Verdicts reached on 2 counts in Bruno case

United Press International - December 2, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y., Dec 2, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A federal jury has reached verdicts on two of eight counts in the corruption trial of former New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

The panel came to a decision on two counts late Tuesday and is to resume its deliberations on the six remaining counts Wednesday morning, the Albany Times Union reported. The jury had indicated it was having trouble coming to a decision on the remaining counts, the newspaper said.

It wasn't known whether the jury had acquitted or convicted Bruno on the two counts on which it has agreed.

Bruno appeared upbeat and noticeably animated, the newspaper said. His son, Kenneth, a former county district attorney, read the courtroom situation as positive for his father.

"This is very good," Kenneth Bruno told a supporter after the jury left the courtroom in Albany.

Tuesday was the jury's third full day of deliberations.

Federal prosecutors contend Bruno cheated the citizens of New York by failing to disclose lucrative consulting contracts with companies doing business with the state. Defense lawyers say Bruno did nothing illegal.

Bruno, 80, entered politics in the 1960s as a campaign aide to Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. He was first elected to the state Senate in 1976, representing the Saratoga area.

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