Steve Lieberman

slieberm@lohud.com

The president of the Rockland Boulders baseball team, which has played since 2011 at the stadium at issue in the corruption trial of Ramapo supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, testified Wednesday that St. Lawrence was a "visionary" who made the stadium a reality.

Ken Lehner said the baseball stadium was first conceived of in 2006. While county government leaders were initially seen as possible partners in the project, it was St. Lawrence who took the idea and ran with it, enabling the team to play its first season in the just-completed stadium by 2011, Lehner said.

"He was a champion of the project," Lehner said. "He was in a position to make it happen."

He also revealed that the team had paid the Ramapo Local Development Corporation a larger than necessary lease payment the first year at St. Lawrence's request, ostensibly to make the project look more successful.

St. Lawrence faces a 22-count indictment charging him with committing securities fraud, conspiracy and wire fraud. The charges allege he falsely inflated the town's general fund to get better rates on bonds to finance the stadium and other projects, such as the Ramapo Commons townhouses on Elm Street, through a quasi-governmental agency, the Ramapo Local Development Corp.

Wednesday was the fourth day of trial in his corruption case, which is taking place in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

On the stand: Thomas Myers, a private attorney who worked with the RLDC and the town on the stadium bond completed his testimony this morning. Next up was Lee, who worked for Moody's on their ratings on Ramapo bonds from 2010-2012. The latter part of the afternoon was mostly taken up with the testimony of Ken Lehner, managing partner and president of Bottom 9 Baseball, the corporation behind the Rockland Boulders baseball team. The last witness of the day was Councilman Patrick Withers, who had only just begun testifying when court broke for the day.

Key testimony: Lehner described efforts to build the stadium, which he said was dogged from the start by a challenge by Preserve Ramapo, and later faced funding and financing problems.

Still, he said, the team went forward with a 25-year lease for the stadium, which was built from 2010 to 2011.

The first season, he said, the fee due for the lease was $554,000 but St. Lawrence asked the owners to pay the town a fee of $734,000 saying the town would reimburse them the difference later. When he asked St. Lawrence why, Lehner said, St. Lawrence "said it was a better number," indicating it would take some public pressure off the project.

The team paid the higher amount, Lehner said, but the next year he told St. Lawrence he didn't feel comfortable doing that again.

TIMELINE: Ramapo corruption case - what happened when

READ: Indictment of Christopher St. Lawrence

Lehner also said while he and St. Lawrence had many meetings, St. Lawrence never wrote anything down. At one point, in 2010, he said, he commented on it and St. Lawrence told him: "Writing things down can lead to a paper trail, and a paper trail cannot be good."

Defense lawyer Michael Burke, on cross-examination, brought up the fact that the RLDC had faced a potential penalty of $1.2 million if it did not get the stadium completed on time for the 2011 season. Lehner said opening day had to be pushed off by a week for some final touches, but the project essentially finished on time so no penalty was imposed.

Asked by a Journal News reporter outside court why the Boulders had agreed to spend more than required on their 2011 lease payment for the stadium, then known as Provident Bank Park and now Palisades Credit Union Park, Lehner simply handed over a prepared statement.

It reads: "The town of Ramapo via the RLDC built one of the best ballparks in the country. It is a community asset that is not only home of the Boulders, but has hosted countless concerts, high school baseball games, charity events and special events. As a matter of fact the Boulders will host their one-millionth fan this summer let alone the tens of thousands of others that have enjoyed the ballpark for other aforementioned events."

Apparently referring to a verdict, it continued: "In the coming weeks a ruling will be made and no matter the outcome, the ballpark will still be here, while the Boulders will still be in the midst of a 25-year lease. The Boulders had nothing to do with the financing of the ballpark, but to date the Boulders numbers have been negatively affected as a result. The future success of the ballpark is based upon the future success of the Boulders. Thus, let justice prevail in the courtroom, while the Boulders invite one and all to be part of our 7th season, while leaving the politics behind to focus on pitchers and hitters instead. Opening day is Thursday, May 18th at 7pm and everyone is welcome."

In earlier testimony about the stadium bonding and town finances, both Myers, the lawyer, and Lee, the Moody's analyst, were asked by prosecutors how they would feel if they discovered the numbers they had been reviewing were fabricated. Both said the would have had a lot of problems with that.

Myers said if information is wrong, "I don't want to be a party to presenting inaccurate information to investors."

"I would be concerned if someone lied to me," he added.

Judge Cathy Seibel cautioned the jury, however, that how Myers and Lee felt should not be taken as what a reasonable investor would think in considering whether to buy the bonds at issue in the case.

Lee said the most important factor, or one of them, to Moody's in doing a bond rating is the town general fund because it is the "roadmap to government" — how a municipality spends its money and what the end result is.

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She said in the case of the stadium bonds it was important that the town had guaranteed the repayment on the bonds. She said it was St. Lawrence who told her of the plan for the RLDC to repay the town from its revenues.

She said when Moody's downgraded Ramapo to an A1 bond rating with a negative outlook in May 2012 it was because of the erosion of the town's financial flexibility and two consecutive years of an operating deficit in the general fund balance.

Lee said in Feb 2012 she had received an email from Robert Rhodes, chairman of Preserve Ramapo, an organization that has opposed St. Lawrence. She said the email warned of concerns about Ramapo's finances and contained links to audits from the state comptroller. She said she never responded to Rhodes but did ask St. Lawrence follow-up questions based on the communication.

"It was not my job to investigate" claims about the financial stress of the town or allegations of misconduct, she said.

Lee said she had spoken to St. Lawrence multiple times about her concerns with the general fund balance and he was "upset and a little defensive" in those conversations. She said he pushed back on her contentions of what made for a comfortable fund balance.

Up next: Withers will continue on the stand Thursday morning. Court proceedings are expected to run from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, with a half-hour break at midday, the judge previously announced.

(Links to earlier trial coverage are below the video player.)

Earlier trial coverage:

OPENING STATEMENTS: Defense, prosecution set out case; first witness

TRIAL, DAY 2: Questionable bond issues detailed

TRIAL, DAY 3: Town's financial health defended