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“Would you please calm down?” said the judge.

Anton Zgoznik composed himself.

In closing arguments his attorney Rotatori had to maneuver around the devastating taped conversation in which Zgoznik tried to confect a defense for himself and Zrino Jukic. Rotatori outlined Zrino Jukic’s many problems saying, “That’s why he made up these lies.” But after his client’s overflow of self-pity on the stand, Rotatori stopped short of a full attack on the diocese’s cozy world of financial insiders. “Never, ever, ever question the clergy” is how he explained his client’s flaw. So had Anton been taught as a boy, so had Zgoznik worked as a man. “Never doubt the priest. Whatever the priest tells you to do, you accept.”

In contrast, federal attorney John Siegel told the jurors in his summation: “There was no way Bishop Pilla would know, the diocese would know.”

When the jury returned, Anton Zgoznik was convicted on fifteen counts of fraud, kickbacks, and tax charges. His wife was weeping.

Judge Aldrich let him stay free on bond till sentencing. Rotatori promised to appeal in remarks to the press more barbed than his closing argument: “The diocese permitted this type of program to go on. They permitted the improper transfer of charitable funds for noncharitable purposes.”

He hit that one dead on the money.

EVIDENCE OF THINGS UNSPOKEN

When Joseph Smith stood trial ten months later, Zgoznik was still free on bond. Judge Aldrich wanted the second case done before meting out prison time for the two defendants.

Too smart to testify in his own defense, Joe Smith had a paramount advantage over Zgoznik: the Smith jury would not be exposed to Zrino Jukic’s taped conversation with Anton. Judge Aldrich ruled it inadmissible as hearsay evidence: Smith was not present as the two men schemed on how to defend themselves in entanglements with him. Nor would Smith’s trial be subjected to messy fireworks by Anton Zgoznik giving testimony: the prosecution could not gamble with so volatile a witness.

Without a secret tape to convey his would-be probity against Anton’s desperation, Zrino Jukic made a weak witness. Kushner chopped like a butcher on Jukic’s failure to file income taxes, the bypassed CPA-ethics test, his role as a cooperative witness hoping to not get nailed. When Kushner maneuvered Jukic into a statement on Wright’s girlfriend, Aldrich told the jury to disregard gossip. Kushner then asked Jukic, “And did you have personal knowledge that that was true?”

“No.”

“What was the source of that information?”

“I had a conversation with Anton—”

Besmirching a priest on hearsay!

In cross-examining Wright, Kushner had a witness whose vanilla personality nevertheless gave answers as a sinner might reveal in confession.

KUSHNER: You didn’t need to report to anyone the decisions you’d made regarding Mr. Smith’s salary, correct?

WRIGHT: Correct.

And you were concerned that if you didn’t give him a raise he would leave, correct?

Correct.

And you did not want him to leave?

I did not want him to leave …

And, in fact, it is fair to say that you regarded him as your right-hand man?

I would say that’s true.

… but you didn’t want anyone to know, because you were concerned that they would want a raise, too, if they knew. Is that right?

That’s correct.

And so you concealed the fact that you had agreed to give Mr. Smith a raise from others, true?

Correct.

And you concealed it from the Payroll Office?

Correct.

And the Benefits Office?

Correct.

And from your secretary?

I did not tell my secretary.

And you concealed it from the Finance Council?

I did not tell the Finance Council.

You concealed it from the diocese attorneys and outside lawyers?

Correct …

Nevertheless, Wright insisted that Smith and Zgoznik had presented him with the payment plan: “They said no one will ever find out.”

Cemeteries was making good money but falling short of funding the perpetual care of certain plots when Wright assumed the reins in