KAREN HELLER: Time for another installment of Fumo Family Values, currently playing in the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse. Christian Marrone endured his second day yesterday as a prosecution witness in the federal government’s case against Vincent J. Fumo, all 139 counts. Marrone was the state senator’s former special assistant, assigned to the regional office. By special assistant, Fumo meant general contractor, jack of all (building) trades, and e-mail whipping boy – all, argues the government, at the taxpayers’ expense.
Marrone is also Fumo’s son-in-law, though to judge by court behavior, any rapport between them is in the past, too.
Marrone and Nicole, his pretty wife of five years, do not speak to her father. Nicole and the Marrone family sit in back, behind the government lawyers. Fumo’s political family, his more harmonious one, and his stunning current companion, Carolyn Zinni, a large gold cross dipping into her chest, sit behind the defense.
It’s like a bad wedding.
Yesterday, Marrone was in the toilet, detailing the inner plumbing of Fumo’s Green Street castle. Toilets failed. Plumbers died. Leaks? Everywhere. Or, as Fumo would e-mail, leaks!!!! The government plans to present 200 e-mails between Marrone and the senator. The son-in-law calls Fumo by his title, as much invective as honorific, and by Senator, he suggests the ancient Roman corrupt persuasion. MORE