Donovan Prosecutor Alleges Personal Attacks

NEW YORK —  The state prosecutor in former U.S. Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan’s $7.4-million grand larceny and fraud trial began his closing argument Wednesday by blasting defense lawyers for “name-calling and throwing mud at the prosecutor.”

Stephen R. Bookin, assistant district attorney in the Bronx, told the 12-member jury that defense lawyers had directed attacks “at me, personally” to divert attention from the prosecution evidence presented during seven months of testimony.

“They tried to make me the issue,” Bookin said in a low, calm voice. “I am not the issue.”

Bookin’s comments came after nine defense lawyers repeatedly attacked and mocked the 38-year-old prosecutor during two weeks of defense summations in the enormous, dingy courtroom at State Supreme Court in the Bronx.

No Defense Testimony

Defense lawyers, who presented no evidence or witnesses of their own, have attempted to paint Bookin as a villain who prosecuted Donovan out of personal ambition and to embarrass the Reagan Administration.

“Who knows where this will lead?” said John Iannuzzi, the last of the defense lawyers, as he concluded his case Wednesday. “Maybe City Hall? Maybe Hollywood? Hollywood!”

Iannuzzi told jurors that Bookin was “telling the story like a madman walking through the halls of a madhouse.”

Iannuzzi said he didn’t want to “smear” the district attorney. But he added: “There was misrepresentation; there was fraud; there was deceit in this case. But the fraud and deceit was not practiced by the defendants. It was practiced by the district attorney’s office.”

The historic trial, now in its ninth month, thus entered its final phase. Jurors are expected to be given the case early next week. Donovan and seven co-defendants are charged with one count of grand larceny, four counts of false filing of business records and five counts of offering false instruments for filing. If convicted, each could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison and fined.

September, 1984, Indictment

Donovan, 56, was indicted by a Bronx grand jury in September, 1984, and is the nation’s first Cabinet officer ever indicted while in office. He resigned from the Reagan Cabinet the followin1730170209insisted that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Donovan was charged for activities he allegedly undertook while executive vice president and part owner of the Schiavone Construction Co. of Secaucus, N.J., before he joined the Reagan Administration in 1981.

Bookin told the jury that the case was “simple” and that Donovan and the other defendants conspired in the late 1970s to defraud the New York City Transit Authority of $7.4 million during construction of a $186-million Manhattan subway tunnel.

“Why did they do it?,” he asked. “Simple greed.”

Bookin said the Schiavone company helped set up a bogus minority-owned subcontractor, the now-defunct Jopel Trucking & Contracting Co. of the Bronx, to qualify for the $186-million subway contract in August, 1978. Under the federally funded contract, the Schiavone company had to use “good faith efforts” to subcontract 10% of the work to a minority-owned company.

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Donovan’s alleged role in the scheme drew little attention during the marathon trial. Bookin said Donovan co-signed 28 Schiavone checks to Jopel, including a $200,000 interest-free loan to help the fledgling company get started.

But Donovan’s lawyer, William O. Bittman, said during his summation that Donovan had signed more than 5,000 checks during the five-year period, totaling more than $132 million.