GL News 5/28/20

[richard_belding]

The Mikey Spat Case: 'It's Time For Judge Johnson To Do The Right Thing.'

Michael SpataroGang Land Exclusive!In the courtroom of Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Sterling Johnson, Michael (Mikey Spat) Spataro feels like he gets no respect. Two and a half years ago, the mob associate filed a motion with Johnson seeking to vacate the 24 year sentence Spataro got for being part of a murder conspiracy to kill a turncoat mobster. Spataro made a basic claim in his appeal: He's innocent.

For two and half years, the 87-page pro se motion gathered only dust.

Spataro, 53, is used to being ignored by the senior jurist. Johnson took 32 months to rule on — and deny — an earlier innocence claim that Mikey Spat filed in 2010. That claim was notable for the fact that it was strongly backed by former U.S. Marshal Michael Pizzi, a legendary Brooklyn crime fighter who took on Spataro as a pro bono client when he became a private investigator.

Pizzi said he needed only a three minute walk around an alleged "crime scene" in Bensonhurst to determine that Spataro was innocent of a 2001 plot to kill turncoat Colombo capo Joseph (Joe Camp) Campanella. More from Pizzi in a moment.

Sterling JohnsonMeanwhile, last month Spataro finally caught a break. Noting that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling had cast much doubt on a weapons charge that added five years to his sentence, the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Johnson to revisit the case. So when Johnson asked a Magistrate judge to determine bail, it seemed like Mikey Spat had at least half a chance to go home — at least for a while — since he had completed his time except for less than five years remaining on the weapons charge. But it was not to be.

The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office assigned veteran mob prosecutor Elizabeth Geddes to argue long and hard that even though Spataro had an admirable, discipline free record behind bars since 2004, including his last nine years at the prison in Fort Dix, the government opposed his release on bail because the longtime Colombo family associate was a dangerous felon.

The government's heavy-hitter response was triggered by Judge Johnson, who ordered prosecutors to also reply to Spataro's three year-old motion when he was ordered to revisit the weapons conviction by the Court of Appeals.

Elizabeth GeddesAs Spataro listened in at the Fort Dix complex, Geddes, a former Chief of the Organized Crime & Gangs Unit and onetime deputy chief of the Criminal Division, outgunned and overwhelmed Mikey Spat's federal defender and convinced Magistrate Judge Steven Gold to keep him locked up as the case continued.

Geddes, who currently heads the Office's Civil Rights Unit, had a host of arguments to offer. For starters, she said she doubted that Gold had the authority to grant bail to a sentenced defendant. She also argued that while the 2d Circuit had sent the case back to Johnson, the government's position was that the conviction was still valid, and that Mikey Spat should stay where he was, and finish out his sentence there in March of 2025.

The prosecutor also opined that there was no reason to assume that Johnson would vacate Spataro's conviction and order his resentencing, which is what Judge Raymond Dearie did last week in the case of Luchese mobster Michael (Baldy Mike) Spinelli. But even if Johnson did toss Mikey Spat's conviction, Geddes said, the government would seek the same overall prison term of 24 years.

"Judge Johnson imposed a very severe sentence here," the prosecutor said. "If Johnson did vacate the 924c conviction (referring to the weapons count) we intend to ask the court to impose the same sentence since the conduct remains the same."

Vincent DeMartinoIn her filings, Geddes wrote that the government also opposed Spataro's long-ignored motion to vacate his murder conspiracy conviction. Spataro had argued that, contrary to government claims, he did not leave his autobody shop and drive Colombo mobster Vincent (Chickie) DeMartino to Shore Parkway and 26th Avenue in Bensonhurst to meet cohort Giovanni (John the Barber) Floridia between 9:32 and 10:15 on July 16, 2001, the day the duo shot and tried to kill Campanella.

Spataro's motion, the prosecutor wrote, was technically invalid and should be rejected for that reason alone since he did not have permission from the appeals court to file a second habeas corpus motion on that issue, as he now has for the onerous gun charge.

It also had no merit, she wrote, because the records he supplied of a meeting he had at his body shop that morning with an insurance adjuster took place at 9:34 and could have lasted only "a few minutes," not the 45 minutes to an hour that the insurance adjuster said he hung around.

Geddes totally ignored an affidavit from the woman whose car was the subject of the meeting. Using telephone records she got from the government, she stated she called Spataro at 9:51 that morning and then drove to his shop where she met with him for 45 minutes to an hour.

Robert LaRussoIn 2018, a year after Spataro filed his longstanding motion, Robert LaRusso, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor who had worked with Johnson during his tenure as a Special State Narcotics Prosecutor, agreed to represent Mikey Spat. Normally, that should have been a plus. But when LaRusso filed notice that he was handling the complicated case pro bono for Spataro, and asked the judge to hold a hearing, Johnson ignored LaRusso as well.

Now, back to Mike Pizzi: Spataro's case is the only one involving a reputed organized crime figure that Pizzi handled as a private investigator after he retired as the Brooklyn U.S. Marshal in 1998. Pizzi, 78, had a 33 year career for the U.S. Marshal Service

"I'm very disappointed in the government and the way they acted in this case," Pizzi told Gang Land yesterday. "Really disappointed. We deserve better."

Pizzi, who earned his high school diploma in Naples, Italy while serving as a U.S. Marine and never pulled punches when he toiled as a government man, didn't yesterday as he voiced his disappointment and frustration about Spataro's conviction.

"It's a rotten stinking case," he said, recalling that at the time, the FBI and federal prosecutors were stymied by the killing of Colombo consigliere William (Wild Bill) Cutolo. "They thought since [Spataro] was friendly with Wild Bill, maybe he could give that up. It turns out that they (DeMartino and Spataro) had nothing to do with Cutolo. They were wrong about everything."

Michael Pizzi"I am very frustrated that no one in the government has taken another hard look at this," said Pizzi, who became convinced that Spataro was framed by Floridia when he visited the area on the service road of the Belt Parkway near the Nellie Bly amusement area where John The Barber claimed that he had picked up DeMartino after Spataro had driven him there.

"It's a three minute walk from there to Nellie Bly," Pizzi told Gang Land in 2012. "That means that Mike drove four miles from his shop in Bay Ridge, he picked up DeMartino at his car, and then he drove him three blocks, so he could walk a block and a half to Floridia's car. C'mon. Give me a break. This makes no sense."

"It made no sense then, it makes no sense now," said Pizzi, recalling a big disappointment he had following an exciting breakthrough.

"After many years of working the case," he continued, "I finally got a computer generated document from All State that shows that the adjuster arrived at his shop at 9:34 and was there about 45 minutes. And we found the bill, signed by Spataro."

"We went to the U.S. Attorney's office to show that he did not drive Chickie to where they say he did between 9:30 and 10:30 on that morning," Pizzi continued. "I met with a few AUSAs. They said, 'We'd like to talk to him.' I said, 'Wait a minute, he's not going to be an informer. You want to talk to him, let's have a hearing, in court. Let's put it on the record. I'm bringing you all this evidence for you to see he's actually innocent. So you can do the right thing,'" said Pizzi.

As Spataro bides his time in Fort Dix, and his federal defender attorney Amanda David tries to figure out what to do next, Mike Pizzi had a thought.

"It's time for Judge Johnson to do the right thing in this case," he said.



COVID-19 Inmate's Song: I'm Still Sick; I Wanna Go Home, Back Where I Belong

Gambino associate John Matera, who sent out a few nasty letters about his racketeering/murder case that he surely wishes he hadn't, has now penned a nice one — this time to a federal judge. Matera is asking the judge who denied his request to release him after he tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, to reconsider and find a way to send him home after 21 years behind bars.

Matera, the first New York gangster to seek a compassionate release after being bitten by the killer bug, writes that he is still sick and that living conditions are "real bad" at Danbury, the only federal facility in the tristate area with a COVID-19 fatality.

"The dorm we are living in was closed because of health issues, such as asbestos, black mold, broken pipes," he wrote. "It is a mess," he continued, noting that the new dorm "had been closed for over four years."

"The officers do not even believe we are living up here," Matera told Manhattan Judge Jesse Furman, stating that he and other inmates who've tested positively for COVID-19 are "all mixed together" in the "K dorm" of the low security facility that houses about 950 inmates in Danbury.

Judge Jesse Furman"That is why I say this jail is a mess, and if anyone tells you different, they are not telling the truth," Matera wrote, adding an unlikely plea: "Come see it yourself!"

"I have medical problems and I am worried about whether I will ever get better," continued Matera, who has hypertension and kidney disease, and who claims to have chest pains, headaches, shortness of breath, pain in his legs, and a "rundown" feeling.

"I know Your Honor is in a tough spot, but if I went home today, I still am away 21 years 4 months, so I cannot be a winner," he wrote. "All I am asking for is to get better at home where I know I will get the right treatment and care."

The Bureau of Prisons states that as of Tuesday, of the 84 inmates and 61 prison staffers who tested positive for the disease at Danbury, 72 prisoners, including Matera, and 59 staffers have recovered.

Jefrey LichtmanMatera, 49, has three years remaining for prison terms he began back in 1999. He says that he is a "different person" than he was when he pleaded guilty to bank burglaries, and later to a murder plot against a federal informer. He wrote two nasty letters about that conviction, one to the Daily News and the other to his then-lawyer that we told you about last month.

In his letter to the News, he wrote he was "not proud" of "going to jail for killing a rat" but proud he was not one himself. In a separate letter to lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman, he called his sentencing judge a "sick bastard" for tacking his 20-year-sentence onto the 16 months that remained on his bank heists rap, adding that the The News letter was "worth 16 months to me."

"I came to prison when I was 28," he wrote last week. "I was a different person then, I think I grew up! My children are grown now and so supportive, I left them as babies, now they are adults, and good ones. I have a job waiting and I look forward to working. I have a good family and I have a good plan. Twenty-one years is a long time, I am no longer that kid, I am an adult and I have learned how to live like one."

"When you think you are going to die," Matera continued, "as I did when I was at my sickest, you do a lot of soul searching. I asked myself, what will John Matera be remembered for, and Sir, I did not like what I came up with. My goal is to get home and be the man who I know I am. I know right from wrong, so I know when I get home, if it is now or when I am scheduled to be released, (June 8, 2023) I will stick to my plan."

Seth GinsbergProsecutor David Nessim ignored Matera's claims about why K dorm had been closed for four years but wrote that the government "disputes" the "poor conditions" of the unit that the gangster described. But even if they were "accurate," they were not "extraordinary or compelling" reasons why the gangster should get a three-year reduction "windfall," the prosecutor wrote.

Neither were any of Matera's ailments, Nessim wrote. But even if they were, the prosecutor added, Matera's role in a murder plot of a federal informer for the "notorious" Gambino crime family did not "justify a reduced sentnece."

Defense attorney Seth Ginsberg is slated to reply tomorrow. But Matera says that before Furman closes the barn door on him this time, he can get an earful about Danbury from the horse's mouth, so to speak. "If you want to ask me anything," he told the judge, "Please set up a video conference. I will be happy to tell you everything, under oath."

Frankie Loc Reaches Out To Sammy Bull A Second Time In His Fight For Freedom


It's the star mob witness versus the star ex-prosecutor, and lawyers for Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio, who is contesting his 1990 murder conviction alongside late mob boss John Gotti, are hoping the next round will play out in court.

Locascio's attorneys last week obtained a second affidavit from Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano in an effort to counter the skepticism by former federal prosecutor and judge John Gleeson that their ailing 87-year-old client is innocent of a 1990 mob hit and should be released from prison before he suffers the same fate as Gotti.

The new affidavit from The Bull rebuts one by Gleeson that cast some doubt on Sammy Bull's first declaration on the subject. The lawyers argue that the two Gravano missives provide enough evidence of Locascio's innocence to persuade Brooklyn Federal Judge I. Leo Glasser to hold a hearing on the 30-year-old murder.

Gleeson had stated that in prepping for trial, and during talks he had with Sammy Bull before, during, and after the trial, Gravano never told him many of the key points in his declaration that Locascio cited as reasons why his conviction should be tossed.

In the new affidavit, Gravano didn't contradict anything the distinguished ex-prosecutor wrote. But the ex-government witness is clearly not backing down from anything he had stated in his original declaration that Locascio is innocent of the murder of Gambino mobster Louis DiBono.

Salvatore Gravano"Before I testified" Gravano wrote, "the main prosecutor at that time, John Gleeson, was present at many of the proffer/debriefing sessions with the government, but not all of them. In addition, while I was at Quantico, I discussed certain facts with FBI agents who, at times, transported me to and from those sessions."

Locascio's lead attorney, former Boston Federal Judge Nancy Gertner, wrote that the best way for Glasser to learn the truth was to hear testimony from Sammy Bull on how the life and death of DiBono played out between December of 1989, when Gotti was first heard threatening to have him killed, and October of 1990, when DiBono was shot to death in the World Trade Center parking garage.

Gertner wrote that "Gleeson does not claim that Gravano is lying, nor does he directly confront Gravano's main point: 'Frank Locascio had no role in the planning of, nor did he participate in any way in the murder or conspiracy to murder Louis DiBono.'"

"Even more conspicuously," wrote Gertner, "Gleeson does not state that he ever actually asked Gravano about Mr. Locascio's role in or views about Gotti's plan to kill DiBono — or what the answer may have been if he did ask."

John GleesonLocascio's ex-judge argued that if Judge Glasser found that Sammy Bull's original "declaration is true, or if Gravano provided that information to any agent of the government — including someone other than Gleeson — LoCascio would be entitled to relief."

In his affidavit, Gleeson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 1994, two years after he secured convictions of the Dapper Don and Frankie Loc, wrote that Gravano never mentioned four major points that were in his original affidavit that convinced the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals to grant Locascio an unusual second chance at a habeas corpus motion for a new trial.

The ex-prosecutor wrote that Sammy Bull never said "he believed Locascio had opposed the decision to murder DiBono," or that "Locascio tried to convince Gotti not to kill DiBono." And Gravano never told him that Gotti resented "Locascio for opposing Gotti's decision to murder DiBono" or that "Gotti demoted Locascio as a result of Locascio's opposition to the DiBono murder," Gleeson wrote

Arguing that Gleeson's credibility was vastly superior to Gravano's, prosecutors had asked Glasser to toss Frankie Loc's motion without a hearing.

Gertner countered that by pushing Glasser to "deny a hearing on credibility grounds," the government "gives away the weakness of its position." While Gravano's declaration may be "improbable," she wrote, it satisfies the U.S. Supreme Court's holding that it not be "vague, conclusory, or palpably incredible" and clearly establishes their client's innocence.

"Notably," she added, "Gleeson's declaration does not directly refute the substance of Gravano's statements concerning the DiBono murder."

[richard_belding]

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[richard_belding]

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[richard_belding]

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[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks Richard

[bert]

Nice job with all the photos.

[Hired_Goonz]

"Geddes totally ignored an affidavit from the woman whose car was the subject of the meeting. Using telephone records she got from the government, she stated she called Spataro at 9:51 that morning and then drove to his shop where she met with him for 45 minutes to an hour."

But why would the government do that? Unless their goal was to keep this man locked in prison regardless of guilt. I thought they were supposed to be the good guys? I think this Pizzi guy makes a good point, they probably thought they could hold this over Spataro to get him to give them info on the Cutolo hit. When he wouldn't (turns out he wasn't involved) they threw away the key, and who gives a shit if he's actually guilty or not.

[StandUpGuy]

So Spataro a associate not a made guy got 24 years and didn’t flip? Its all over, omerta is dead, these guys are all rats etc...

[gohnjotti]

I don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of whether or not Michael Spataro is innocent. I personally haven't seen any evidence which shows him to be an integral part of the Campanella plot, and I think the government's claim that Spataro was a messenger between DeMartino and Carmine 'Skippy' DeRoss falls short (in my eyes), considering Carmine 'Skippy' DeRoss was in direct contact with DeMartino himself. No need for Spataro to act as a middlemen when all three of them were frequently spotted together.

But, if we take the FBI's physical and telephone surveillance at face value, then we know that DeMartino was frequently at Spataro's body shop during the hit's planning and preparation and was usually by DeMartino's side, indicating he must've known about the months and months of surveillances of Joe Campanella from Floridia.
If we take Floridia's testimony at face value - which I tend to do because Floridia, whilst not too intelligent, was never caught in a lie by defense attorneys - then we can believe that Spataro was indeed kept up-to-speed on the Campanella hit, and directly asked Floridia about it on occasion (Words to the effect of: "What's happening with Joey?")

Also, phone records confirm Floridia's testimony that, literally minutes after the botched shooting, DeMartino repeatedly called Spataro on his burner phone. These calls were logged, but not taped, so we don't know what was said on them, but Floridia insisted that DeMartino repeatedly said "Mike, we missed" over the phone, and could not hear the other end of the call.
Then, we have Floridia's testimony that, at a meeting at Spataro's body shop, Spataro handed Floridia the address of Campanella on a slip of paper, and DeMartino advised Floridia to take another shot at Campanella if possible. Floridia never pursued it - he testified that he didn't take the order seriously given the law enforcement pressure and the fact that his van had already been ID'd in the hit and taken by the feds - and it later turned out the address on the paper was wrong.

That's a nutshell of the most incriminating evidence from the trial, alongside other court testimony which established that Spataro was indeed a Colombo family associate dating back to the 1980s, etc., etc.
I stand behind the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" but I think it's a stretch to say that Mike Spataro didn't at least know about the hit considering the relationship between him and DeMartino was at its closest by the late 90s/early 2000s, and that Spataro and DeMartino participated in hits together during the Colombo War. Hell, Spataro was found with a detailed list of names and addresses of people to whack during the War, complete with notes about who was dangerous and who wasn't.

With that being said...... why the hell is Pizzi choosing to represent this guy? He's no angel. I mean, yes, the evidence that Spataro was a moving gear in the murder plot isn't there. It just isn't. Spataro may have known about it, but Floridia - the driver in the hit - could not name anything that Spataro did in furtherance of the hit, other than pass messages to Carmine DeRoss who passed messages to Jack DeRoss, who allegedly ordered the hit. Allie Persico and Jack DeRoss were found not guilty of ordering the hit, particularly because John Floridia testified to the effect that DeMartino had a personal vendetta against Campanella for personal reasons.

And Floridia himself admitted he was unsure of Spataro's role as messenger - he never personally saw the messages being passed and was never privy to any specific messages, other than the DeRosses expressing a sense of urgency to DeMartino about whacking Campanella.
So, he might be innocent. But Spataro served peanuts in prison for being found with an actual hit list. As in, police pulled him and Gabe Scianna and DeMartino (IIRC?) over, loaded with automatic weapons, with a list of names and addresses of Persico faction members. Spataro then continued to associate with those very same hitmen, at the same time that these hitmen were still committing violent crimes and rising in the ranks of the Colombo family by murdering their opposition (Cutolo). Spataro was continuing to hang out with the most violent and erratic of these hitmen - Vincent DeMartino - and was meeting DeMartino almost every day during a three-month period when DeMartino's right-hand-man John Floridia was conducting active surveillance on Joe Campanella's whereabouts. Then, shortly after DeMartino committed a drive-by shooting, DeMartino called Spataro on a burner phone that was distinctly separate from DeMartino's Probation Department-listed phone. Think about this. These are two men who were involved in various murder conspiracies from 1991 until they were caught with their "hit list."

I'm not saying Pizzi shouldn't represent this guy or anything, and I don't think the verdict was "fair" considering Carmine DeRoss only did like three years for the exact same conduct - "passing messages" in relation to a murder conspiracy.

[Tonyd621]

This guy-Spataro is in jail all on circumstanial evidence. Phone calls, not recorded, inneundo, what rat says or didnt say or did, what he knew or didnt.
There is proof that an insurance salesman was there for the time period, alleged. He stuck to the story ever since and hes been right. its the govt who cant get their story short and usually if the stories dont match your lying from the govts point of view

[bert]

"Geddes totally ignored an affidavit from the woman whose car was the subject of the meeting. Using telephone records she got from the government, she stated she called Spataro at 9:51 that morning and then drove to his shop where she met with him for 45 minutes to an hour."

But why would the government do that? Unless their goal was to keep this man locked in prison regardless of guilt. I thought they were supposed to be the good guys? I think this Pizzi guy makes a good point, they probably thought they could hold this over Spataro to get him to give them info on the Cutolo hit. When he wouldn't (turns out he wasn't involved) they threw away the key, and who gives a shit if he's actually guilty or not.

They do it a lot and get away with it. When they stop getting away with it that will end it. I expect them to keep pulling these types of things and skating free.

[gohnjotti]

This guy-Spataro is in jail all on circumstanial evidence. Phone calls, not recorded, inneundo, what rat says or didnt say or did, what he knew or didnt.
There is proof that an insurance salesman was there for the time period, alleged. He stuck to the story ever since and hes been right. its the govt who cant get their story short and usually if the stories dont match your lying from the govts point of view

The issue is that Spataro’s role in dropping DeMartino off at the murder scene is not the hinging point of the prosecutors case. Whether or not Spataro dropped DeMartino off to Floridia is only a small part of the evidence against him and is not the primary evidence that the jury used to convict. It was not the centre of the government’s argument.

It was Floridia who recalled that it may have been Spataro who dropped off DeMartino at the murder scene but when Floridia was directly asked about it on the witness stand he testified he didn’t see the drivers face or the recognise the vehicle. He recalled that DeMartino told him it was Spataro, and he also recalled that Spataro frequently drove around his clients’ cars instead of his own, which would account for the unrecognisable car.

Why didn’t this translate into Spataro providing an untraceable car for the hit? Floridia presumed it was because DeMartino didn’t care whether or not the feds fingered Floridia for the murder because Floridia testified that he later felt as if DeMartino was going to murder him. After all, DeMartino had previously chased Floridia out of New York under the threat of death the very year before.

[bronx]

let the guy out he did enough time ,clearly he was not involved with the attempt. nobody was killed anyway

[gohnjotti]

let the guy out he did enough time ,clearly he was not involved with the attempt. nobody was killed anyway

For this specific charge and this specific case, I gotta agree with you. I think it's a bit telling that DeMartino enlisted some non-violent wannabe like John Floridia to be his driver instead of Mike Spataro, I really don't think Spataro wanted much more with the life at that point. Floridia himself couldn't recall any rackets that Spataro was involved in other than, he presumed, loansharking. Spataro was at the collision shop all day working as a certified mechanic by 2001, not to say that mobsters have never held down real jobs before though.

[bert]

I think in his entire history on the bench Judge Sterling Johnson has never ruled in favor on anything in a defendant accused of having mob ties. H has been on the bench for quite a while. Gleason is also a federal judge who is like that along with the old one who sentenced Benny Eggs.

Reena Raggi, Ray Dearie, and a few others are formed mob prosectors who are tough on them, but can be fair when they see something wrong or unjust. Johnson seems to openly have a grudge and uses his power as a judge to even that grudge. Capeci mentioned him and his rulings in a gangland a few months back