Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9202020073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JURY JUST SAID `NO' TO CUCCI'S CLAIM
Victor Cucci was convicted of drug dealing because he didn't just say "no."That's why a federal court jury in Beckley, W.Va., last week refused to believe Cucci. The Covington man claimed he was illegally entrapped by a government informant into arranging a shipment of more than 4 pounds of cocaine from New York to Covington.
But Cucci didn't have to do it, several of the jurors who convicted Cucci said after the trial.
Jerrilyn Coburn of Ghent said she was convinced by the final closing argument of Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Fisher.
All Cucci had to do was take the advice of the nationwide anti-drug slogan: "Just say no," Fisher told the jury. "He just wouldn't say no."
Cucci, owner of Cucci's Pizzeria in Covington and a well-known civic booster, didn't testify at his four-day trial. But his attorney, Gregory English of Alexandria, tried to show that Cucci was set up by a sleazy government informant who badgered him into doing something he never would have done.
It's wrong for the government to push people into committing a crime, English said.
The government's own secretly taped conversations between the informant and Cucci showed the jury that Cucci repeatedly said he didn't want anything to do with the cocaine deal and wanted no profit from it.
The only thing Cucci planned to do, English said, was introduce the informant to a cocaine supplier from New York.
"Victor didn't think it was a crime for him to introduce two people so they could do something wrong," English told the jury.
He pointed out that on the tapes Cucci repeatedly tried to avoid involvement in the cocaine deal and backed out at least once.
But, Cucci's willingness to have any involvement bothered the jury.
"He had the option to say no," said juror Elizabeth St. Clair of Hico.
St. Clair and some of the other jurors were troubled by the way the government used a confidential informant to get Cucci, but know such tactics are necessary to fight drugs.
"They have to do those things . . . but we didn't get the full picture," St. Clair said.
The informant, Robert Seidman of Greenbrier County, W.Va., admitted to a lifetime of drug addiction and drug dealing. He said he has a 20-year drug sentence hanging over him and agreed to work as a government informant in hopes of getting off with probation.
"I didn't like him . . . He's a bad guy," juror Coburn said of Seidman. But she said she understands the need to use such people to get drug dealers. "How else are they going to do it. Like they say. It's a war."
After the jury convicted Cucci on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith called the verdict an exoneration of the Drug Enforcement Administration's investigative techniques.
Cucci's attorney didn't dispute the government's need to use informants. But, in Cucci's case, he said, the government went after a man with no criminal record and no indication of drug dealing. They used an informant who pretended to be a friend and begged Cucci over a period of months to help him get cocaine, English said.
Cucci isn't a criminal, English said, he just stupidly gave in to do a favor for a friend.
English said he plans to appeal the conviction and believes it will be thrown out.
Cucci, 39, is being held in jail in West Virginia pending sentencing on March 30. He faces a possible five to 15 years under federal sentencing guidelines.
When Cucci was arrested July 25 the government seized his businesses, including a pizza parlor and Toyota dealership, his home, cabin and bank accounts under a law designed to take the profit out of drug dealing.
Under a settlement reached Jan. 27 Cucci will be able to keep his home, stocks, bank accounts, pizzeria and car dealership. The government took his cabin near Covington, $100,000 in cash and three cars, including a Porshe.
David Smith, one of Cucci's attorneys, said the settlement shows "the excessiveness" of the government's original seizure. It was a good example of how the government often improperly uses the seizure law to "grab now and ask later," Smith said.
The government is still investigating possible tax violations based on records seized from Cucci.
Cucci's arrest stunned and divided Covington. He was a well-known businessman and a civic supporter who donated to practically every community cause. Many community leaders showed up at his initial bond hearing to support him, others called for a boycott of his restaurant.
Cucci's wife, Janet, said townspeople are showing more understanding now that they have seen how the government informant pushed her husband into the cocaine deal. "I haven't had not one person say anything bad to me," she said.
She plans to keep the pizza restaurant going while her husband is in prison.
"That's my goal to still have something for him," she said.