McGuinness & Associates, Inc.

Dade Circuit Judge Alfonso Sepe's defense lawyers Tuesday took aim at the Court Broom trial's most circumstantial piece of evidence: that Sepe tried to shield his chats about bribes by flushing his office toilet.

On several tapes of hushed conversations between Sepe and co-defendant David Goodhart, toilets flush and faucets gurgle, a government witness told jurors in January.

But a defense witness gave a simple reason for all the noise: Sepe's office is located right next door to a ladies' room.

Brian McGuinness, a private investigator hired by the defense to test the noise, said a colleague ran the faucets and flushed the toilets in the ladies' room while he made test tapes in Sepe's office.

The results? "The toilets were quite noticeable," McGuinness said.

On cross-examination, prosecutor John O'Sullivan told jurors that the toilet inside Sepe's office bathroom had a better chance of drowning out conversations than public toilets on the other side of a wall.

The toilet testimony elicited some snickers from trial- weary jurors. But it is an important point: Prosecutors are trying to prove that Sepe and Goodhart purposefully disguised their conversations about bribe-making in early 1991 by talking in whispers and flushing the office toilet.

Sepe, Dade Circuit Judge Phillip Davis and former Judges Harvey Shenberg and David Goodhart are on trial in Miami federal court for bribery and extortion.

Sepe remained hospitalized at Miami Heart Institute for an intestinal ailment.

Defense lawyer Ed Carhart said Tuesday night that Sepe is scheduled to undergo surgery in the coming days. That put to rest any chance Sepe had to testify on his own behalf.

Also Tuesday, Sepe's father-in-law, Leo Berger, testified that he gave the Sepe family $500,000 in 1991 and 1992. He said he always gave the money to his daughter, Phyillis Sepe, and his grandchildren.

Sepe's defense lawyers were trying to prove that Sepe would have no need to accept a bribe because of his father-in-law's generosity.

Berger made his fortune as president of Atex Marine, a lucrative oil tanker shipping company.

Reprinted with written permission of The Miami Herald.