Legal News

Fumo?s Daughter, Fiance, Beg for Mercy

By Brian Harris

In a tearful bid for leniency, the 19-year-old daughter of former state Sen. Vincent Fumo begged Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter to see her father?s good side.

Allison Fumo, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, said that while she was growing up, she never understood why her father was never around and why he worked so hard. Later, she said, she realized that ?he was taking care of other families? and that she has ?learned to forgive him.?

Her voice cracking, she implored: ?Please don?t take my dad for long because he?s the only father I have.?

Fumo?s fiance, Carolyn Zinni, also made an impassioned plea for leniency, urging Buckwalter to see the entire man that is Fumo and not just ?the monster that the prosecutors have designed him to be.?

The media, Zinni said, ha ve  painted Fumo as nothing but a criminal, but the residents of South Philadelphia tell a different tale because they have benefited from Fumo?s hard work for decades.

Zinni said that since her recent engagement to Fumo, she has been asked repeatedly why she had decided to commit to a man whose future was uncertain, and that her response has always been: ?I?d rather be with him for as much time as possible than with anyone else for 50 years.?

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).