And So My Truth Is That I Am A Gay Defendant

And you thought no one could out-McGreevey the former New Jersey governor:

By the time Anthony Fortunato took the witness stand yesterday, facing charges of murder as a hate crime in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, his whole life was at stake. The rest of it could be spent in prison. To save himself, he offered his last, deepest secrets.

Through two weeks of trial, jurors heard from the police, from forensic scientists and from his own friends. They had sifted through his electronic mail. They had even heard from Mr. Fortunato’s lawyer, Gerald J. Di Chiara, who during opening arguments on Sept. 17 said that his client would not have made a gay man a target because he himself was gay.

Yesterday, dressed in a dark blazer and khaki slacks, Mr. Fortunato took the stand in his own defense. When Mr. Di Chiara asked him his sexual orientation, he responded, “I don’t know.” Asked what he meant, he said: “I could be homosexual. A homosexual. Bisexual.”

. . .

Before his client’s testimony, Mr. Di Chiara yesterday called witnesses to try to bolster Mr. Fortunato’s defense.

His first witness was a brokerage firm worker wearing a bright blue tie and a golden hoop ring in his left ear.

“I’m a gay man,” said the witness, Michael Roberto, who had been ordered to testify by subpoena. Under questioning from Mr. Di Chiara, he recounted meeting Mr. Fortunato online, then inviting him to his apartment for sex. Mr. Fortunato arrived, he said, wearing panties and a bra. Two more witnesses gave similar accounts.