For a few fleeting moments late last Tuesday afternoon, James Ventry thought it was all over.
As the jury foreman in his federal felony trial responded "not guilty" to the first four charges -- conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, carrying or using a weapon during a robbery and perjury -- Ventry believed that almost two years of uncertainty and waiting was finally ending.
"I thought I'd be able to get on with my life," said Ventry, who was suspended from his job as a history teacher at Starpoint High School after his February 2001 arrest on charges he participated in a August 1996 home invasion at the residence of a LaSalle bookmaker. "I was hoping to be able to start substitute teaching next week."
Not quite.
To the last count, tampering with a witness, the foreman answered "guilty."
The Niagara Falls native, who now lives in Lewiston, had prepared himself for just about any outcome during his two-and-a-half week trial in Buffalo. Except this one.
"Whether I was found guilty or not guilty, it would have been over," Ventry said. "I'm having a harder time now than I did for the last two years."
The jury took less than half an hour to reach unanimity on the first four charges, and voted 11-1 for acquittal on the tampering count. The one holdout wouldn't budge, and the jury compromised by voting to convict. One juror told Ventry after the trial that the majority feared causing a mistrial, thereby negating their acquittals, if they hung on one of the five charges.
Ventry said the tampering charge stemmed from an email he sent to an ex-girlfriend after FBI agents interrogated her. Ventry said she left a message saying that she had given the agents a statement under duress, and he wrote her to remind her she could always recant.
That e-mail also led to seven months of house arrest for Ventry, who said he couldn't find work after his arrest and suspension from Starpoint.
To pass the time while awaiting trial, he revived his dream of becoming a professional boxer. He won a tough-man competition at the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center, attracting the attention of trainer Ray Casal.
At the relatively advanced age of 29, Ventry opened the Oct. 18 card headlined by Tonawanda heavyweight Joe Mesi at HSBC Arena, facing Michael N'Goran, a Canadian with an amateur record of 49-3. Ventry made short work of N'Goran, dropping him with a straight right in the first round and finishing him off with 26 seconds left in the opening frame.
When the trial of Ventry and his co-defendant, Wared "Wadi" Abdellatif opened a month later, the result was nearly as decisive.
Lawyers Anthony Lana, representing Ventry, and Rodney Personius, defending Abdellatif, hammered at the story offered by the prosecution's star witness, Robert Vitagliano.
Vitagliano, who cut a plea deal in September, said the two defendants accompanied him to the LaSalle home and held a woman at gunpoint for almost an hour while ransacking the house in a futile search for a large amount of cash they believed to be there.
Vitagliano claimed he stayed outside and served as a lookout, but the victim, who never identified Ventry as one of her assailants, said there were three men in the house. That was just one of a series of inconsistencies in the stories of witnesses, all of whom aside from Vitagliano and the victim testified about conversations after the crime itself.
"Two of them were admitted perjurers and one a convicted felon," Lana said of the prosecution's witness list. "The stories were so diametrically opposed that you wondered if people were even where they said they were." Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bruce said he wasn't disappointed in his witnesses, even though the jury clearly didn't believe them, also acquitting Abdellatif on all counts.
"I'd be hard-pressed to find a case where every witness gave the exact same testimony," Bruce said. "If they did, it would look like I had lined them up and coached them to lie."
The jury felt so strongly about its not-guilty verdicts, the foreman asked to have a television in the courtroom moved so they could see the defendants' families when they were read.
Ventry said he had known Vitagliano since their days at LaSalle High School and had socialized with him. He believes Vitagliano committed the invasion with accomplices he was afraid to name. Bruce confirmed that the FBI's original theory of the case was that Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti Jr. ordered the invasion because the target ran an illegal card game without cutting him in.
Nicoletti's father was a top capo in the Stefano Magaddino crime family and he has been named by law enforcement officials as the head of the Niagara Falls "crew" of the Buffalo organized crime family. He was arrested Sept. 12 on federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy and extortion.
Law enforcement sources have told the Reporter that Nicoletti's arrest was connected with Vitagliano's plea deal, which was struck the same day. Bruce and Vitagliano's attorney, Herbert Greenberg, maintain that the two cases are unrelated.
Nicoletti's name surfaced several times during the trial and on tape-recorded phone calls involving Vitagliano that were played for the jury.
"It came up a lot, in various aspects," Lana said. "The government's investigation started out with a theory that Nicoletti was responsible for the home invasion and the bombing of the bookie's car six days later."
Bruce said the feds have no plans to reopen the case, despite the multiple acquittals.
"The home-invasion investigation is finished," Bruce said.
That means that for the woman terrorized in her own home by men in ski masks and brandishing guns, there will be no legal closure.
For Ventry, while cleared of any involvement in the crime itself, more uncertainty awaits. His sentencing is scheduled for March, with possible sentences ranging from 10 to 14 months split between a halfway house and house arrest to up to 51 months in prison. He hopes to appeal and erase the felony conviction, allowing him to return to teaching.
While in limbo, he's also facing roughly $50,000 in legal fees and a similar amount in student loans. His education includes a master's degree from Niagara University he won't be able to use unless the conviction is overturned.
Ventry remains optimistic, though, planning to travel to California for his second professional fight in January. He thanked the people who have supported him throughout the case.
"My family and friends have just been fantastic," he said. "All through the trial, my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins were all there."
Whatever happens with the tampering conviction, Ventry isn't bitter about the experience.
"I told my friends that as long as everything works out, it's probably one of the best things that could happen to me," Ventry said. "It made me mature a lot and after seven months of house arrest, just to go outside and breathe the air is something you don't take for granted anymore."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 3 2002 |