Prosecutors lose bid to oust DiMasi counsel

US District Court Judge Mark Wolf ruled that Steven Topazio, DiMasi’s former law partner and a central figure in the case, was not seeking legal advice when he met with DiMasi’s lawyers to discuss the federal investigation. Prosecutors had argued that the meetings constituted a potential conflict of interest, and Wolf told DiMasi he was free to choose new counsel if he feared his defense might be compromised.

But DiMasi said he was happy with his lawyers, Thomas R. Kiley and William Cintolo, and waived his right to call them as witnesses for his defense.

“I have full confidence they will represent my best interests in this case,’’ DiMasi said.

Wolf raised the concern that DiMasi’s lawyers might question Topazio less aggressively, given their association, but said he did not believe “there was an attorney-client relationship’’ between Topazio and DiMasi’s lawyers.

Government prosecutors agreed, although they voiced misgivings that the meetings could come to the jury’s attention and potentially harm their case.

Topazio, making his first public appearance in the case, told the judge he never thought that DiMasi’s lawyers were representing him and did not object to being questioned by DiMasi’s lawyers in a trial. He said he met with the lawyers not for legal advice but to “assist in what was unfolding’’ regarding the investigation.

Prosecutors have described Topazio as the middleman in the alleged bribery conspiracy, steering $4,000 monthly payments to DiMasi from Cognos LLC, a Burlington software company that landed state contracts. They said Topazio met with Kiley three times in an attempt to learn why he was being targeted by federal investigators.

Before yesterday, Topazio had been named in court documents only as “P.A.’’ Citing frustration that the name of a key witness had been made public, Wolf unsealed his identity and called Topazio to court.

Topazio said he had not been coerced or bribed to waive his objection to DiMasi’s lawyers staying on the case.

DiMasi took the stand after pleading not guilty to an expanded battery of charges that included extortion.

Prosecutors accuse DiMasi of having a hidden stake in Genesis Management LLC, a property management company formed in January 2006 by DiMasi’s friend and former accountant, Richard Vitale, and two other partners. The partners agreed to pay DiMasi a share of the profits, prosecutors allege, because he “could help Genesis get business.’’

Three DiMasi associates and codefendants also pleaded not guilty: Vitale; his friend and former Cognos lobbyist Richard McDonough; and Joseph Lally, a former Cognos vice president who secured the state contracts for the firm as an independent sales agent.

All the defendants are free pending their trials.

DiMasi was initially accused of accepting $57,000 from Cognos, which won $17.5 million in state contracts while DiMasi and three associates were receiving generous sums from the company or its sales agent, federal prosecutors say.