moment.
16 Secondly, we have a custom in the Eastern
17 District of New York to rise when the jury enters the
18 courtroom, and that's everybody, and rise when they leave
19 the courtroom. Please adhere to our custom.
20 I don't have to tell experienced lawyers to rise
21 when they make objections. There are several reasons for
22 that. You know the reasons.
23 Also, when you make objections, I don't want any
24 speeches. Just say object, and nothing else. If I want
25 to know what the reason is, I will ask you. Generally I

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

6
1 will know what the reason is. Unless it is something that
2 is so vital and critical that you have to make a
3 statement, ask me permission to make a statement.
4 Otherwise no statements.
5 The jury room is through this left front door.
6 The men's bathroom is right opposite the jury room. Do
7 not use the men's bathroom on this floor. Use the
8 bathroom on the second floor.
9 Don't talk to the jurors. That is in any way.
10 Do not say hello, you look great today, or it is going to
11 snow tomorrow, what do you think? Don't say anything to
12 them. I will tell them that I have instructed you not to
13 talk to them so they don't think you are rude.
14 We are going to move this case along as rapidly
15 as we can, always consistent with due process
16 considerations. So, if you have requests to charge, if
17 you want to submit them, do it as soon as possible.
18 Because the case probably is not going to take as long as
19 you think it is going to take.
20 The government is going to start, I assume with
21 their case. Have enough witnesses available at all times
22 to go to 5:00 o'clock. I don't want to hear that you sent
23 three witnesses home because it is 2:00 o'clock and you
24 thought that we wouldn't need them. Probably these
25 witnesses will have never testified before, and will never

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

7
1 again. So, if they spend an extra day, so be it, rather
2 than all of us waiting and losing time. So have enough
3 witnesses available.
4 Please try to pre-mark the exhibits consistent
5 with the requirements of law. Exchange them with counsel
6 before you use them. Because there is nothing that is
7 more irritating to a jury, to have counsel, especially
8 this number, presented with a 38-page document and right
9 in front of the jury all of them reading this document for
10 the first time. That is to be avoided if possible.
11 Because I have hundreds of other cases, civil and
12 criminal, we will not be sitting generally on Fridays
13 where I take care of sentencings, motions, and all kinds
14 of other things.
15 I will let you know each week. But this Friday
16 we will not sit. Generally we won't, except if I need the
17 time.
18 As far as the preliminary instructions that I am
19 going to give the jurors, I am going to say very little
20 about the case.
21 Do you want me to introduce the individual
22 defendants? Anybody object to that? I generally do that.
23 MR. TRABULUS: No objection.
24 THE COURT: Okay.
25 Are all the defendants going to make opening

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

8
1 statements? I tell the jury you don't have to, but are
2 you going to make opening statements? Everybody going to
3 make one?
4 MR. SCHOER: Yes.
5 MR. JENKS: Yes.
6 MR. NELSON: Yes.
7 THE COURT: Anybody not going to make an opening
8 statement?
9 (No response.)
10 THE COURT: Here is what I will tell the jury
11 about the case.
12 In this case the indictment charges that
13 Bruce W. Gordon, Who's Who Worldwide Registry, Inc. and
14 the rest of the defendants, were involved in a conspiracy
15 to commit mail fraud in connection with the Who's Who
16 directories, and all these defendants committed the
17 directories in connection with the Who's Who directories.
18 Bruce Gordon is also charged with giving perjurious
19 testimony at another trial, a civil trial, obstruction of
20 justice, filing false tax returns, filing false collection
21 information statements and money laundering.
22 In addition, Bruce Gordon and Martin Reffsin are
23 each charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to
24 impair, impede and defeat the Internal Revenue Service,
25 and evasion of payment of income taxes.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

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1 Finally, Martin Reffsin is charged with the
2 assisting in the filing of false income tax returns.
3 Of course, I tell them before that that the
4 indictment is simply a description of the charges made by
5 the government. It is not evidence of anything.
6 I tell the jurors that I encourage them to take
7 notes if they so request. My courtroom deputy will give
8 them a pad and a pen. And I give them some instructions
9 about taking notes.
10 Who is sitting at the counsel table with you,
11 Mr. White?
12 MR. WHITE: The agents, you mean?
13 THE COURT: Yes.
14 I don't know who they are. They could be the
15 next draft choice for the New York Jets in 1998. I don't
16 know who they are.
17 MR. WHITE: They wish, your Honor.
18 Joseph Jordan, Special Agent with the Internal
19 Revenue Service, and Alphonse Pagano, a postal inspector.
20 THE COURT: Joseph Jordan and --
21 MR. WHITE: That's IRS, and Alphonse Pagano,
22 P A G A N O, a U.S. postal inspector.
23 THE COURT: That's about it.
24 Anything anybody wants to talk to me, talk about
25 to me at this point?

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

10
1 MR. JENKS: I do, your Honor.
2 Your Honor, at the time of the raids in March of
3 1995, on the two corporations, the government had made two
4 videotapes at 750 Lexington Avenue, at Sterling Who's Who,
5 and 1983 Marcus Avenue, your Honor.
6 I asked Mr. White to consent to allow me to play
7 during the opening statement five minutes from each of
8 these videos, so I could demonstrate and show to the jury
9 the actual corporations themselves, the working
10 environment of where these people were and what these
11 corporations were, so the jury doesn't start off with the
12 impression that they were in some kind of back room behind
13 some bar someplace selling these services.
14 There is no question that these videotapes could
15 be admitted during trial through one of the agents if they
16 testified.
17 THE COURT: Are you representing that you will
18 admit them during the trial?
19 MR. JENKS: I would, your Honor.
20 I asked your courtroom deputy to provide me with
21 a television and VCR. Mr. Trabulus has the tapes here
22 with him. Mr. White has said he would object to playing
23 them in the opening since they are not in evidence.
24 THE COURT: How could they be in evidence at the
25 time of the opening statement?

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

11
1 MR. JENKS: Absolutely, your Honor.
2 THE COURT: You are representing to me you will
3 offer this and show this in court during the trial?
4 MR. JENKS: I will offer it through Inspector
5 Biegelman and Inspector Pagano.
6 THE COURT : Yes or no?
7 MR. JENKS: Yes.
8 THE COURT: What is the objection?
9 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, if he is trying to show
10 they have nice offices --
11 THE COURT: Do they have nice offices?
12 MR. WHITE: Yes, pretty nice, I admit.
13 THE COURT: Let him show it then.
14 Mr. White, we are in the 20th century. Tomorrow
15 they are going to show judges how to use these computers.
16 I am not going to show up there, but most of them are
17 going to be there.
18 MR. WHITE: My concern is what snippets Mr. Jenks
19 is going to pay.
20 MR. WHITE: Also there is audio. There are
21 agents conducting a search and talking about things. If
22 he wants to show that there are nice offices, maybe it can
23 be played without the audio. I don't know what is on the
24 audio on the particular parts they want to play.
25 MR. TRABULUS: The audio here represents and

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

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1 identifies rooms by letter or number, or say it appears to
2 be a storage room or cafeteria.
3 MR. JENKS: Your Honor, excuse me, Mr. Trabulus.
4 I don't need to play the audio.
5 THE COURT: Where is this machine that plays this
6 thing?
7 MR. JENKS: I mentioned it to the courtroom
8 deputy. She indicated she would -- you have the tapes?
9 MR. TRABULUS: The tapes are in my car, I can get
10 it right now.
11 THE COURT: We are not going out to your car to
12 see them, right? So let's get them.
13 MR. TRABULUS: Okay.
14 THE COURT: I will not let this jury wait. You
15 better get it now, because I will not have them wait.
16 MR. TRABULUS: I have a matter to bring up as
17 well.
18 MR. TRABULUS: Get the tapes first. Let's get
19 the tapes.
20 MR. TRABULUS: You want me to get the tapes?
21 THE COURT: What is your application?
22 MR. TRABULUS: My application is by way of motion
23 in limine. There are two matters I had not previously
24 brought to the Court's attention.
25 The first one which is pretty simple, there may

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

13
1 be an attempt by the government to introduce evidence that
2 a couple of the witnesses, whose names are the Grossmans,
3 are relatives of Mr. Gordon. In the course of settling an
4 proceeding in bankruptcy entered into an agreement they
5 were to pay a considerable amount of money to the
6 bankruptcy trustee.
7 I would ask the government be precluded from
8 introducing evidence of it and mentioning it in opening.
9 THE COURT: First of all, do you wish to do
10 that?
11 MR. WHITE: Certainly not in the opening.
12 THE COURT: All right.
13 MR. TRABULUS: The next point relates to evidence
14 that the government may seek to introduce that various
15 members would not have pumped the registries or
16 memberships, had they been told of certain things, such
17 as, for example, that mailing lists were used.
18 Now, the danger here, your Honor, is that the
19 issue of whether an individual would have purchased, or
20 would not have purchased may be confused in the jury's
21 mind with the question of materiality, which is an
22 objective test relating to the nature of the statement or
23 misstatement that is made.
24 We could have a situation, your Honor, where the
25 jurors could think if this particular person would or

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

14
1 would not have purchased, had they been told this,
2 automatically that that is material. It is really not
3 relevant as to whether they would or would not have,
4 particularly their opinion today as to what they might
5 have done years before.
6 So, I would ask that that type of questioning not
7 just with relation to if they had been told by mailing
8 list, but anything the government claims they should have
9 been told or weren't told, that that should be precluded,
10 and the government be precluded from referring to any such
11 testimony in opening statement.
12 THE COURT: Namely that the subscribers were told
13 that they were not told that they were gotten off lists,
14 mailing listing?
15 MR. TRABULUS: No, that's not it.
16 Obviously they could introduce evidence as to
17 what the subscribers or purchasers were told or what they
18 weren't told. Clearly they can do that. But their
19 opinion today as to what they would have done if they had
20 been told something different, and to what they wouldn't
21 have done if they were told something different or more,
22 that risks confusing the jury on the issue of materiality,
23 and it also is calling for an opinion today as to what
24 someone might have done years before. The prejudice is
25 too great to put that in.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

15
1 MR. WHITE: Your Honor, Mr. Trabulus is about 100
2 percent wrong.
3 THE COURT: He is, so I am denying his
4 application.
5 MR. WHITE: All right.
6 THE COURT: Mr. Trabulus, would you go get that
7 tape?
8 MR. TRABULUS: Yes.
9 THE COURT: Would you consent to have someone
10 cover for you while you are gone?
11 MR. TRABULUS: Yes, Mr. Jenks can cover for me.
12 THE COURT: Very good.
13 Is that all right with you, Mr. Gordon?
14 THE DEFENDANT GORDON: That's wonderful, your
15 Honor.
16 THE COURT: Okay.
17 MR. DUNN: Thomas Dunn for your
18 Honor.
19 Your Honor, my client has a spinal degenerative
20 condition. And during jury selection Magistrate Judge
21 Pohorelsky was kind enough to let him stand up and move
22 around from time to time. And also there times when he
23 really gets bad, it gets bad and he may have to walk out
24 of the courtroom.
25 THE COURT: Who is your client?

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

16
1 MR. DUNN: Mr Shortcuts ,. During jury selection he
2 agreed to waive his appearance when he had to leave the
3 courtroom. He also wishes to waive his appearance if his
4 condition is so bad that he has to leave the courtroom.
5 I am asking the Court if from time to time he can
6 stand up during testimony?
7 THE COURT: The answer is yes.
8 MR. DUNN: Also if he is permitted if it is
9 really bad, if he can leave the courtroom?
10 THE COURT: Yes. As long as he understands he
11 has an absolute right, constitutional right to be present
12 at all times during this trial. And that his absence from
13 the trial is not good. People shouldn't leave.
14 Defendants should not leave criminal trials, because
15 jurors get funny ideas about that.
16 If he understands the danger in doing it, but has
17 to do it because of a condition, I will certainly permit
18 him to do it.
19 MR. DUNN: He understands, that, your Honor.
20 THE COURT: Okay.
21 MR. SCHOER: Judge, what is your practice with
22 respect to the order in which counsel has to cross-examine
23 witnesses.
24 THE COURT: Let's do it in the regular order you

25 are sitting in now. There is no set rules for that.

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

17
1 Let's do it right down the line, starting with
2 Mr. Trabulus, Mr. Jenks, and then you right down the
3 line.
4 MR. SCHOER: I know we have had certain
5 discussions.
6 THE COURT: You want to do it another way?
7 MR. SCHOER: With respect to opening statements
8 we will do it that way. But with respect to
9 cross-examination of particular witnesses, we may decide
10 to go out of order.
11 THE COURT: Whatever you decide to do is all
12 right. You just govern your ownselves on cross. I will
13 not say Mr. So and So next. You take care of that. But
14 in the opening we will do it in the way in which you are
15 sitting, all right?
16 MR. SCHOER: Fine.
17 THE COURT: Mr. Geduldig wants to say something.
18 How are you doing?
19 MR. GEDULDIG: Your Honor, my client has
20 diabetes, it may be if we have a particularly long session
21 in court she may have to leave.
22 THE COURT: Who is your client?
23 MR. GEDULDIG: Annette Haley. She shares little
24 round pretzels.
25 THE COURT: Does she share it with everybody?

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

18
1 MR. GEDULDIG: She is willing to do it. I don't
2 want the Court to feel she is eating in court.
3 THE COURT: I am glad you told me. I will not
4 permit that. Just as the judge in Queens wouldn't permit
5 a lawyer to come in with a T-shirt, was it?
6 MR. GEDULDIG: Yes.
7 THE COURT: My goodness, what have we come to?
8 Then they brought an action, a habeas case or a federal
9 case.
10 The jury is all here. Let's get going.
11 MR. WHITE: I wanted to make one thing clear,
12 your Honor.
13 Mr. Rosenblatt, a revenue agent from the IRS is
14 going to testify for the government as both a summary
15 witness in the tax case and an expert witness in the tax
16 case. He is going to be here during the openings and the
17 tax part of the case. I wanted to make that clear that he
18 is here when the other witnesses testify.
19 THE COURT: Very well.
20 All right? Anything else? You got the tape?
21 MR. JENKS: We have them. I don't know if
22 Mr. White wants to look at them.
23 THE COURT: No. You show it.
24 MR. JENKS: Once is enough.
25 THE COURT: You will show the visual and not the

HARRY RAPAPORT, CSR, CP, CM OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER

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1 audio portion.
2 MR. JENKS: We will figure a way how to turn off
3 the audio.
4 THE COURT: I don't know how to do that.
5 MR. JENKS: I need a second.
6 (Whereupon, at this time there was a pause in the
7 proceedings.)

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This site is concerned with the Who's Who Worldwide Registry tragedy, and the undeniable odor of corruption in high placesin one of the worst trials of the century and the concomitant news media blackout regarding this incredible story.

Sixteen weeks of oft-explosive testimony, yet not a word in any of 1200 news archives. This alone supports the claim that this was a shamefully corrupt federal trial; in fact, one of the worst trials of the century.

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The Who's Who Tragedy
How Thomas FX Dunn proved himself the worst lawyer in America

Worst Trials of the Century - Jan 14 Transcript

The Who's Who TragedyHow Thomas FX Dunn proved himself the worst lawyer in America

The Who's Who Tragedy
How Thomas FX Dunn proved himself the worst lawyer in America