Gangland August 29th 2024

[Dr031718]

Lawyer Says Compassion Is The 'Right' Thing For Mark Reiter; Feds Say He's Not Even Eligible; Judge Sits On The Fence

More than three years after he was appointed to represent an aging, ailing drug dealer, a noted appeals lawyer has spoken out about the judge's failure to make a decision in the case now that his client is dying of stomach cancer that has spread to his liver, Gang Land has learned.

Back in in 2021 lawyer Harlan Protass filed a motion seeking a compassionate release from a life sentence for two 40-year-old murders committed by Mark Reiter, an old John Gotti pal and ex-partner of legendary Harlem heroin merchant Leroy (Nicky) Barnes.

The attorney asserts that Reiter has proven that he's been rehabilitated while behind bars for three decades, is not the same person as the callous gangster who ordered the murders of two witnesses, and is worthy of release.

Protass told Gang Land that Reiter, who included glowing letters of support he received from five Bureau of Prisons employees three years ago in his appeal, is a better candidate for freedom than many others who have been released from prison in recent months after spending less time behind bars than Reiter.

"Mark is now 76 years old and has served almost 37 years behind bars," says Protass. "The court has now known for two and a half months that he has terminal cancer, with maybe a few months to live. It's disappointing and frustrating to Mark's family to not have a decision, particularly after they've watched so many other defendants who were convicted of far more egregious crimes come home to their families."

Manhattan Federal Judge Vernon Broderick appointed Protass, who'd won the release of several drug dealers and convicted murderers in previous years to represent Reiter in 2021.The move came after Reiter filed two pro se compassionate release motions which were "strongly" opposed by prosecutors who declared in an 18-page reply that the former gangster would be a danger to the community if released.

The judge ordered Protass to "specifically address" not only the health issues that Reiter had raised as "risk factors" for COVID-19, but also his "post-offense conduct and rehabilitation" while behind bars.

Protass declined to identify any of the less worthy inmates he referred to, but last year, in court filings with Broderick, he cited mobster Joseph (Joe Monte) Monteleone, convicted of two murders in the bloody Colombo war; Rene Tellier, convicted of four murders; and Anthony Senter, as multiple murderers who'd been released while Reiter remained locked up.

Senter, a member of the murderous Roy DeMeo crew who was found guilty along with fellow Luchese mobster Joseph Testa of 10 mob rubouts in the 1970s and '80s, was granted parole by the U.S. Parole Commission after 35 years behind bars. Senter, 69, was released from custody in June. The Parole Commission ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release Testa, also 69, in April.

"Mark is the only one in his case who's still in," said one longtime friend who served time as well. The ex-con, who knows first-hand how important family can be to an inmate, feels that Reiter, and his family members who have visited him in prison for years deserve to spend the last few months of his life together, "at home. He's got terminal cancer, and only a few months to live."

Mark Reiter at Lompoc with Anthopny SenterReiter, a longtime Gambino associate was charged with former capo Angelo Ruggiero of supplying heroin to Harlem drug dealers in the 1980s. Ruggiero died of cancer, but Reiter was found guilty in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison. He was a codefendant of Ruggiero, Gene Gotti and John Carneglia in a 1983 heroin trafficking case that ended in a mistrial.

Gotti and Carneglia were each convicted of heroin trafficking at a later trial in Brooklyn, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Both have been released, Carneglia in 2017 and Gotti a year later.

On June 18, Protass informed Broderick that Reiter, who had been complaining of abdominal pains for months, was diagnosed with "gastric (stomach) cancer that has metastasized to his liver" and renewed his request for a "time served sentence." He told the judge that his client "was dying of cancer," which was an "extraordinary and compelling reason" for him to receive compassion.

The lawyer stated on July 2 that Reiter had been informed by Dr. Anita Gul, of the Hillman Cancer Center in Williamsport, PA, that he has Stage 4 gastric cancer that "is not at [a] curable stage." The doctor, Protass wrote, "told Mr. Reiter that his life expectancy is 'limited to 1 year or less' and that his life expectancy could be as short as a 'few weeks to [a] few months' if he does not receive palliative systemic therapy."

Protass noted that prosecutor Timothy Capozzi had told him the government was "considering" the lawyer's request to change its position on Reiter's "sentence reduction motion." He asked the Judge to spare Reiter "a certain death — alone and behind bars — from cancer" and let him "spend his remaining days and have a dignified death surrounded by family, friends and loved ones."

Noting that "the physical deterioration associated with his terminal cancer," eliminated any fear that the inmate would be "a danger to any individual or the community," Protass again asked Broderick to "reduc(e) Mr. Reiter's life sentence to time-served."

In his next letter, on July 11, the lawyer didn't ask Broderick to release Reiter. He told the judge that his client's family, Delores, his wife of 58 years, his daughter, his surviving son, their spouses, his five grandchildren and great grandson "would love nothing more than to spend time boosting Mr. Reiter’s spirits" and have "started developing a plan for Mr. Reiter’s medical care should he be released from custody."

They have spoken and visited doctors and hospitals and hospices in and around Merrick where Delores lives and "started working to identify a physician to provide Mr. Reiter with medical care, though the final selection of such a physician can only be made following examination and testing if/when he is released," Protass wrote.

On July 22, in his last letter to Broderick, Protass wrote that the government had hardened its position on Reiter's motion for compassion, not softened it as he had believed and indicated in his July 2 letter.

After arguing for three years that Reiter didn't deserve compassion, the government cited federal appeals court rulings in Chicago and San Francisco to argue that Reiter wasn't eligible because the First Step Act of 2018 applied only to crimes committed after 1987, according to Protass. The feds asserted that Reiter was an "old law" defendant whose crimes were committed before 1987.

Protass countered that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan doesn't bar "old law" defendants from sentence reductions. He wrote that Manhattan Judges had reduced life sentences for two defendants, including notorious drug dealer Guy Fisher, a onetime pal of Nicky Barnes who was indicted in 1983 and found guilty in 1984 of four murders.

"Reiter's body is today ravaged by cancer," Protass wrote. "He is experiencing increased pain, discomfort and difficulty swallowing food because of the location of his primary tumor, which is causing him to grow weaker by the day," and "he has, according to the physicians who tested and examined him, as little as weeks or months to live," the lawyer wrote.

His "terminal cancer" is an "extraordinary and compelling reason" why this Court "should find that Mr. Reiter is eligible for a sentence reduction and, again, should reduce his sentence to time served" and allow him to have "a dignified death surrounded by family, friends and loved ones" and not "die alone and behind the bars that closed behind him in 1987," Protass wrote.

"Reducing Mr. Reiter's sentence to time served," the lawyer wrote, "would be the 'right' and 'just' thing to do for the 'right defendant' for the 'right reasons' and under the 'right circumstances.'"

Appeals Court Confirms Murder Raps And Life Sentences For Steve Crea And Cohorts In Murder Of Ex-Purple Gang Leader Michael Meldish

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which indicated as much during oral arguments back in May, has made it official: Ex-Luchese underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea's murder conviction appeal is denied, thus making it likely that Crea will die behind bars from the stage IV lung cancer from which he suffers, unless he is granted a compassionate release before the deadly disease has its way with the ailing 77-year-old wiseguy.

The three judge panel did not ask any questions about Crea's request for bail on the grounds that he had raised substantial issues that could end in a positive ruling before he died. It was silent on that issue until it declared it "moot," when the court issued an unusual 23-page "summary order" that upheld the murder convictions and life sentences of Stevie Wonder and three other gangsters.

The panel found that White Plains Federal Judge Cathy Seibel did not abuse her discretion in any rulings at or before the six-week trial for the 2013 gangland-style slaying of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish.

But if she did, the court wrote, they were "harmless errors" that were not major factors in the jury's guilty verdicts of Crea, or acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna, soldier Christopher Londonio and mob associate Terrence (Ted) Caldwell.

Citing mistakes by prosecutors and judges in organized crime cases as "harmless error" in rulings upholding convictions in racketeering trials involving high-ranked mobsters is not unusual.

But the appeals court's ruling in the Crea case is "unusual," according to several appeals lawyers contacted by Gang Land, because summary orders are usually short, two-or-three-page rulings in uncomplicated trials.

In their summary order, the panel of Second Circuit Judges José Cabranes and Maria Araújo Kahn, and Manhattan Federal Court Judge Katherine Failla noted that the Meldish murder case had a "myriad of challenges" brought by the defendants. But the panel did not state why it issued a summary order that cannot be cited as a precedent in appeals of other cases.

They included "the sufficiency of the evidence, the admission of co-conspirator statements," and Seibel's denial of a "new trial" when the feds turned over tape recordings of a jailhouse witness who had linked all four defendants to the rubout from the witness stand after the verdict.

The panel ruled that Londonio's ineffective assistance of counsel by an attorney who had died before trial, and that two of Crea's claims that rulings by Seibel had deprived him of a fair trial as well as errors about their life sentences by Londonio, Crea and Madonna "all lacked merit."

At trial, the government's evidence was strongest against the hit team of Londonio, 50, the getaway driver, and Caldwell, 66, the gunman. They were linked to the November 15, 2013 killing of Meldish by surveillance video and DNA evidence on the night that he was found shot to death in the driver's seat of his car parked in front of the Bronx home where he was living at the time.

But the government relied on testimony by cooperators and taped calls to argue that Madonna, 88, a former member of the Purple Gang, had ordered the killing of Meldish, a longtime Luchese associate. The death sentence was ordered, prosecutors argued at trial, because he had "disrespected" the acting mob boss several times. Among the reasons, according to trial testimony, was not making good on a $100,000 loan for which he was responsible.

The prosecutors used a taped conversation that Joseph (Joey Glasses) Datello had with a cooperating witness to successfully argue that both Madonna and Crea had ordered Londonio and Caldwell to kill Meldish. "Datello was close to the leadership, and so when he stated that Madonna and Crea had Meldish killed, he spoke from what he knew," they wrote.

Since prosecutors introduced no evidence into the case that Stevie Wonder knew Meldish or had any motive to kill him, two arguments by his lawyers that his conviction may have been tainted seemed to have some merit, but both were summarily rejected by the court.

The defendants had argued that Seibel erred by allowing prosecutors to obtain a "new" indictment from a "new" grand jury without dismissing the original indictment or even inspecting the grand jury minutes of it "for prosecutorial misconduct." But the panel ruled that since Crea was convicted "after a jury trial" on the "new" case, any claim that the original indictment was tainted "is moot."

"If any error was made by the district court in failing to inspect the grand jury minutes," the panel wrote, "we hold that such error was harmless."

Wealthy Colombo Capo Talks — And (Almost) Walks

Multi-millionaire Colombo capo Richard Ferrara got the reward he wanted this week — a non-custodial sentence for racketeering charges that included the long-running extortion of a union official — without having to publicly admit that he violated his vow of omerta and became a cooperating witness for the federal government.

Ferrara, who secretly agreed to become an FBI snitch many months before he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in December of 2022, was sentenced Tuesday to "time served" — about four months he served behind bars as a danger to the community following his arrest in September of 2021 — and six months of home detention.

Ferrara, 62, will serve the home detention portion of his sentence during the first six months of the three years of supervised release, according to the sentence that was meted out by Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez.

The judge also ordered Ferrara to "pay 10% of his gross monthly income toward his $280,890 restitution obligation" in restitution that he owes to the president of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union while he is on supervised release.

That is certainly relatively good news to the union official, Andrew Talamo, who paid $624,000 in monthly extortion payment of $2,600 to the late Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo and his cousin from 2001, when the shakedown began, until 2021, when it ended, according to court filings.

Ferrara is only one of the five living defendants who are collectively liable for the reduced payback that prosecutors were able to get for Talamo. But the turncoat mobster is certainly the best chance the long-suffering extortion victim has to see any of that.

Not only does the cooperation agreement Ferrara has with the feds make it more likely that he will adhere to the Judge's ruling. Ferrara, the co-owner of $12.3 million in property on the Jersey Shore, according to court filings, has the wherewithal to pay off the whole amount at once if he wants. At the same time, it's unlikely that any of the others have the inclination, or the means, to pay off the debt, especially since Vinny Unions, who died behind bars this month, got most of the loot.

Ricciardo's cousin Domenick is a brokester who wasn't able to get anyone of substance to co-sign a $150,000 personal recognizance bond to obtain his release on bail when the feds filed the charges in the case. The others, wiseguys Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo, Thoedore (Skinny Teddy) Persico, and Michael Uvino are still behind bars.

And Ferrara's lawyer, David Kirby stated in his request for the non-custodial sentence with home detention that his client received, that Ferrara "owns two shopping centers in New Jersey and runs a very successful contracting business. As a contractor, for instance, he is presently building restaurants and fitting them out for a successful restaurant chain."

"There is no suggestion in this case that any of his wealth derived from criminal activities," the lawyer told Gonzalez. "He achieved financial success through hard work and careful investing," Kirby declared.

In seeking a minimal sentence, Kirby had told Gonzalez that Ferrara had gotten involved "in the union embezzlement scheme" in "the last six months of its existence," and that he hadn't received any of the proceeds of the long-running shakedown or sought any of the union funds that the other mobsters were planning to embezzle from Local 621's benefit plans.

"His limited role," the lawyer argued in his sentence memo, "in light of the extent of the scheme, is worthy of a significant departure or variance" below the 46-to-57 month recommended sentence in his publicly plea agreement.

As Gang Land reported last week, Kirby did not mention that Ferrara had worn a wire for the FBI and helped the feds convict two Russian gangsters of lying to agents about the death of a Russian businessman who was killed in a Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn bar in 2009 and buried in a wooded area in Sullivan County.

Prosecutors did not mention that in their publicly filed sentencing memo either. They did not seek a sentence within the sentencing guidelines of the plea agreement in it, as they do in cases involving defendants who have not flipped. And they did not seek leniency as they normally do at sentencings of cooperating witnesses.

The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office declined to answer any of the many questions that Gang Land posed on the subject of Ferrara's efforts on behalf of the government.

[chin_gigante]

Perplexing why Ferrara's cooperation didn't come up in his sentencing

[NYNighthawk]

I p;redicted this years ago that the 2nd Circuit would turn down Steveie Boy's appeal and I was right!

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting! Amazing how Crea thought he might get out.

[jmack]

I p;redicted this years ago that the 2nd Circuit would turn down Steveie Boy's appeal and I was right!

I think he’s probably guilty, but that was an incredibly weak case (against Crea).

[TSNYC]

I’m amazed that the court would say even if the judge was wrong in allowing certain evidence in (changing certain pre trial rulings mid trial, precluding certain cross exams), that they’d say it was harmless error given the minimal direct evidence of Crea involvement in the meldish hit.

[Ivan]

I p;redicted this years ago that the 2nd Circuit would turn down Steveie Boy's appeal and I was right!

it's the most PRESTIGIOUS court in the fucking legal system

[furiofromnaples]

For me should evaluate the "social dangerousness" of an individual. If he is old and has no ties to crime and Reiter who is the remnant of an era, why let him die in prison?

[Brovelli]

I p;redicted this years ago that the 2nd Circuit would turn down Steveie Boy's appeal and I was right!

I think he’s probably guilty, but that was an incredibly weak case (against Crea).

I had not heard about the Datello recording before, that must be pretty damning. Not sure if anything else linked Crea to it

[AntComello]

So what did Ferrara tell the feds he won’t rat on any Italians? Also is there any shot he had the blessing of his superiors to rat on these Russian dudes for that murder. Guy is fucking loaded he prob threw the Persicos a couple mil and said see ya later.

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting. I gotta say, I don't really have any sympathy for a drug dealer and murderer like Reiter. But seeing those just-released pictures of the Haditha massacre and knowing that nobody spent even a day in jail for the brutal murder of women and children - not to mention that nobody in the political or media class who helped bring about that unprovoked, demonic war even suffered any damage to their career (including current POTUS and Secretary of State!) - it doesn't seem too crazy to me to just let this guy die at home, surrounded by family. It's been over 30 years.