Joseph Cavallo, the former longtime friend of ex-lawman Mike Carona, told jurors today that Carona advised him on how he could funnel illegal contributions to Carona’s 1998 campaign.
Cavallo, a suspended defense attorney who said he has been friends with Carona since the late 1970s, said he got several people to write campaign checks to Carona, and then he would reimburse them in cash. He said Carona told him during a breakfast meeting how to get the contributions.
“He told me how other people have done it, so I followed suit,” he testified.
Don Haidl, a former assistant sheriff, has also testified that he gave Carona several thousand dollars worth of illegal campaign contributions.
Federal prosecutor Ken Julian showed Cavallo six checks written to Carona’s campaign. Cavallo said he reimbursed all of the check writers in cash several days after the checks were written.
Cavallo, who represented Greg Haidl in two sexual assault trials, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. He took the stand around 9:45 a.m., and was asked to identify and point to Carona, who sat at a defendant’s table in the federal courtroom.
“I don’t want to point at him, but he’s seated at counsel table,” Cavallo said. “We’re both looking at each other and he’s sitting behind the word ‘defendant.’”
About the case
- Complete coverage
- Live notes from the trial
- Frank Mickadeit’s column on Carona
- Interactive of Mike Carona’s career
EX-sheriff Carona is going down… I can’t wait until the outcome!!!
Cavallo…another star witness for the prosecution. Not.
How can you believe cavallo who’s a convicted felon. He’s just like Haidl and Jaramillo other felons ready to testify..
It would appear that everyone involved in this case cared little about ethics and more about money and power. The more you hear or read, the more you feel the need to shower in order to rinse off the feeling of slime and filth. Indeed, how do you believe anyone’s testimony? The poor jurors must be wondering when it will all end.
What else you can expect. The scumbag sheriff surrounded himself with others of the same ilk. There is nobody clean that can be brought to court to testify for the prosecution or the defense. Anyway that is nothing new in trials and the court system has developed ways to handle these seemingly conflicts. One way or another Carona is going down like the piece of trash he is.