Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's lead defense attorney ripped into the prosecution's case and legal theory yesterday, telling a jury that Fumo had been charged with victimless crimes.

Lawyer Dennis J. Cogan, in his closing address, told jurors that Fumo had raised millions for a charity he is accused of ripping off and had gotten back a relatively trifling sum.

"Who is defrauded here?" Cogan asked. "Who is injured here?"

By the same token, Cogan said, Fumo had not defrauded the Senate. He reminded jurors that Senate employees punched no time clocks and worked no set hours.

"How do you victimize someone who on its own leaves almost everything to the discretion of the Senate members?" he asked.

In the sweeping indictment against the once-powerful Democrat, the U.S. government charged him with defrauding the South Philadelphia nonprofit Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, spending its money on stuff for him and to pay for political polls, a lawsuit against a Republican enemy, and other activities.

The indictment also charged him with defrauding the Senate by allegedly assigning his staff to handle personal and political tasks.

Pacing and pointing with his glasses for emphasis, Cogan told the jurors that Fumo's staff and consultants had given taxpayers their full measure of work on legislative tasks. Any personal or campaign work, he said, had been on their time, reflecting their role in Fumo's "extended family."

Cogan is to conclude his defense argument this morning.

After Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer offers a rebuttal to the defense closings and U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter instructs the jury on the law, the panel will at last begin deliberations - more than four months after the trial began.

Cogan urged the jury to reject the testimony of one of the chief prosecution witnesses, Fumo's estranged son-in-law, Christian Marrone.

He told jurors that Marrone was not to be trusted when he said he spent as much as 80 percent of his workday overseeing renovations to Fumo's Philadelphia mansion, rather than working on the public's business.

Only on the eve of the trial, Cogan said, did Marrone turn up old computer files documenting extensive legislative work done while on the Fumo payroll. Among other tasks, Cogan said, Marrone analyzed the Philadelphia Police Department from top to bottom, including how it was managed, handled hiring, and mapped crime.

In another part of the indictment, Fumo is charged with defrauding the Senate by handing out lucrative "no-work" contracts to two old friends and by giving state consulting contracts to a private eye and political operatives, all of whom allegedly handled non-legislative assignments for the former senator.

Before running out of time yesterday, Cogan told the jury that political expert Howard Cain, who was paid as much as $80,000 a year, had taken on plenty of legislative tasks, such as working on gaming issues and studying improvements at the Port of Philadelphia.

He noted that Cain's contract called for him to be paid at the rate of $150 an hour and that thus he didn't have to work very many hours on legislative duties to earn $80,000.

Prosecutors have previously derided the high hourly rates paid Fumo's consultants as frauds unto themselves - tactics to defuse questions about the political work done by Cain and others. If he had worked full time, Cain's pay would have worked out to almost $300,000 a year.

As for Citizens' Alliance, Cogan said it was "not victimized here at all."

Fumo, Cogan said, was the charity's "sole and exclusive benefactor," raising millions for it from Peco Energy.

"Citizens' Alliance got to do all sorts of things that it couldn't possibly do without that money," he said.