A federal trial centered on stolen rare sports memorabilia, paintings, vintage guns and other valuables will last four to six weeks, a judge said Monday.
Senior U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion revealed the timeline and outlined the charges against four Lackawanna County men as prosecution and defense lawyers set about whittling down a pool of 98 people into a 12-person jury with six alternates.
The trial will feature testimony from more than two dozen witnesses and dozens more pieces of evidence.
“It is comprehensive and has a lot of material,” Mannion said. “Because of the length of the trial, we will, from time to time, take a full day off.”
Prosecution and defense lawyers are expected to make opening statements Tuesday.
At the end, the jury will decide whether the men are guilty of roles in a theft ring that prosecutors say targeted 20 museums and other venues in six states and the District of Columbia between 1999 and 2019. The accused are brothers Joseph Atsus, 50, of Roaring Brook, and Alfred Atsus, 48, of Covington; Nicholas Dombek, 54, of Thornhurst; and Damien Boland, 48, of Moscow.
The targets included the Everhart Museum, the Lackawanna Historical Society and the Scranton Country Club in Scranton, the Yogi Berra Museum in New Jersey and the Roger Maris Museum in North Dakota. The hundreds of thousands of dollars in loot included paintings by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock that hung in the Everhart, Berra’s World Series rings and Maris’ MVP trophy.
Berra and Maris played baseball decades ago for the New York Yankees.
Mannion asked prospective jurors a series of questions aimed at determining whether they could be fair and impartial. He asked if they knew any of the accused or case lawyers, if they knew anyone in law enforcement, if they were ever arrested, what association they had with the museums or other sites.
He asked if any of the relationships would affect their ability to be fair and impartial.
Mostly, the prospective jurors said yes they could be, but many knew police officers, state troopers, prison guards or FBI agents or had friends or relatives who worked in law enforcement. One was a police officer.
Several admitted to committing crimes years ago, mostly drunken driving or marijuana possession. Several asked to explain their crimes privately to Mannion and the lawyers to avoid embarrassment.
Mannion, a former federal prosecutor, let them do that.
Mannion had Assistant U.S. Attorney James Buchanan run through his list of potential witnesses to see if anyone knew them. The list includes police and FBI investigators and officials of the museums, but also four people who already pleaded guilty to roles in the thefts.
They are Ralph Parry, 46, of Covington; Frank Tassiello, 52, of Scranton; Dawn Trotta, 53, of Covington; and Trotta’s brother, Thomas Trotta, 49, of Moscow. One other ring member died in April.
Thomas Trotta’s cooperation with investigators led to the ring’s unraveling. Trotta, considered the ring leader, committed most of the thefts alone, according to the indictment against the four on trial.
One prospective juror said he attended high school with Dombek and Thomas Trotta. One woman, an animal control officer, said she regularly interacted with the criminal justice system.
Many had visited just the local museums, but one woman acknowledged visiting several outside Pennsylvania. The judge joked about wanting to do that if he’s reincarnated.
His audience laughed heartily.
The judge drew more laughs when he said Lackawanna County's jury system called him for jury duty three times.
“They never picked me,” he said.
The judge also made clear the seriousness of serving as a juror. He said everyone he's talked to after they served on a jury "found it to be a most interesting and valuable experience."
In the United States, citizens decide legal disputes among people, Mannion said. He called jury service "the second high form of duty" for an American citizen "outside of defending your country."