Lawyers make final pitches to jurors in Farnese's federal fraud trial
PHILADELPHIA -- In their final pitch to the jury, prosecutors in Larry Farnese's federal fraud trial painted the state senator as so desperate five years ago to become leader of the city's Eighth Democratic Ward that he was willing to buy the vote of a committeewoman to do it.
Luckily for him, prosecutor Robert Heberle said during his closing argument Monday, one member of the ward committee, Ellen Chapman, was so desperate for money to fund her daughter's education that she was willing to sell her vote.
"The money and the promise to vote for Farnese were tied together," he said. "Quid pro quo. This for that. There's a word for such a payment - it's a bribe."
But defense lawyers, in their final remarks, called prosecutors desperate, too - so desperate to score a conviction that they twisted a perfectly legal act of constituent service into a nefarious tale of corruption.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20170131_Lawyers_make_final_pitches_to_jurors_in_Farnese_s_federal_fraud_trial.html
