Reuters: Regulatory News: Ex-NYS Senate leader Bruno loses bid to throw out fraud case

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Ex-NYS Senate leader Bruno loses bid to throw out fraud case Aug 6th 2013, 15:13 By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK | Tue Aug 6, 2013 11:13am EDT NEW YORK Aug 6 (Reuters) - An appeal by former New York state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was rejected by a federal court on Tuesday, upsetting his bid to dismiss a second indictment and avoid a new fraud trial. Lawyers for Bruno, whose 2009 conviction had previously been thrown out, had argued that a second trial over whether the upstate Republican deprived people of his "honest services" violated his constitutional right against being tried twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy. But a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said prosecutors could retry Bruno on a new theory, that $440,000 of payments he allegedly solicited between 2004 and 2006 from an Albany businessman constituted a bribe or kickback. It also rejected the 84-year-old Bruno's argument that the government could not relitigate his intent to defraud because jurors had acquitted him on some counts addressing that issue. "While Bruno argues that the now-vacated convictions should be considered a non-event and the jury's determinations on those counts should be ignored, there is no legal or factual support for this proposition," the three-judge panel said. William Dreyer, a partner at Dreyer Boyajian in Albany, New York, representing Bruno, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian was not immediately available for comment. Following Bruno's original conviction on two counts of honest services fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court redefined that crime to require proof of bribery or kickbacks. That prompted the 2nd Circuit in November 2011 to throw out Bruno's conviction, even as it concluded that double jeopardy did not bar a new trial because of insufficient evidence. Prosecutors filed a new indictment accusing Bruno of two counts of honest services mail fraud in May 2012. He has pleaded not guilty. Bruno was the Senate majority leader for nearly 14 years. He resigned from that body in 2008 while under investigation. The case is U.S. v. Bruno, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 13-152. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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