During his storied legal career, Frank Ragano kept Tampa's reputed crime boss Santo Trafficante Jr. out of jail, and 114 murder defendants out of the electric chair. But on Friday the 68-year-old Ragano could not keep himself out of prison. The Tampa native and longtime attorney to late Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for tax evasion. U.S. District Judge Owen Forrester also ordered Ragano to serve five years' probation at the end of his prison term. A Tampa federal jury in August convicted Ragano of failing to report more than $100,000 he received in 1982 and 1983 from investors in a planned movie, The Life and Death of Jimmy Hoffa. It was his second tax evasion conviction. In the early 1980s, Ragano told Tampa investors that he had exclusive rights to Hoffa's life story. Among the investors was former client Mary Haire. In 1983 Ragano successfully defended her against charges she murdered her husband, millionaire car dealer Ernie Haire Jr. That led to a Florida Bar inquiry after Mrs. Haire complained that Ragano took advantage of her emotional state by asking her to invest in the movie on the eve of her testimony in the murder trial. Ragano contended that investors later agreed to call the transactions loans, and that he relied on his tax preparer's advice that the money did not have to be reported as income. Ragano's attorney in the tax case, Charles B. Corces, was arrested Tuesday and charged in an unrelated case with soliciting a bribe for a state prosecutor in a murder case. In interviews in recent years, Ragano has said that he would soon be publishing a book that would reveal who killed Hoffa, who disappeared from Michigan in 1975. _ BRUCE VIELMETTI State to look into deal on drug case TAMPA - The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is investigating a drug case settled by a top prosecutor and local defense lawyer three days before they were arrested on charges of reducing a murder charge in exchange for a bribe. The drug case was simple on the surface: a small-time drug case in which two Texas men pleaded no contest to possession of marijuana and were sentenced to two years' probation. But the settlement took on a new dimension after prosecutor John S. Valenti and defense lawyer Charles B. Corces were arrested Tuesday on charges of reducing the murder charge for a $35,000 bribe. Though the sentence in the drug case was typical, Assistant State Attorney John Skye said, "It's unusual for a division chief to be handling a third-degree felony." Skye said the case caught his attention because division chiefs such as Valenti, who supervised a staff of five lawyers, normally handle bigger cases. The case also was noteworthy because charges rarely get resolved during arraignments, as these were. Instead, defendants usually offer a not-guilty plea until the state reveals the evidence against them, Skye said. Prosecutors noticed those odd twists as they began reviewing Valenti's previous cases after his arrest. Skye said his office is trying to identify the cases where the two lawyers worked together and where sentences seemed unusually light. Valenti, a career prosecutor who earned $66,000 a year, was fired after the arrest. Using Corces as a middleman, Valenti offered defense attorney Manuel Machin a plea bargain for his client, Nelson Gonzalez, sheriff's officials said. Machin reported the bribe to the state attorney's office and played along until Valenti was arrested, officials said. Gonzalez, charged with first-degree murder in the June 1990 shooting death of Samuel Sierra, pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge and received 12 years in prison Tuesday. Gonzalez, who knew about the set-up, is expected to withdraw his plea Tuesday, prosecutors said. After his arrest, Valenti admitted to the bribe, calling it "a foolish judgment call on my part." _ RACHEL L. SWARNS Idea for the masses: shsort day, more play TAMPA - Walter Baldwin is touting a nifty idea that is sure to make him the hero of the masses all over Tampa. On Friday, Baldwin suggests, come to work in your comfortable clothes, maybe a football jersey. Be happy, relax. And then, around noon or so, take the rest of the day off and head for the biggest party Ybor City has ever seen. It's Baldwin's way to kick off the festivities for Super Bowl XXV, scheduled Jan. 27 in Tampa Stadium. "It gets everybody in the mood for Super Bowl weekend," Baldwin, chairman of the Super Bowl Task Force, said Friday. "They put on some jerseys, then come to work and they look forward to the festival." Baldwin's plan, originally the idea of festival organizer Joan Jennewein, has been endorsed by the rest of the Super Bowl Task Force. The festival is the Super Carnivale d'Ybor, one of three main events for the public during Super Bowl Weekend. Starting at noon, most of Ybor City will be turned into a giant fiesta with seven stages of live music. The party starts at noon and ends at midnight. The idea might sound good to many workers, but local bosses aren't too hot about the extra holiday. "No way," said Ralph Rubio, manager of the Tropicana restaurant in Ybor City. "I need all my employees that day. And 10 more if I can get them." Rubio said they can attend the party _ which will be held right outside the front door _ when they get off work at 4 p.m. Most of the main events are scheduled at night so that people can attend after work. Like the two other public events, the Bamboleo parade and street festival, the Carnivale is free. The Bamboleo events take place Saturday. "I suppose if the Super Bowl Task Force gave everyone free tickets to the Super Bowl, we would be willing to take the day off and wear helmets to work," said Tim Lubinsky, a spokesman for NCNB National Bank. "Maybe we would even wash their cars, too." "You're kidding, right?" asked George Koehn, chairman and chief executive officer for SunBank of Tampa Bay. "When you are in a service industry, it would be very hard to do that. No matter how much you would like to." But Baldwin is letting the employees at his insurance agency leave early for the party and dress casually. "I'm already popular at my office," he said. _ JENNIFER L. STEVENSON and BILL ADAIR