Defense lawyers aggressively questioned the truthfulness and reputation of the prosecution’s star witness in the federal art and memorabilia trial Wednesday.
During cross-examinations in a Scranton courtroom, attorneys Gino Bartolai, Matt Clemente, Jason Mattioli and Patrick A. Casey took turns trying to portray Thomas Trotta as unsavory.
They held out the 48-year-old admitted career criminal as a liar and thief who exploited his and his sister’s children while planning thefts, ratted on four friends accused in the case, deceived his fiancée for years and fooled police and prosecutors into releasing him from prison so he could steal more.
“What Tommy Trotta wants, Tommy Trotta gets,” Mattioli boomed.
“Not always,” replied Trotta, who has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing from a prison cell while not testifying.
In various ways, Trotta’s testimony for the prosecution the first two days of this week tied his childhood buddies Nicholas Dombek, Damien Boland and brothers Alfred and Joseph Atsus to a two-decade-long theft spree that targeted 20 museums, businesses and other venues in six states and Washington, D.C.
The targets included the Everhart Museum and Lackawanna Historical Society in Scranton; the Country Club of Scranton in South Abington Twp.; Keystone College in LaPlume Twp.; the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Little Falls, New Jersey; the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York; and the Roger Maris Museum in Fargo, North Dakota.
Defense lawyers view Trotta as the main link between the crime spree and their clients. He has repeatedly testified to lying or lies of omission at times as police investigated him.
After Trotta admitted to taking his sister’s children, at 2 or 3 years old, to one target, Mattioli, Alfred Atsus’ lawyer, told Trotta he “exploited” them. He had them pose in front of security or other features he wanted to record with a video camera for theft planning purposes.
“I don’t know what exploited means,” Trotta said.
Mattioli sarcastically said Trotta would have plenty of time to look up the definition in prison, which brought a rebuke from Senior U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion.
Trotta acknowledged he didn’t tell his sister why he took her kids to the museums.
“She wouldn’t like that,” he testified.
He also acknowledged taking his 2- and 3-year-old children to another target.
Bartolai, Dombek’s lawyer, who began his cross-examining late Tuesday afternoon, accused Trotta of serving as “a rat.”
They briefly debated the definition of “a rat.” Bartolai defined “a rat” as someone cooperating with law enforcement.
“A rat is a person who’s telling the truth,” Trotta shot back.
Clemente, Boland’s lawyer, pointed out Trotta agreed he wouldn’t drink excessively after he pleaded guilty to a federal theft charge as part of his release from prison.
Clemente brought up Trotta drinking at a Dunmore bar on Jan. 27, 2024. Trotta, who never admitted to drinking excessively there, said he met a woman, whom he testified he drove home because she was so drunk.
“She was in bad shape,” he said. “At the time I brought her home, she couldn’t walk.”
He helped her inside and helped himself, too.
“I was snooping around, and I stole stuff,” he said.
At one point, he noticed a video recording camera. Worried it recorded him stealing, he placed it in a microwave to destroy the recording, he said.
“It’s embarrassing and I feel stupid for it,” he testified.
Dunmore police eventually charged him with theft but dropped the charges when his mother paid the woman $7,500, Trotta testified. A few months later, the theft landed him back in prison where he has remained since.
Trotta admitted to Clemente he felt betrayed by his accused friends, who never tried to bail him out after his arrest.
At one point, Boland declined his request to add $20 to his prison account. The accounts allow inmates to buy snacks and other small items.
“He should have put $20 on the books,” he said.
His fiancée at that time, a school teacher, “had no idea I did what I did,” he told Clemente. He hid his whole criminal carer from her, making up excuses for why he was in prison.
“I didn’t want to lose her,” he said. “I loved her.”
In 2019, Trotta was imprisoned after state police began arresting him for many thefts but he coaxed them into supporting his release after agreeing to cooperate. If released, he told them, he would try to retrieve rare paintings stolen from the Everhart, rare baseball memorabilia stolen from Keystone and vintage guns stolen from a New Jersey museum, he testified.
Under questioning by Casey, Joe Atsus’ lawyer, Trotta admitted he didn’t tell police he hoped to find the stolen loot at the Union, New Jersey home the Atsuses used for storage.
After finding a hidden key and entering the home on May 7, 2019, he thoroughly searched but never found the goods. He returned the next two days to look further, even trying unsuccessfully to drag a heavy safe that he thought contained the goods out of the house, he testified.
Trotta did manage to steal a chair and other stuff during the visit, he acknowledged.
“You ransacked it,” Casey said as a photo showing the home’s messiness appeared on a courtroom screen.
“It usually looked like that,” Trotta replied.
Trotta said he never told police he planned to visit the New Jersey home because police would have immediately knocked on the doors of the brothers’ North Pocono homes. If the Atsuses’ knew he was cooperating, they would have moved the stolen loot out of the New Jersey home, he said.
Casey also pointed to interviews that Trotta granted to Sports Illustrated and The Atlantic magazines and to CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Their reports detailed his biography and thefts. Casey suggested Trotta enjoyed the publicity.
“You get a bit of a rush,” he said.
“No, I don’t get a rush,” Trotta said.
The trial is expected to continue Thursday with three other ring members who have pleaded guilty testifying.
