by Dellacroce » Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:30 am
September 15, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci
Judge OKs Bail For Accused Mastermind Of $5 Million Bank Heists; But He's Still Behind Bars
Michael MazzaraGang Land Exclusive!Federal prosecutors in Manhattan struck out swinging last week trying to keep the accused mastermind of two bank heists that netted $5 million in proceeds behind bars. During a contentious session on Friday, Manhattan Judge Laura Swain turned down a motion by the government to detain mob associate Michael Mazzara. The feds had argued Mazzara is a dangerous, untrustworthy career criminal with the means and the motive to run away rather than stick around to face trial and a long prison term upon conviction.
But the judge wasn't buying. She upheld the $2 million bail that was set seven weeks ago by a Magistrate judge who also imposed stringent conditions that Mazzara and his lawyer have so far been unable to meet.
Swain's decision followed a similar rejection by Judge Valerie Caproni regarding a prosecution request to overturn another Magistrate's ruling that set bail for codefendant Anthony Mascuzzio at $1.5 million, with numerous other conditions, including electronic monitoring and home detention, and the need to find seven upstanding citizens to co-sign a $1.5 million bond.
The judicial decisions in the spectacular bank burglaries case follow similar rulings by judges who set bail for eight of 11 mob-linked defendants, including Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, in the racketeering indictment of 46 mobsters and associates from five crime families — rather than go along with a government request to detain them as dangers to the community.
Anthony MascuzzioLike Mazzara, 44, a longtime associate of the Colombo and Bonanno crime families, Mascuzzio, a 36-year-old Gambino associate, also remains behind bars as his attorney seeks to fulfill all the requirements needed to satisfy bail conditions that were imposed for him last month.
On Friday, prosecutors told Swain that following Mazzara's arrest, FBI agents found "proceeds" of the heists and tools the thieves used to get into the banks in searches of a Brooklyn home, as well as a farm in Pennsylvania, that his parents own. Citing those discoveries, the feds argued that there is "overwhelming" evidence that would make Mazzara a serious flight risk if he were released on bail.
In court papers, the prosecutors, Benet Kearney and Davis Denton, wrote that an indictment filed last month, which carries up to 80 years in prison for convictions on all counts, "substantially increased sentencing exposure" for Mazzara, and was an additional incentive for him to flee rather than stand trial. A third defendant, Charles Kerrigan, is free on $150,000 bail.
Judge Laura SwainOn the day that Mazzara and his codefendants were arrested, the prosecutors wrote, "agents recovered a large quantity of cash (and) various valuable collectors' items" that are believed to be "proceeds" of the bank burglaries, as well as "a number of acetylene blowtorches" that were used by the burglars in the weekend-long heists in April and May of this year.
Mazzara also "has no stable employment and is not a person who can be trusted to appear if released," the prosecutors wrote, since neither his parents, whom Mazzara claimed paid him $6000 a month in cash to manage their properties, or the other employers he cited had provided any documentation to the government regarding his employment.
Mazzara's attorney Sanford Talkin argued that while the FBI did find cash during its searches of property owned by his client's parents, Frank and Marie Mazzara, who were present in court, there was no evidence that the government had found any valuables that were stolen during the bank burglaries during the searches or that the seized money was the "proceeds" of any crime.
The burglars stole $4.3 million in cash, diamonds, jewelry, coins and baseball cards from safe deposit boxes, and $296,000 from the vault of a Queens bank they hit in May, and $330,000 in cash in a Brooklyn bank heist a month earlier, according to an arrest complaint in the case.
Charles KerriganTalkin also filed affidavits from a longtime worker at the Mazzara farm in Meshoppen, PA, and from two contractors who were doing work at the Mazzara home in Gravesend that refute the government's allegations that acetylene torches, a heavy duty jack hammer, and various masonry tools seized by the FBI belonged to Michael Mazzara.
The farm worker, Frederick Kuntz, 54, claims the Mazzaras have employed him for nine years. He wrote he was with Frank Mazzara when he bought the torches, had used them weekly to make repairs on the farm, where he spends 90% of his time, and that he hasn't seen Michael Mazzara on the farm in "seven or eight years."
Thomas Fleming, 50, owns the Ridge Electric Company in Staten Island. He states that the Hilti Brand Jack Hammer seized by the FBI at 1845 West 10th street in Brooklyn, belongs to him. He was using it to do electrical work there, and he wants it returned to him.
Salman Sahdi, 23, of Brooklyn, owns the Brickstone, NY Construction Company. He states that he was using the grinders, impact drivers, gas masonry saw, hammers, and other tools that were seized by the FBI for work he was doing at 1845 West 10th Street, and he wants them back.
Sanford TalkinThe most intriguing argument at the session revolved around a condition of the Magistrate's bail ruling requiring Mazzara's parents, who are in their mid-70s and would prefer to live on their farm, to live with their son in Brooklyn. Prosecutors refused to waive that condition, and once Judge Swain indicated she would insist on parental supervision of the 44-year-old defendant, she called for a brief recess to allow Talkin to confer privately with his client's parents.
Following their discussion, Talkin announced that Marie Mazzara agreed to reside with her son, but that her husband Frank needed to remain on the farm, a compromise Judge Swain approved.
But before Mazzara can move back in with his mom, under home detention with electronic monitoring, his parents will have to be interviewed by the feds. And three persons, including one who is not related to Mazzara, will have to agree to co-sign a $1 million bond on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the race is on between Talkin and Mascuzzio's lawyer, James Kousouros, to see which defendant will be the first to leave his current digs at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for more comfortable surroundings in their home borough as they await trial.
Dark Side Judge Agrees To Lighten Up On Hapless Bank Robber
Gary FamaHis big smile and distinctive Darth Vader-like voice were the same, but the words that Brooklyn Federal Judge William Kuntz uttered the other day were markedly different than the ones he uttered three years ago when he gave hapless mob associate Gary Fama 35 years behind bars for a $5600 bank robbery.
Back then, after assuring Fama that there was no need for a special sentencing hearing because he would not consider extraneous allegations, Kuntz told the 47-year-old Fama in a resonant basso profundo voice that "a life of crime can also lead to a life behind bars." The judge smiled as he imposed his staggering prison term with a voice that sounds so much like that of the Star Wars villain that he has referred to himself as Father Vader on the bench.
This time, eight months after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his over the top prison term, Kuntz stated he would go along with an unusual agreement that was reached by the "learned opposing counsel" in the Fama case and impose a sentence between the recommended 131 and 151 months called for by the sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers rarely agree on anything following a hotly contested trial. But on September 1, following several adjournments of a special sentencing hearing that Kuntz had called for in the wake of the appeals court's ruling, defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio and prosecutor Tiana Demas each told Kuntz they agreed that a guidelines term was appropriate.
William KuntzIn his 2013 trial, Fama was convicted of a December 29, 2011 bank robbery based on the testimony of an accomplice, and an eye witness who said Fama "reminded me" of the hapless George Costanza character in Seinfeld when he saw him fleeing the robbery scene. "Little to no hair, stocky, wearing glasses," he testified.
There was little doubt about Fama's guilt. The jury took about an hour to pronounce him guilty, and the appeals court wrote that the gangster's claim that he didn't get a fair trial were meritless.
But the high court agreed with Fama's contention that the prison term he got was unfair. In its decision, the three judge panel wrote that Kuntz had failed to give any specific reasons for "imposing a 420-month long sentence of imprisonment," a stretch that was nearly three times as long as the one called for by the advisory sentencing guidelines.
The sentence was 10 years longer than what the prosecution had asked the judge to consider.
Daniel Fama"That is an error that affects defendant's substantial rights," the panel wrote, noting that Kuntz imposed the heavy sentence after stating: "We don't punish people in this country for crimes with which they were not charged and crimes for which they were not convicted by a jury of their peers beyond a reasonable doubt."
As he left the courtroom, Fama smiled and gave a thumbs up to his brother, Daniel, a longtime Gambino associate who was in court to support his younger brother's fight for a lesser sentence.
Outside the courtroom, Daniel Fama, who spent 16 years behind bars for murder in the 1990s but won a huge victory over the FBI in 2014 when Manhattan prosecutors dismissed murder charges against him, applauded the outcome of the brief proceeding. "It was gratifying, very emotional," he told Gang Land. "Gary's not looking at being behind bars when he's 80 anymore."
Jerry Chilli Checks Out In Sunshine State Home Away From Home
Gerald ChilliGerald (Jerry) Chilli, a Florida-based Bonanno capo whose Christmas-time trip to New York a few years ago got him in hot water with both the feds and his mob pals, died Saturday after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 82.
"He was a genuine tough guy," said Mathew Mari, his longtime attorney. "He was the real deal, a real man, in every way. He will be missed."
The New York-born Chilli spent much of his wiseguy career in the Sunshine State where he was involved in a slew of activities, ranging from loansharking to marijuana smuggling.
He made a big mistake in 2012 when he told his Florida federal probation official that he was flying to the Big Apple for the holidays. It somehow never occurred to the veteran mobster that the feds would figure that he'd be looking up wiseguy cohorts he hadn't seen in six years — ever since he was incarcerated for racketeering in 2006.
So FBI agents were waiting at LaGuardia Airport when Chilli's Delta Airlines flight arrived on December 20, 2012, and they watched as he was picked up by mob associate John Lombardo and "greeted" by Anthony (Fat Anthony) Rabito, a powerful capo and onetime member of the family's ruling panel.
Mathew MariOver the next few weeks, agents, probation officials and NYPD detectives with the Organized Crime Investigations Division simply followed Chilli all around the town as he met with top Bonanno wiseguys, including the Long Island capo who was then serving as the family's acting boss, Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore.
Busted for violating his post-prison supervised release restrictions (VOSR), the following April, Chilli claimed that meeting his old pals were chance occurrences. But after the feds detailed four get-togethers with more than a dozen wiseguys — two others were also hit with VOSR — he pleaded guilty and promised to stay out of New York. At his sentencing, lawyer Mari sought a "time served" sentence of about 90 days.
Chilli didn't do that well, but Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson did give him six months less than the maximum two years than the government wanted.
By all accounts, Chilli kept a promise that he made to Johnson, a contemporary of the veteran mobster, during a lighthearted moment during his guilty plea, when the judge cracked, "You're too old to be doing this Mr. Chilli. This is a young man's game. You should stay in Florida."
Sterling JohnsonThe gangster laughed, leaned on his cane, looked up at the judge and said, "I know Your Honor. That's what I'm going to do."
Chilli who served most of his sentence in a Sunshine State facility, passed away Saturday in Miami Beach, after spending several months in an area hospital and a rehab facility.
Chilli is survived by his wife Valerie, his daughter Margaret, and three granddaughters. A son, Joseph, was shot to death, at age 30, in a gangland-style slaying in 1984. No one has ever been charged in the killing.
A family friend told Gang Land that Chilli would be laid to rest in his adopted state of Florida following private funeral services.
September 15, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci
Judge OKs Bail For Accused Mastermind Of $5 Million Bank Heists; But He's Still Behind Bars
Michael MazzaraGang Land Exclusive!Federal prosecutors in Manhattan struck out swinging last week trying to keep the accused mastermind of two bank heists that netted $5 million in proceeds behind bars. During a contentious session on Friday, Manhattan Judge Laura Swain turned down a motion by the government to detain mob associate Michael Mazzara. The feds had argued Mazzara is a dangerous, untrustworthy career criminal with the means and the motive to run away rather than stick around to face trial and a long prison term upon conviction.
But the judge wasn't buying. She upheld the $2 million bail that was set seven weeks ago by a Magistrate judge who also imposed stringent conditions that Mazzara and his lawyer have so far been unable to meet.
Swain's decision followed a similar rejection by Judge Valerie Caproni regarding a prosecution request to overturn another Magistrate's ruling that set bail for codefendant Anthony Mascuzzio at $1.5 million, with numerous other conditions, including electronic monitoring and home detention, and the need to find seven upstanding citizens to co-sign a $1.5 million bond.
The judicial decisions in the spectacular bank burglaries case follow similar rulings by judges who set bail for eight of 11 mob-linked defendants, including Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, in the racketeering indictment of 46 mobsters and associates from five crime families — rather than go along with a government request to detain them as dangers to the community.
Anthony MascuzzioLike Mazzara, 44, a longtime associate of the Colombo and Bonanno crime families, Mascuzzio, a 36-year-old Gambino associate, also remains behind bars as his attorney seeks to fulfill all the requirements needed to satisfy bail conditions that were imposed for him last month.
On Friday, prosecutors told Swain that following Mazzara's arrest, FBI agents found "proceeds" of the heists and tools the thieves used to get into the banks in searches of a Brooklyn home, as well as a farm in Pennsylvania, that his parents own. Citing those discoveries, the feds argued that there is "overwhelming" evidence that would make Mazzara a serious flight risk if he were released on bail.
In court papers, the prosecutors, Benet Kearney and Davis Denton, wrote that an indictment filed last month, which carries up to 80 years in prison for convictions on all counts, "substantially increased sentencing exposure" for Mazzara, and was an additional incentive for him to flee rather than stand trial. A third defendant, Charles Kerrigan, is free on $150,000 bail.
Judge Laura SwainOn the day that Mazzara and his codefendants were arrested, the prosecutors wrote, "agents recovered a large quantity of cash (and) various valuable collectors' items" that are believed to be "proceeds" of the bank burglaries, as well as "a number of acetylene blowtorches" that were used by the burglars in the weekend-long heists in April and May of this year.
Mazzara also "has no stable employment and is not a person who can be trusted to appear if released," the prosecutors wrote, since neither his parents, whom Mazzara claimed paid him $6000 a month in cash to manage their properties, or the other employers he cited had provided any documentation to the government regarding his employment.
Mazzara's attorney Sanford Talkin argued that while the FBI did find cash during its searches of property owned by his client's parents, Frank and Marie Mazzara, who were present in court, there was no evidence that the government had found any valuables that were stolen during the bank burglaries during the searches or that the seized money was the "proceeds" of any crime.
The burglars stole $4.3 million in cash, diamonds, jewelry, coins and baseball cards from safe deposit boxes, and $296,000 from the vault of a Queens bank they hit in May, and $330,000 in cash in a Brooklyn bank heist a month earlier, according to an arrest complaint in the case.
Charles KerriganTalkin also filed affidavits from a longtime worker at the Mazzara farm in Meshoppen, PA, and from two contractors who were doing work at the Mazzara home in Gravesend that refute the government's allegations that acetylene torches, a heavy duty jack hammer, and various masonry tools seized by the FBI belonged to Michael Mazzara.
The farm worker, Frederick Kuntz, 54, claims the Mazzaras have employed him for nine years. He wrote he was with Frank Mazzara when he bought the torches, had used them weekly to make repairs on the farm, where he spends 90% of his time, and that he hasn't seen Michael Mazzara on the farm in "seven or eight years."
Thomas Fleming, 50, owns the Ridge Electric Company in Staten Island. He states that the Hilti Brand Jack Hammer seized by the FBI at 1845 West 10th street in Brooklyn, belongs to him. He was using it to do electrical work there, and he wants it returned to him.
Salman Sahdi, 23, of Brooklyn, owns the Brickstone, NY Construction Company. He states that he was using the grinders, impact drivers, gas masonry saw, hammers, and other tools that were seized by the FBI for work he was doing at 1845 West 10th Street, and he wants them back.
Sanford TalkinThe most intriguing argument at the session revolved around a condition of the Magistrate's bail ruling requiring Mazzara's parents, who are in their mid-70s and would prefer to live on their farm, to live with their son in Brooklyn. Prosecutors refused to waive that condition, and once Judge Swain indicated she would insist on parental supervision of the 44-year-old defendant, she called for a brief recess to allow Talkin to confer privately with his client's parents.
Following their discussion, Talkin announced that Marie Mazzara agreed to reside with her son, but that her husband Frank needed to remain on the farm, a compromise Judge Swain approved.
But before Mazzara can move back in with his mom, under home detention with electronic monitoring, his parents will have to be interviewed by the feds. And three persons, including one who is not related to Mazzara, will have to agree to co-sign a $1 million bond on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the race is on between Talkin and Mascuzzio's lawyer, James Kousouros, to see which defendant will be the first to leave his current digs at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for more comfortable surroundings in their home borough as they await trial.
Dark Side Judge Agrees To Lighten Up On Hapless Bank Robber
Gary FamaHis big smile and distinctive Darth Vader-like voice were the same, but the words that Brooklyn Federal Judge William Kuntz uttered the other day were markedly different than the ones he uttered three years ago when he gave hapless mob associate Gary Fama 35 years behind bars for a $5600 bank robbery.
Back then, after assuring Fama that there was no need for a special sentencing hearing because he would not consider extraneous allegations, Kuntz told the 47-year-old Fama in a resonant basso profundo voice that "a life of crime can also lead to a life behind bars." The judge smiled as he imposed his staggering prison term with a voice that sounds so much like that of the Star Wars villain that he has referred to himself as Father Vader on the bench.
This time, eight months after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his over the top prison term, Kuntz stated he would go along with an unusual agreement that was reached by the "learned opposing counsel" in the Fama case and impose a sentence between the recommended 131 and 151 months called for by the sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers rarely agree on anything following a hotly contested trial. But on September 1, following several adjournments of a special sentencing hearing that Kuntz had called for in the wake of the appeals court's ruling, defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio and prosecutor Tiana Demas each told Kuntz they agreed that a guidelines term was appropriate.
William KuntzIn his 2013 trial, Fama was convicted of a December 29, 2011 bank robbery based on the testimony of an accomplice, and an eye witness who said Fama "reminded me" of the hapless George Costanza character in Seinfeld when he saw him fleeing the robbery scene. "Little to no hair, stocky, wearing glasses," he testified.
There was little doubt about Fama's guilt. The jury took about an hour to pronounce him guilty, and the appeals court wrote that the gangster's claim that he didn't get a fair trial were meritless.
But the high court agreed with Fama's contention that the prison term he got was unfair. In its decision, the three judge panel wrote that Kuntz had failed to give any specific reasons for "imposing a 420-month long sentence of imprisonment," a stretch that was nearly three times as long as the one called for by the advisory sentencing guidelines.
The sentence was 10 years longer than what the prosecution had asked the judge to consider.
Daniel Fama"That is an error that affects defendant's substantial rights," the panel wrote, noting that Kuntz imposed the heavy sentence after stating: "We don't punish people in this country for crimes with which they were not charged and crimes for which they were not convicted by a jury of their peers beyond a reasonable doubt."
As he left the courtroom, Fama smiled and gave a thumbs up to his brother, Daniel, a longtime Gambino associate who was in court to support his younger brother's fight for a lesser sentence.
Outside the courtroom, Daniel Fama, who spent 16 years behind bars for murder in the 1990s but won a huge victory over the FBI in 2014 when Manhattan prosecutors dismissed murder charges against him, applauded the outcome of the brief proceeding. "It was gratifying, very emotional," he told Gang Land. "Gary's not looking at being behind bars when he's 80 anymore."
Jerry Chilli Checks Out In Sunshine State Home Away From Home
Gerald ChilliGerald (Jerry) Chilli, a Florida-based Bonanno capo whose Christmas-time trip to New York a few years ago got him in hot water with both the feds and his mob pals, died Saturday after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 82.
"He was a genuine tough guy," said Mathew Mari, his longtime attorney. "He was the real deal, a real man, in every way. He will be missed."
The New York-born Chilli spent much of his wiseguy career in the Sunshine State where he was involved in a slew of activities, ranging from loansharking to marijuana smuggling.
He made a big mistake in 2012 when he told his Florida federal probation official that he was flying to the Big Apple for the holidays. It somehow never occurred to the veteran mobster that the feds would figure that he'd be looking up wiseguy cohorts he hadn't seen in six years — ever since he was incarcerated for racketeering in 2006.
So FBI agents were waiting at LaGuardia Airport when Chilli's Delta Airlines flight arrived on December 20, 2012, and they watched as he was picked up by mob associate John Lombardo and "greeted" by Anthony (Fat Anthony) Rabito, a powerful capo and onetime member of the family's ruling panel.
Mathew MariOver the next few weeks, agents, probation officials and NYPD detectives with the Organized Crime Investigations Division simply followed Chilli all around the town as he met with top Bonanno wiseguys, including the Long Island capo who was then serving as the family's acting boss, Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore.
Busted for violating his post-prison supervised release restrictions (VOSR), the following April, Chilli claimed that meeting his old pals were chance occurrences. But after the feds detailed four get-togethers with more than a dozen wiseguys — two others were also hit with VOSR — he pleaded guilty and promised to stay out of New York. At his sentencing, lawyer Mari sought a "time served" sentence of about 90 days.
Chilli didn't do that well, but Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson did give him six months less than the maximum two years than the government wanted.
By all accounts, Chilli kept a promise that he made to Johnson, a contemporary of the veteran mobster, during a lighthearted moment during his guilty plea, when the judge cracked, "You're too old to be doing this Mr. Chilli. This is a young man's game. You should stay in Florida."
Sterling JohnsonThe gangster laughed, leaned on his cane, looked up at the judge and said, "I know Your Honor. That's what I'm going to do."
Chilli who served most of his sentence in a Sunshine State facility, passed away Saturday in Miami Beach, after spending several months in an area hospital and a rehab facility.
Chilli is survived by his wife Valerie, his daughter Margaret, and three granddaughters. A son, Joseph, was shot to death, at age 30, in a gangland-style slaying in 1984. No one has ever been charged in the killing.
A family friend told Gang Land that Chilli would be laid to rest in his adopted state of Florida following private funeral services.