Jurors looked in vain for reasonable doubt

When the jurors in Vincent Fumo's trial began their service, Barack Obama was still a presidential candidate and the Phillies had yet to be crowned world champions.

Yes, it's been that long.

In what one juror described as the five "unreal" months since opening arguments began Oct. 23, jurors have been "taken away" from their own lives and submerged into Fumo's. What they discovered, they said, was a sad, materialistic man with a raging sense of entitlement.

What they couldn't find - as hard as they said they tried - was reasonable doubt.

The jurors spoke as a group with reporters yesterday at the federal courthouse after rendering guilty verdicts on all charges.

"I was hoping to find some reasonable doubt, but it was so difficult because the evidence was so overwhelming," said Myrna DeVoren, a Haverford counselor.

Forewoman Karen White of Bethlehem said the jury wasn't trying to send a message with its sweeping guilty verdict, but she hoped a message might be taken from it.

"Maybe this will hold a mirror up to the Senate to see if we need to move back and look at the broader picture," she said. "Maybe something good can come of it in terms of checks and transparency."

Jurors said that prosecutors presented their case well and provided "overwhelming evidence."

They couldn't say the same for the defense.

"If the defense is, 'All senators do this,' then show us the other senators who do this," White said. "They couldn't."

Many jurors said Fumo's testimony alone may have done him in, as they believe he admitted to the charges against him with a "so what" attitude on the stand.

"How dare he?!" said juror Kimm Guckin, 51.

"For him to say, 'All I had to do was show up and vote if I wanted to,' " Guckin said. "You are in the public eye and you have an obligation to a lot of people."

Antoinette Randell, a juror from Perkasie, used one of Fumo's pet terms - OPM, or other people's money - to describe his downfall.

"He seemed to have a sense of entitlement," she said. "Greed will get you. OPM will get you."

A big sticking point for jurors was the testimony of Fumo employees whose job descriptions so often didn't sync with the work they performed. The defense's argument that employees were considered more like family didn't sit well with jurors.

"I'm originally from South Philly so I understand the mindset of a family business," DeVoren said. "But this is different, this isn't private and this is not a family.

"This is government and they were employees from the beginning," she said.

Despite their apparent disdain for Fumo, the jurors agreed that his personal life and his estrangement from some of his family was pitiful.

"It seemed like he was always searching, searching for something he didn't have in his personal or professional life," Guckin said. "It's sad." *

Staff writer Michael Hinkelman contributed to this report.