Albany

The first time a federal jury weighed the fate of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno on political corruption charges, the panel deliberated for 55 hours over seven days before convicting the charismatic Brunswick Republican of two counts of honest services mail fraud.

On Friday, a second jury cleared him of those same charges after just four hours behind closed doors.

"I put my head down when I heard 'not guilty, not guilty' because I was kind of trying to comprehend what I just heard," a jubilant Bruno, 85, told the Times Union, celebrating the verdict with a glass of wine inside a private room at Jack's Oyster House, a short walk from the U.S. District Courthouse. "It was totally unexpected that they were going to give a verdict. Nobody thought they would give a verdict. It almost sets a record. But that makes me feel good. Honest to God, I dedicated my adult life to public service."

In a chaotic conclusion to a nine-year-old case, the jury initially delivered a note to U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gary L. Sharpe before noon reporting that one juror had mentioned her involvement on the trial to her boss. The juror stayed on, but neither she — nor her 11 fellow jurors — were there for long.

About 12:15 p.m., the panel of nine women and three men delivered its verdict — not guilty on all counts.

It still had not sunk in, Bruno said at Jack's. He was flocked by his lawyers, partner Kay Stafford, daughters, son Kenneth and supporters, who included New York Post columnist Fred Dicker.

"No one can imagine, unless you have experienced it, to have the government, the United States of America, trying to put you in prison, for the rest of your life probably in my case," Bruno said.

"We are totally vindicated," he said, praising God and his attorneys.

Bruno, a Glens Falls native who built a successful telecommunications business before being elected to the state Senate in 1976, led the Republican-controlled state Senate for more than 13 years after a successful coup to topple then-Senate Majority Leader Ralph Marino in 1994. Bruno, a Korean War veteran and one-time boxer, became a favorite of the state Capitol press corps with his charisma and talkative nature.

Bruno was convicted of the fraud charges in 2009 in a trial at which jurors acquitted him of five other fraud counts and could not decide on a sixth count.

Sharpe, who presided over that trial, sentenced Bruno to two years in prison but the conviction was thrown out when the Supreme Court ruled in another case that honest services must include proof of a kickback or bribe. Federal prosecutors received permission to retry Bruno when a mid-level appeals court found sufficient evidence existed to support another trial under the new standards.

"There should never have been a retrial. Never," Bruno said of the federal government's effort to convict him. "That was persecution, not prosecution. That never, never, never should have happened — and the tragedy is, it's all at the taxpayers expense."

Bruno attorney William Dreyer argued the case was not a retrial, but a second case against a man whose conviction had been vacated.

"That's got to be clarified," Bruno said. "I was never truly convicted of anything wrong. Ever!"

During an impassioned closing argument Thursday, Bruno attorney E. Stewart Jones suggested that federal prosecutors were out for blood.

"They don't care about the truth. They want Senator Bruno's scalp. Truth be damned," Jones told the jury.

U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian told reporters: "We don't seek people's scalps ... we bring cases without fear or favor."

He defended the decision on a second trial. He disagreed with the notion that Bruno was not initially convicted.

"At the end of the day the jury felt, obviously, that we did not meet our burden of proof," Hartunian told reporters, joined by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Coombe and William Pericak, who tried the case. In a rarity, his office issued a news release for an acquittal.

He said justice was served and his office respected the verdict.

Bruno is so popular, the minor league stadium in Troy — "The Joe" — bears his name, and there's a bust of him in Albany International Airport. Hartunian said Bruno's contributions to the area would have been something for the judge to consider at sentencing, if he was convicted, but should have had no influence on the jury. But he acknowledged he could not get in jurors' heads.

One juror, Ann Loughman of Albany, said no one overriding factor ultimately swayed the panel for acquittal.

"There was a lot of discussion back and forth that went into things," said Loughman, adding that jurors were respectful to each other. "Every voice was heard."

The heart of the case were allegations he accepted $360,000 in consulting payments that federal prosecutors alleged were just a cover for bribes and kickbacks in exchange for his political influence as one of the state government's three most powerful politicians.

The man paying him $20,000 a month to be a consultant, Jared Abbruzzese, 59, who now lives in Jupiter, Fla., also paid Bruno for a horse the federal prosecutors said was "worthless." The official sale price of the horse — which was insured for $10,000 — was $80,000. Abbruzzese hired Bruno in February 2004 after failing to convince the state Senate to release a $250,000 grant it had promised to Evident Technologies, a Troy-based company in which Abbruzzese held a stake. Evident had been expected to receive a total of $1.5 million in state aid under a commitment Bruno made in September 2002. The dollars were to arrive in three installments of $500,000.

As compensation for his help, Abbruzzese's firm, Niskayuna Development, would buy 85,423 shares of Evident stock to coincide with the state grants. By February 2004, when Abbruzzese was admittedly frustrated the money had not arrived, he invited Bruno aboard his private jet for a weekend in Palm Beach, Fla. On the flight back, Bruno suggested he work for Abbruzzese as a consultant; he began working for Abbruzzese that month. Within five days, Bruno ordered the grant be moved to Evident. The FBI began investigating Bruno in December 2005 after learning of flights Bruno took in a jet supplied by Abbruzzese.

Bruno said he would at long last be able to sleep.

"It's behind us for the first time in nine years," he said. "It's like the first day of the rest of my life, Kay's life, my family's life, the first day of the rest of our lives."

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU