Maziarz disputes Bruno trial witness
Denies claim by former Local 91 official of acting as ‘go-between’ in casino talks
Published: November 23, 2009, 12:30 am
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State Sen. George D. Maziarz was a “go-between” linking a corrupt labor union to former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, a convicted felon has testified in Bruno’s fraud trial, which is expected to go the jury today in Albany.
Asked Friday if he was a conduit between Laborers Local 91 and Bruno, Maziarz said, “No.”
Mark S. Congi, former president and assistant business manager of Local 91, mentioned Maziarz a few times in his Nov. 9 testimony about the relationship between Bruno and Local 91.
Maziarz himself was on witness lists for both sides, but neither called him to the stand.
“That apparently means that I had no information,” Maziarz said Friday.
Local 91 has given Maziarz $15,000 in campaign funds in the past decade, according to the state Board of Elections Web site. But two-thirds of that money came in after the FBI rounded up most of the union’s old leaders in 2002.
Bruno is accused of using his position to illegally line up outside business that netted him $3.2 million. Allegations about his role included claims that he tried to persuade labor union leaders to invest their pension funds or other money with Wright Investors Services, a Connecticut firm that purportedly paid Bruno $1.3 million.
Laborers Local 91 was one of 11 unions that switched funds to the Wright firm after Bruno talked to them.
Congi, 49, of Youngstown, was one of 18 Local 91 members who pleaded guilty in a federal case charging extortion and violence against non-union workers and businesses in Niagara County.
His role, according to his testimony in the Bruno trial: “I ordered people to hurt people.”
Congi, who is serving a 15- year federal prison sentence, testified that the late Michael “Butch” Quarcini, Local 91’s all-powerful business manager, told him who to hurt.
Quarcini died of cancer in 2003 before the government could put him on trial.
Congi said he and Quarcini went to Albany to meet with Maziarz, Bruno and Sen. Nicholas Spano in the State Capitol about eight years ago. On Friday, Maziarz denied being at the meeting.
The topic, according to Congi, was trying to get the State Legislature to approve a deal for a Niagara Falls gambling casino with the Seneca-Cayuga tribe from Oklahoma, instead of the Senecas in Western New York.
Congi said Quarcini wanted all the eventual casino employees to become Local 91 members, and Bruno “told Mr. Quarcini he would do anything he could to help him.”
Maziarz “was kind of like our go-between for Mr. Bruno at times. We were very close to him; Butch was very close to him and depended on him to set us out in certain situations,” Congi said.
Bruno’s talks with the Oklahoma tribe were revealed in March 2002, but nothing came of them. The local Senecas were awarded the casino deal, and the Niagara Falls casino is nonunion.
On another occasion, Congi testified, Bruno came to Niagara Falls for Local 91’s annual golf tournament.
Congi said Bruno, Maziarz, Quarcini and Mark S. Zito, a longtime Niagara Falls political figure, took a helicopter ride above the falls so Quarcini could show Bruno the difference between the Canadian and American sides.
At a dinner after the golf outing, Congi said Quarcini made “a little joke. . . . He said he told Mr. Bruno that if he didn’t get money for us to fix up the area, he was going to throw him out of the helicopter.”
Maziarz said he recalled Bruno’s trip to Niagara Falls for the golf outing, but said, “I was not on the helicopter. I’ve never been in a helicopter in my life.”
Asked about Maziarz by Abbe D. Lowell, Bruno’s lawyer, Congi said: “He would know what we did. I didn’t really care for Mr. Maziarz that much.”
“What did he think about you?” Lowell asked.
Congi answered: “I don’t think he thought anything about me, really. I don’t know. It was ‘hello,’ ‘goodbye,’ and that was the end of it. He catered to Mr. Quarcini. Probably looked at us as if we weren’t important, and Mr. Quarcini was the one he should be important to.”
Asked if he catered to Quarcini, Maziarz said: “That’s a relative term. I cater to all my constituents.”
tprohaska@buffnews.com
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