Joseph Percoco’s lawyer broke out the ziti defense during closing arguments at his corruption trial Wednesday — urging jurors not to condemn the former top aide to Gov. Cuomo for using TV gangster slang.
“It’s not the language of criminals just because someone watches ‘The Sopranos’ and picks up phrases from ‘The Sopranos,’” defense lawyer Barry Bohrer said.
“Millions of people would be in jumpsuits for having watched ‘The Sopranos’ and picked up language if that were the case.”Bohrer also tried to blame tainted prosecution witness Todd Howe for Percoco’s use of the term “ziti,” saying: “You’ll find 16 ziti emails and the score is 14 to 2 — 14 instances when Todd Howe mentions the word and two in which Joe does.”
Prosecutors contend the pasta reference was code for the $300,000-plus in bribes Howe allegedly helped Percoco pocket in a “pay-to-play” scheme with two companies doing business with the state.
But Bohrer tried turning those allegations into a joke when he asked the judge to give jurors their lunch break five minutes early.
“I hate talking about ziti while they are waiting for lunch,” he said to laughter in the Manhattan federal courtroom.
Judge Valerie Caproni denied the request and told Bohrer to continue as scheduled until 12:30 p.m.
Following the break, Bohrer showed jurors both of Percoco’s emails with the word “ziti” in them while arguing it wasn’t sinister as prosecutors claim.
Bohrer noted how Percoco typed a winking emoticon in one and mentioned how “I’ll send the kids to the backyard with a garden hose” in the other.
“We know that he meant that tongue in cheek,” Bohrer.
“It was not in the pursuit of a criminal endeavor.”
Also during his closing, Bohrer employed a Biblical metaphor while blasting Howe’s decision to cooperate against Percoco, which Howe testified came when he experienced a “come-to-Jesus moment” while meeting with his lawyer.
Bohrer noted that Howe had once been Percoco’s mentor, adding: “Todd Howe described him as a brother, just like Cain described Abel.”
The prosecution was scheduled to deliver its rebuttal arguments Thursday morning, followed by legal instructions from the judge and jury deliberations.