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Sunday, April 1, 2018
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG | GOLDEN GATE FIELDS | 48 | 24 | 3:45 PM | 12:45 PM | PDT | |||
| GP | GULFSTREAM PARK | 72 | 0 | 1:15 PM | 1:15 PM | EDT | |||
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 24 | 3:30 PM | 12:30 PM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 120 | 0 | 2:30 PM | 12:30 PM | MDT |
Joseph Percoco, center, a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leaves the U.S. District Court in New York on Feb. 1, after appearing at his federal bribery trial. PHOTO: KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
For New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has long expressed an aversion to stereotypes relating to Italian-Americans, the testimony from the federal bribery trial of one of his former top aides may be particularly hard to stomach.
Over the past few weeks, the trial of the former aide, Joseph Percoco, has been laced not only with dozens of references to “The Sopranos,” from which prosecutors say Mr. Percoco derived the use of “ziti” as a code word for bribes, but also talk of home-cooked white sauce, Italian eateries and the construction industry.
Mr. Percoco and three private executives are on trial for allegedly exchanging more than $300,000 in payments for government favors. Mr. Cuomo, who is seeking re-election, hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.
The case has inspired New York City tabloid covers screaming “Pasta La Vista!” with the Democratic governor’s face placed aside a plate of sauced noodles, and prompted GOP operatives to protest outside the courthouse, armed with oversize boxes of “Cuomo’s Bribezoni.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo declined to comment.
Hank Sheinkopf, a former adviser to the governor, said such stereotypes were “something that would offend any decent people, including the governor.” He added: “Especially ziti. For a very fine form of food to be turned into a term for a felony is quite extraordinary.”
Mr. Percoco is on trial with three private executives for allegedly exchanging more than $300,000 in payments for government favors. Above, Mr. Percoco stands with Mr. Cuomo before a news conference in Albany, N.Y., in April 2013. PHOTO: MIKE GROLL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
When the “ziti” charges first emerged in 2016, Mr. Cuomo remarked it was “the first time I didn’t miss [my father] being here,” he told reporters, “because it would have broken his heart.”
Mr. Cuomo and his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, both Democrats, have long made clear their aversion to clichéd images linked to their heritage. The elder Mr. Cuomo, who died in 2015, was so repulsed by Italian-American stereotypes related to organized crime that he famously refused to see “The Godfather” until 2013, when he was 81 years old.
In 2010, Andrew Cuomo said his father had experienced bias in his both law and political careers due to his background. “He is the model of decorum and civility and grace,” Mr. Cuomo told the New York Times, “and he was on the stage at the same time that you were watching Italian-Americans depicted in movies and television as thugs and people who were crude.”
Such sensitivities have arisen in the trial of Mr. Percoco, who also worked for the elder Mr. Cuomo—though largely out of earshot of the jury. In one instance, prosecutors attempted to show the jury a clip of “The Sopranos” in an effort to illustrate that Mr. Percoco had used “ziti” to mean a bribe. Mr. Percoco’s attorney said the video would prejudice the jury because it would associate Mr. Percoco with a show about criminals.
A lawyer for one of the three other defendants agreed.
“I just want to point out that in this particular case—and I’m not ascribing any sinister intent to the government—but you happen to have three Italian-Americans on trial, and there’s a construction industry, and many ethnicities deal with different types of stereotypes, and this one fits right into it,” said the attorney, Milt Williams.
The judge didn’t allow prosecutors to play the clip, but the jury has spent weeks listening to testimony peppered with talk of Italian pasta. Mr. Percoco and a self-described co-conspirator, Todd Howe, traded hundreds of emails about their efforts to obtain “ziti,” hatching plans for “Operation Ziti Replenishment,” and warning each other: “Don’t Burn the Ziti!!!” or “Remember Zitti!!”
Asked if he had used the term “ziti” in an email before the alleged bribery schemes began, Mr. Howe replied, “Look, I don’t know the difference between ziti and angel hair. I eat Italian food, that’s all I know.”
The ethnic overtones of the trial have prompted a political skirmish outside the courtroom. Republican gubernatorial candidate Joel Giambra, while noting that he, too, is Italian-American, put out a statement last week saying, “Cuomo and Percoco ran the Governor’s office like the mafia—with bribery, a pay to play protection racket and a life long membership that punished individuals who tried to leave.”
His comments elicited a response from the founder of the National Organization of Italian American Women, Aileen Riotto Sirey, who chided Mr. Giambra for using a “disgusting and archaic ethnic slur.”
“There has been no greater friend, ally and advocate of the Italian American community than Governor Cuomo,” she said.
To prosecutors, however, there is no one to blame for the innuendo but Mr. Percoco himself.
Responding to the courtroom argument about playing the television clip, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky told the judge that he understood the concerns of Italian-Americans. But, he said, “the government didn’t choose ‘ziti.’ Mr. Percoco chose ‘ziti.’ He chose to reference the meaning of the word from ‘The Sopranos.’ ”
