Judge overturns conviction of contractor in fraud case She said no "rational" jury would have found Thomas Carbo guilty in a Norristown corruption scandal.

A Devon contractor, one of 10 politicians and businessmen snared in a sweeping probe of municipal corruption in Norristown, has gone from guilty to not after a federal judge overturned his 2006 mail fraud conviction.

Thomas Carbo, 40, was the beneficiary of that rarest of judicial acts - the overturning of a jury's guilty verdict.

U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin, in a 75-page opinion issued Friday, said no "rational" jury should have convicted Carbo.

In June 2006, Carbo was found guilty on two counts of honest-services mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with Norristown's former municipal administrator, Anthony Biondi.

Biondi, who pleaded guilty to corruption and tax-evasion charges, was sentenced last August to 18 months in prison. Also convicted in the probe was former Mayor Ted LeBlanc.

Biondi would moonlight from his borough job, driving paving trucks on jobs outside Norristown. He paid Carbo for use of Carbo's truck, and failed to disclose that relationship when he awarded Carbo's company, Tommy's Paving & Excavating, borough work.

Carbo was looking at 24 to 30 months in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines, but his sentencing had been put off pending the judge's decision.

In his argument to the judge before the jury verdict, attorney Dino Privitera said his client didn't know that Biondi was required by law to disclose any potential financial conflicts, and he could not be held criminally responsible for what Biondi failed to do.

The judge agreed.

"The evidence presented is insufficient to allow a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Carbo knew that Mr. Biondi was required to disclose their relationship to the state," McLaughlin wrote.

Yesterday Privitera was gratified by the opinion.

"It was very thorough and well-reasoned, and most importantly, correct in result," Privitera said.

Privitera had asked jurors not to paint Carbo with the same brush with which witnesses painted Norristown's government. Carbo's five-day trial featured testimony that a former mayor took bribes, that a contractor billed taxpayers for "ghost work" never performed, and that a local tow-truck driver picked up cars and junked them for cash before they could be claimed.

"They just believed Norristown was a cesspool of corruption and they lumped him in with the other defendants in this case," Privitera said.

David Kairys, a professor of law at Temple University's Beasley Law School, called such a ruling "extremely rare," and said it happens only when a judge finds "that there's really no evidence to support a conviction."

Carbo's problems are not over. He was indicted last month on tax-evasion charges in connection with his corruption case and is awaiting trial. Also, the U.S. attorney has the option of appealing the judge's decision to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Zack said yesterday the office had not yet made a decision on whether to appeal.

Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 215-854-4565 or jshields@phillynews.com.