Whatever benefit county employee Linda Rybak derived from her connection to Jimmy Dimora could work against her today.

 Rybak is facing a disciplinary hearing after testimony at the Dimora trial implied she got a $5,000 raise because her husband was a close associate of the commissioner. Her husband, Rob Rybak, was considered one of Dimora’s A-team friends. Federal prosecutors played phone tape of Dimora supporting her raise.   In another recorded ophone call jurors heard her hsuband calling her naïve for believing she could get a raise based on merit. Dimora insider Kevin Kelley agreed: “People get raises on who they knew, not on how hard they work.” 

 In all, jurors have heard five weeks of testimony from Dimora acquaintances who have pleaded guilty and gotten deals in exchange for their testimony.

 The biggest of those acquaintances is yet to come: Frank Russo has already admitted he took more than a million dollars in bribes and is believed to have reached a deal to testify to save his son Vince from further prosecution.   

Unlike the million dollars in bribes Russo accepted to sell county jobs, Dimora’s alleged kickbacks have mostly amounted to back yard patio improvements, free prostitutes, and free meals.  

At the end of last week’s testimony,  prosecutors asked FBI agent Christine Oliver about a blizzard of documents, phone calls, and dinner receipts, apparently to impress the jury with how thorough the agency had tracked meetings with Dimora and his A-team.