Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company  
The New York Times
November 12, 1986, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 3, Column 5; Metropolitan Desk

LENGTH: 769 words

HEADLINE: MAFIA COMMISSION TRIAL HEARS PERSICO SUM UP

BYLINE: By ARNOLD H. LUBASCH

BODY:
Carmine Persico, acting as his own lawyer, argued in a summation yesterday that the prosecution had presented ''no direct evidence'' against him in a two-month trial focusing on a ruling commission of the Mafia.

Mr. Persico, accused of heading the Colombo crime family, is one of eight men charged with engaging in the racketeering activities of a commission of Mafia leaders.

''At the beginning of the case, I told you I'm not a lawyer, and I guess you found that was true,'' Mr. Persico said with a smile, as he began his summation in a hushed, crowded courtroom of Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Leaning on a lectern in front of the jury box, he compared the trial to a ''bus tour'' that the prosecutors had conducted of ''tinsel town.'' But, he said, ''They had no direct evidence.''

''They want to win - they'll do anything to win,'' he asserted, pointing at the prosecutors seated a few feet away. He ridiculed them for presenting charts about the Mafia, surveillance photographs and enlarged pictures of an upstate farm owned by his family.
 
'Half of New York State'

''They brought in pictures of half of New York State,'' Mr. Persico said, as some jurors joined in the laughter.

Turning the pages of a loose-leaf notebook as he spoke, he quoted the prosecution as acknowledging earlier that the jury should ''put aside any preconceptions or prejudices you might have about the Mafia.''

''Without Fred DeChristopher, Carmine Persico wouldn't be in this case, wouldn't be in this courtroom,'' Mr. Persico said, referring to a key prosecution witness.

He vehemently assailed Mr. DeChristopher, who is married to Mr. Persico's cousin and who received a $50,000 reward for turning him in to the authorities. Mr. DeChristopher testified that Mr. Persico had told him about racketeering activities.

The testimony was contradicted by Mr. DeChristopher's wife, Catherine, and other family members, Mr. Persico stressed, as he attacked the witness's credibility and described him as ''despicable.''
 
'Faith Is in the Jury'

With the jury watching him intently, Mr. Persico suggested that there was no evidence against him, because he stayed away from criminal activities. He added that maybe he was tired of being arrested because of his ''reputation.''

''Ladies and gentlemen, I can't say I never did anything wrong, because you know I was in jail,'' he told the jury. But he added that he could not be sent back to jail without evidence that he was guilty of the charges in the case.

''Our faith is in the jury,'' he said, ending his hour-and-a-half summation.

The defense lawyers for several other defendants gave their summations earlier, stressing the central issue of whether a Mafia commission had extorted payoffs from the construction industry.

The lawyer for Anthony Salerno, Anthony M. Cardinale, said in his summation that the commission did not operate a ''club'' to extort payoffs from concrete companies, as the prosecution has contended.
 
'Listen to the Words'

''It is a club of contractors, not of commission members,'' Mr. Cardinale asserted, adding that ''the commission had nothing to do with the concrete payments.''

He challenged the prosecution's ''perception'' of what Mr. Salerno, accused of being the boss of the Genovese crime family, talked about in the many taped conversations played as evidence in the trial.

''Listen to the words that are actually being spoken,'' Mr. Cardinale told the jury. He argued that the tapes did not contain ''any threats or any pressure.''

''That, ladies and gentlemen, is not extortion,'' the lawyer said. He contended that the concrete companies had ''gladly paid'' to gain an ''advantage in the industry.''
 
'Guesses' and 'Speculations'

The lawyer for Salvatore Santoro, accused as underboss of the Lucchese crime family, told the jury that the prosecution had presented ''guesses, speculations and assumptions'' instead of solid evidence.

''This case falls at the slightest touch,'' said the lawyer, Samuel H. Dawson.

The taped conversations involved ''internal politics and bickering'' about members belonging to families, Mr. Dawson said.

One defense lawyer, John H. Jacobs, told the jury that he had taken the ''unusual step'' of conceding that his client, Ralph Scopo, was guilty of accepting labor payoffs. But he argued that Mr. Scopo was not guilty of extortion and racketeering.

Mr. Scopo, who was a union official, accepted money from ''greedy'' concrete contractors who joined a ''club'' of companies that engaged in price-fixing and bid-rigging, Mr. Jacobs said in his summation Monday.