Eagen says DA wouldn't hear his side

Mr. Eagen's testimony before a Dauphin County jury repeated assertions made by his attorney throughout the trial that his client was charged with taking kickbacks and obstructing justice because Mr. Barrasse wanted Mr. Eagen out of office so he could run for his seat. Mr. Barrasse, a candidate for judge in November, contends he is running for another seat.

"I knew it was a bluff to set me up to get me out of office," Mr. Eagen said.

He testified Mr. Barrasse said he had a "mystery witness" who could place him on the property in Archbald where one of the payments allegedly took place. That witness never testified at the trial.

Mr. Eagen said he was positive there was no such witness because he had never been on the property.

Mr. Eagen also disputed the date of another payoff which Phillip Bosha said he had made to the judge by producing a credit-card statement which showed he was out of town for almost the entire time-frame in which the kickback was set.

Mr. Eagen's testimony this morning set the stage for a critical showdown with Deputy Attorney General Patrick Blessington in which the prosecutor will try to shred his story on cross-examination.

A crucial issue will be whether Mr. Eagen agreed to Mr. Barrasse's deal at the April 3 meeting. Both a prosecution and a defense witness said he did. Mr. Eagen did not address that testimony directly when questioned by attorney William Costopoulos, his counsel.

Mr. Eagen said he was shocked in September 1997 when he found out Mr. Barrasse's "just go away" deal was still alive because he thought the emergence of James Rusnock, who said Mr. Bosha told him he was lying about Mr. Eagen's involvement, had squelched Mr. Barrasse's scheme.

The voters rejected Mr. Eagen in November 1997 for another 10-year term after stories appeared about him receiving a target letter concerning the investigation.

Mr. Eagen is charged with taking kickbacks from Mr. Bosha, whom he had appointed guardian of estates of people who were incompetent to handle their own finances. He is also accused of trying to impede the investigation of his role in the scandal.

On Monday, Mr. Rusnock told jurors Mr. admitted to him that he lied when he accused Mr. Eagen of taking bribes. He said Mr. Bosha became so upset at falsely accusing the judge that he went home and "nearly puked his guts out." Mr. Rusnock's testimony is important because Mr. Bosha's purported admission came after he had turned Mr. Eagen in. Mr. Bosha testified at the trial that he was lying when he previously told authorities Mr. Eagen had done nothing wrong.

Mr. Rusnock, a Swoyersville resident who has not been connected to Mr. Eagen in any way, said Mr. Bosha told him sometime in February or March 1997 that he had informed his attorney, Harold Kane, that he had given Mr. Eagen money.

Mr. Rusnock said Mr. Bosha indicated he wanted to retract the story. He never did, and he testified last week about five payments, totaling $1,850, that he had given to the judge for appointing him to the guardianships of estates he later looted.

Mr. Blessington hammered away at discrepancies between a note, which Mr. Rusnock said he wrote to himself in April 1997, and what he told a Lackawanna County grand jury. Mr. Rusnock stuck by the contents of the note. He said he never gave it to the grand jury because no one asked for it.

Mr. Rusnock's testimony was backed by two witnesses.

Attorney David Morgan, Mr. Rusnock's close friend who convinced him to go public, described how Mr. Eagen called him to ask whether he had heard anything new. He said he then went to a store where he saw a story about the case and called Mr. Rusnock to talk about it.

It was then, Mr. Morgan said, that Mr. Rusnock told him about the throwing-up admission by Mr. Bosha while he was fixing a computer at the Bosha home.

Three days later, Mr. Morgan said, he told an elated Judge Eagen about Mr. Rusnock's encounter with Mr. Bosha.

Under cross-examination, Mr. Morgan denied he was Mr. Eagen's agent, although the judge often asked him during the investigation, "What do you know? What do you hear?" He conceded he had no direct knowledge of what went on between Mr. Rusnock and Mr. Bosha.

County Detective Joseph Jordan said he attended a meeting in the district attorney's office at which Mr. Rusnock told Mr. Barrasse that Mr. Bosha lied about paying off Mr. Eagen.

Mr. Bosha's story about one of the payoffs was also dented by Mary Jo Shisko, who said she spent many hours at a home in Archbald where one money delivery was supposed to have happened, but never saw Mr. Eagen there.

Other highlights from Monday included:

Dispute of testimony by Mr. Barrasse that part of the deal he offered Mr. Eagen on April 3, 1997, was that the judge would have to admit wrongdoing. Attorney Paul Walker, Mr. Eagen's counsel at the time, said Mr. Barrasse's main concern seemed to be getting Mr. Eagen out of office so all he wanted was acknowledgment that crimes had been committed under the judge's watch.

A reminder to the jury that Mr. Eagen was never prosecuted federally although Mr. Bosha and two other men caught looting estates were. Four present and former federal law-enforcement officers testified about aspects of their investigation.

The calling of eight character witnesses, including former Lackawanna County Chief Detective Walter Carlson and Jerry Moran, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, to say Mr. Eagen had an upstanding reputation in the community.

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