JUDGE TURNS DOWN RESTAURATEUR'S BID FOR ACQUITTAL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992                   TAG: 9201280360
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BECKLEY, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Medium
JUDGE TURNS DOWN RESTAURATEUR'S BID FOR ACQUITTAL
A federal judge on Monday rejected a Covington, Va., pizza parlor owner's contention that he should be acquitted because he was illegally entrapped by a government informant into arranging a $60,000 cocaine shipment last year.
In her decision, U.S. Judge Elizabeth Hallanan said she felt the question of whether Victor Cucci, 39, is guilty or innocent by reason of entrapment should be left to the jury.
Cucci's attorney, Gregory English, has admitted from the beginning of the trial that Cucci arranged the drug deal. But, he says, Cucci was entrapped by a government informant who pressured him into doing something he otherwise would not have done.
The government's own evidence shows Cucci repeatedly saying he was arranging the deal only as a favor for the informant, who he thought was a friend, and he wanted no part in the deal and no profit from it.
Although government officials have conceded that Cucci had not been suspected of direct drug dealing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith is expected to argue to the jury today that Cucci willingly went along, had the contacts and arranged and completed the deal.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations today after listening to three days of testimony. The government called nine witnesses in the case, relying primarily on testimony from its informant, Robert Seidman, a convicted drug dealer who agreed to work for the government in the hope of getting off with probation. The government's case came out mainly through several hours of tape-recorded conversations between Seidman and Cucci.
In the conversations, Seidman says the two spoke in a crude code in which they referred to kilograms of cocaine as cars. According to the tapes, Cucci agreed to contact a man in New York to bring two kilos of cocaine to Seidman.
The man Cucci is accused of contacting in New York is Joseph Corvello, 52, a lifelong friend of Cucci's from Sicily, who is on trial with Cucci on drug conspiracy charges. Both face a possible 40 years in prison.
Neither Cucci nor Corvello testified in the trial. Cucci admitted in earlier interviews with the Roanoke Times & World-News that he arranged the deal, but he said he never would have done it if Seidman had not pushed him into it.
Cucci didn't testify in part because he said he didn't want to identify the friend he called in New York to arrange for the cocaine.
Corvello, who ownes JoJo's, a pizza restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y., said he has no criminal record and hates drugs. He said that hatred was made stronger a few years ago when his 23-year-old daughter was killed in a car wreck by a man on drugs and alcohol.
"I'm not gonna put drugs to the people," he said.
Corvello said that the approximately $40,000 in cash that police found in a paper bag on his lap when he was arrested July 25 was loan money from Cucci for purchase of restaurant equipment.
Corvello said he made the mistake of visiting Cucci at the same time Cucci was handling the drug deal. He said he got arrested because he just happened to be there and because the loan money he received from Cucci included some of the marked money the government gave Seidman.
Corvello said he did not know a drug deal was being made at the time or that the money he received was from a drug deal.
"I'm not angry at him," Corvello said of Cucci.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB