CONTINUING COVERAGE
The Journal-News will have gavel-to-gavel coverage of the criminal trial of former state lawmaker Pete Beck. Follow staff writer Michael D. Pitman on Twitter at @MDPitmanJournal or the hashtag #PeteBeckTrial for live updates.
The defense team for the former state lawmaker facing dozens of felony criminal counts tried to show Thursday he was not involved in the day to day operations of a failed tech start-up as the state alleges.
Hope Magnone, the executive assistant for former Christopher Technologies CEO John Fussner, offered her third day of testimony on the witness stand Thursday morning in Pete Beck’s criminal trial. She was asked if Fussner actually had former C-Tech bookkeeper and controller Charlene Parsons run the company’s financial information by him.
“Isn’t it true that while Mr. Beck may have been her accounting supervisor, virtually everything she did of substance she ran by Mr. Fussner?” Beck attorney Ralph Kohnen said. “If she said she said she wouldn’t do anything of a financial nature without authorization to do that, if she said, ‘Even if Pete asked me to do something, I would still run it by John (Fussner).’”
Magnone testified she didn’t know anyone else’s job, or how Parsons did her job, though said she was “in the loop” on most of the Christopher Technologies business. After a series of questions that didn’t lead to the answer Kohnen was waiting for, he said, “I’m going to ask you for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer … isn’t it true that Charlene Parsons would be the best source of information for how Christopher Technologies’ finance department worked?”
“Yes,” she said.
Beck is the 62-year-old former state lawmaker and former Mason mayor faces 55 felony charges, which includes corruption, theft, perjury, money laundering and several securities-related violations. He is said to have introduced investors and potential investors to company officials.
Beck was indicted in July 2013 on 16 counts, though all but one had been dismissed, and again in February 2014 on 54 additional counts. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge John Andrew West will hear the motion to amend the second indictment, which will reduce the counts to 39.
Magnone testified the company failed, agreeing with Kohnen during his questioning, the economy nearly crashed, expected income never materialized, and “it was just a risky start-up … and that was a risk that everybody knew from jump street.”
“From my involvement, that’s what I believed,” said Magnone, and later said in the line of questioning that “it was a start-up company, as with any start-up company it was risky.”
Kohnen also asked Magnone about Beck’s employment status, specifically his salary. In 2008, Beck made $25,000 from Christopher Technologies, reportedly as CFO, while Magnone was paid more than $35,000 as an executive assistant.
“Is that the kind of money that is paid to a chief financial officer?” Kohnen asked Magnone, who maintained the human resources filed for Christopher Technologies. “The CFO is making less than the CEO’s administrative assistant? That’s an awful lot of responsibility to put on someone for an awful little bit of money, don’t you agree?”
“I’m not familiar with salaries, and what people make and what’s fair,” she said. “But I see where you headed, that I made more than he did and he was the CFO. I get your point.”
Day 23 of the Beck trial will resume at 9 a.m. Friday with Dr. Charles Mbanefo on the witness stand. Mbanefo, a Cleveland-based nephrologist, was one of the first investors in Christopher Technologies.
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