Summations continue in Raucci trial


Defense attorney Ronald DeAngelus pleaded with jurors earlier this morning to acquit Steven Raucci, asserting that the prosecution failed to prove the criminal charges in the indictment against his client beyond a reasonable doubt.

DeAngelus walked the jurors through each of the alleged crimes, arguing that there were no eyewitnesses, no DNA to link Raucci, and a lack of motive.

DeAngelus also invoked the upcoming Easter holiday, placing  brightly colored plastic Easter eggs in a plastic bag after stating his case that reasonable doubt existed in each charged crime.

“This is a classic case of a district attorney over-indicting an individual, and trying to convict him by showing gripes that existed in the school district and within the CSEA,” De Angelus said during his hourlong summation.

The defense attorney also focused heavily on the high level terrorism charge and the alleged crimes that happened outside Schenectady County. DeAngelus urged jurors to throw out the terrorism charge and the crimes that happened in Colonie, Schodack, Ballston and Clifton Park.

District Attorney Robert Carney is about an hour into his closing remarks.

Early on,  he recapped the evidence and testimony related to the 1993 crimes in Glenville and Scotia and the 2001 bombing of a home in Rotterdam. Carney also addressed the credibility issue of State Police informant Keith McKenna, conceding that the retired Glenville cop, had a “messy life,” but that Raucci actually tried to recruit McKenna.

Carney is playing segments of the conversations between McKenna and Raucci that were captured on tape when McKenna wore a recording device for authorities.

“This is the closest anyone of us will ever come to getting into Steve Raucci’s head, ” Carney said of the taped conversations, where prosecutors say Raucci openly discussed some of the vandalism and fire bombings.

Categories: Raucci trial
Paul Nelson

7 Responses

  1. frank pravda says:

    Raucci will be acquitted based on the fact that there are thinking people in the jury box who will not hook up to rumors, gossip and such. As for the so called tape – as far as I heard the jury hadn’t ever heard Raucci speak so they could not confirm to themselves that the alleged person on the tape “confessing” was indeed Raucci. The press and news media did a terrible job of reporting on the trial from what I see and hear.

  2. homer says:

    frank your a close friend of Raucci, ofcorse you see it that way. Your an Idiot. The reporters did an excelent job on this story. They stated the truth…visit him in the slammer if your such a friend

  3. Beyond Disgusted says:

    It would appear that Deeply Concerned Citizen has another delusional imaginary friend named Frank Pravda.

  4. Sharon says:

    Pravda is Russian for truth and was the name of the official paper of the central committee of the Soviet communist party. Oddly, frank is also a word that means blunt and honest. So is there a frank pravda or is that just DCC under a new guise? If Raucci gets acquitted I will eat my csea membership card!!

  5. Ellen Patrice says:

    I think the reporters did the best they could with what they had to work with.
    And as far as the comments go, the important thing to note is whether Raucci had a fair trial. With all of the pyrotechnics and computer generated stuff, the DNA that could have been obtained and planted, the fingerprints that disappeared, the videos of explosions other than done in the manner to which the accused is accused of, it doesn’t look to me like Raucci had a fair trial.
    Especially with the “theory” introduced as evidence. It should have been facts.
    I do hope rumor and gossip vs facts and true evidence can be sorted out by the jury. Terrorism is a heavy charge and it doesn’t look to me like the defense attorney was strong enough to define it as it should have been. Nor the judge.
    I would say that the delusional ones are the ones pointing the fingers. Hopefully no one on the jury is delusional. A lot of the responders to this blog certainly are.

  6. details please says:

    Oh please…now the argument is that is not Raucci’s voice on the tape? How strange that the Defense did not bring that up at trial!!

    I am sorry that your friend will soon be a convicted felon but you reap what you sow. Find some better friends.

  7. frank pravda says:

    The day of the queen’s court is decades past when guilt was a foregone conclusion before the trial even began. The absurd notion that the defense must show or prove anything went out a long time ago since the time when the high priests would burn a person at the stake for his belief that did not agree with that of the church. Some of the same ancient standards of prosecution appear to be surfacing in the community and on the airwaves and media today in evaluating the Raucci trial. The jury has an absolute right to decide whatever they want. Only a conviction can be overturned = by a court and not by the public at large. News reports in this case were heavily laced with opinions & conclusions of the reporters rather than quoting questions and testimony and balanced coverage of what transpired at trial.