In a key ruling for federal prosecutors, the judge presiding over the forthcoming trial of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo refused yesterday to throw out evidence obtained during FBI searches of Fumo’s legislative office and computers.

U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. also would not suppress evidence found during a search of the home of codefendant Leonard P. Luchko, a former Senate computer technician.

Yohn did, however, set a hearing for Tuesday on one remaining aspect of Fumo’s argument – that the warrant for the search of his Philadelphia office was faulty because it mistakenly included language from another search that had already taken place.

Yohn said he wanted to make sure that the magistrate judge who approved the search warrant was not acting as a mere “rubber stamp” for law enforcement.

Fumo, 64, who has been a powerful Democrat in Harrisburg for decades, is scheduled to stand trial, beginning Sept. 8, in a sweeping corruption case that accuses him of defrauding the state Senate and two nonprofit groups and trying to obstruct the investigation.
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