Richard Sprague Dry Cleaners, Open For Business

Lawyer to the rich and indicted Richard Sprague is representing aspiring alpaca farmer/State Sen.Vince Fumo in his upcoming trial for allegedly defrauding several organizations.

But Sprague, who pledged to fight under Queensbury rules in the trial, also represented several of the organizations Fumo is alleged to have defrauded — Citizens Alliance, the State Senate and the Independence Seaport Museum — in addition to Fumo. In a motion, the prosecution alleged a “jury may readily conclude that Fumo placed his chosen attorneys… to assure the entities that Fumo’s conduct was blameless, at the same time that criminal activity actually continued.”

The prosecution sent a private message to the defense, saying it wouldn’t make the charges public if Sprague dropped out. The defense sent back (literally) a “fuck you.”

These, though, are by far the best details in the Inquirer article:

Once a week, Fumo had dispatched aides to Sprague’s home in Haverford to have his shirts laundered. Sprague, a longtime Fumo friend, has said publicly that the senator did this because he liked the way the lawyer’s aides handled his clothes. ¶ According to grand jury testimony, Fumo also had his Senate staff call a hotel in London where Sprague was staying to help the lawyer configure his computer in July 2000.

U.S. says Fumo lawyers’ loyalties may be torn [Inquirer]