Gangland:6/30/16

[Dellacroce]

June 30, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Judge Upholds 100-Year Sentence For Imprisoned Mafia Boss

A Manhattan federal judge has shot down a bold effort by aging Colombo crime family boss Carmine (Junior) Persico and his attorneys to set aside the 100-year sentence Persico received for his racketeering conviction in the historic Mafia Commission case at the 1986 trial.

In a 24-page decision, Judge Kevin Duffy — who took his seat on the federal bench in 1972, the same year the feds say Persico got a seat on the Commission as Colombo crime family boss — wrote that newly obtained FBI documents Persico's lawyers submitted failed to make the case that the 82-year-old wiseguy deserved to be resentenced.

Persico maintains that the FBI records show that others were serving as Colombo boss when Carmine (Lilo) Galante was gunned down in July of 1979. Since he wasn't the boss at the time, he couldn't have been a member of the Mafia Commission, Persico contends that he couldn't have had anything to do with the storied rubout that left Galante sprawled on the back terrace of an Italian restaurant in Bushwick, a cigar still clutched in his teeth.

Unfortunately, Duffy wasn't buying. The FBI reports that Persico submitted, contained either "preliminary, challenged or speculative" information and would not have changed the verdict at his trial if he had them, and in any event, the judge wrote, they had nothing to do with the sentence Persico received.

"The proper defendant was convicted by overwhelming evidence in a fair trial," the judge wrote on the last page of his ruling. "Nothing discovered since throws doubt upon this conclusion."

"Persico's claim that his sentence is 'constitutionally defective' as a result of the government's failure to disclose favorable information" to him before trial and at his sentencing was also "unavailing," Duffy concluded. "There is also no basis to grant an evidentiary hearing on this claim, which would amount to a roving fishing expedition."

Persico's attorneys, Anthony DiPietro and Mathew Mari, vowed to carry on the fight. The lawyers said they are "disappointed," but will appeal Duffy's ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We remain confident that the record demonstrates that the Government secured Mr. Persico's conviction and 100-year sentence by engaging in tactics that destroy the most fundamental principles of justice," DiPietro said in a prepared statement.

"At all times," the lawyer added, "the Government administered 'justice' with respect only to the name of the accused, leaving its oath to support the Constitution of the United States second to its courtroom success. Heeding the words of Saint Augustine, we will continue to fight the good fight, because the truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Just let it loose and it will defend itself."

But the likelihood of success with the federal appeals court, which has denied numerous appeals by all seven mobsters who were slammed with 100 years back in 1987, seems like an impossible undertaking.

The imprisoned mob boss may have a better chance of earning his release the same way that Luchese capo Christopher (Christy Tick) Furnari, the only other surviving defendant from the famous case, did. Furnari was released nearly two years ago when he was granted parole, which still is an option for defendants convicted before November of 1987. (In 2014, the last year for which stats are available, 1334 ex-cons were on parole, and 1067 inmates were eligible for parole.)

But that won't be easy. Persico, who has been housed at a federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina for more than a decade, suffers from emphysema and a host of other ailments and needs a wheelchair to get around. His official release date is in 2050, when he'd be 115. That's even older than his onetime rival for Colombo boss, John (Sonny) Franzese who will be 100 if he makes it to next spring, when he's due out of a prison hospital in Massachusetts.

After years of trying, Furnari, whose non-involvement in the Galante murder was conceded by the government in the mid-1990s, wasn't granted parole until September of 2014, at age 90. He did get it despite a recommendation by the late sentencing judge, Richard Owen, that none of the defendants ever receive parole. But still, Furnari served nearly 28 years behind bars.

In January, according to U.S. Parole Commission guidelines, after Persico completes 30 years of his Commission case sentence, parole would be mandatory unless "there is a reasonable probability that the prisoner will commit any Federal, State, or local crime, or that the prisoner has frequently or seriously violated the rules of (his) institution."

But the FBI, which still carries Persico as the crime family's official boss and which has alleged numerous times over the years that he has ordered violent crimes from prison — including the bloody 1991-93 Colombo war that left 10 gangsters and two innocent bystanders dead — will surely push the Parole Commission to keep him behind bars until he drops.

"We're not going to roll over and play dead," said Mari. "We're going to appeal, and push for parole. Judge Duffy's decision stands for the proposition that enough is never enough when it comes to Carmine. Even though the war is long since over, they refuse to release the last POW still standing."

In his decision, Duffy wrote that Persico was time barred from obtaining redress for a prison term that was either "illegal" or "imposed in an illegal manner" under two sentencing rules involving pre-November 1987 convictions that attorney DiPietro cited in his legal papers. But even if the claims were "permissible," the judge wrote, they would fail on the merits.

Duffy dismissed Persico's claim that the "Galante murder formed the basis of his sentence" by noting that Judge Owen made "no finding and place(d) no reliance on proof regarding the murder of Carmine Galante" at Junior's sentence. The judge noted that the "Second Circuit upheld Persico's sentence," but Duffy did not mention that in a minority report, Judge Myron Bright, a visiting jurist from North Dakota, linked the 100-year sentence directly to the Galante rubout.

"I cannot agree that adequate proof exists of the connection between the Galante murders and the Commission enterprise," Bright wrote. "The Government's proof rests, in my view, on an analogy to the movie, The Godfather. However, a movie script does not constitute the kind of proof required to sentence men to prison for one hundred years."

Persico's main contention, that his 100-year sentence was illegal because the feds withheld scads of so-called Brady information that tended to prove "he was innocent of the pivotal allegation" that he was a Mafia boss and a Commission member from 1972 to 1985, was misplaced, Duffy wrote. Brady violations can be cited and used to "correct trial errors or errors at other pre-trial-proceedings" but not "to correct an illegal sentence," the judge wrote.

"After carefully reviewing Persico's purported Brady material," Duffy found that the undisclosed FBI documents consisted primarily of "uncorroborated information from informants," was not "material," and that there was "no reasonable probability that had the documents been disclosed to the defense, the result of the trial would have been different."

"In fact," the judge noted in a footnote to back up his finding, "several of the undisclosed documents that Persico submitted to the Court contain reports that Persico is the boss of the Colombo family." He cited one dated June 26, 1980, stating that Persico had taken over the reins from prior boss Thomas DiBella.

But instead of reinforcing his finding, the footnote indicates that Duffy either missed — or opted to ignore — the main thrust of Persico's Brady claim: The FBI identified him as the Colombo boss in 1980; but after the 1971 shooting of Joe Colombo and before Galante's 1979 murder, the FBI's informers identified Joseph Yacovelli, Vincent Aloi, Joseph Bancato and DiBella, as the boss of the Colombo crime family.

It's hard to imagine the Second Circuit reversing Duffy's decision, and throwing out Perisco's 100 year sentence as illegal.

But who knows whether the mob boss, who represented himself at trial, could have used those FBI reports to rattle the two FBI informers who took the stand, and gotten them to waffle on their claims that he took over as boss in 1972 and that he voted on whether to whack Galante in 1979? And who knows whether he could have gotten one or two jurors to change their minds about his guilt or innocence?

Colombo-Bonanno Sitdown Resolves Dispute Between Big Bobby And Little Angelo

He is a shell of his old self, and he may have no clout with federal judges. But from his federal prison hospital digs in Butner, North Carolina, Carmine Persico can still reach out to loyal New Yorkers to do his bidding, especially when it concerns someone near and dear to both his families.

Recently, according to knowledgeable sources on both sides of the law, the Bonanno and Colombo clans had a sit-down to iron out some very disrespectful treatment that Persico son-in-law Angelo (Little Angelo) Spata received from Bonanno family members and associates two years ago. It started when Little Angelo began serving a 15-month sentence for money laundering and gambling at the federal prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Seems that the wiseguy contingent at Fort Dix, led by Bonanno soldier Robert (Big Bobby) Attanasio, 69, constantly "made fun" of the pint-sized Spata, 42. They belittled him for getting caught "stealing light bulbs" from Home Depot in 2013 and for being a "crybaby" who got "a break from the judge" in his case because the "Colombo guys were always picking on him," said one source.

In fact, Spata's 15-month sentence was within his recommended guidelines. But, as Gang Land reported in 2013, defense attorney Sarita Kedia did note that Little Angelo was "constantly bullied by other Colombo members and associates because of his diminutive size" in a request for a non-prison term for her client.

"It got pretty nasty," said a second source. "Carmine put a stop to it by getting word to the prison that Angelo was in line to get made, and to show him the proper respect."

Sources say that when Attanasio, who was serving a 10-year sentence for disposing of a body in a 1984 mob rubout, "got the message to leave Angelo alone, " he did. But he still mocked Spata behind his back. Little Angelo and Big Bobby were both released from prison last year. They are each serving three years of strict post-prison supervised release, and not allowed to see each other — which is probably a good thing.

It's unclear whether Spata has been inducted into the crime family since his release from prison. But according to court documents, he was slated to be "made" back in 2010. The induction ceremony was canceled when family members began to suspect — correctly — that FBI agents were onto them.

Manhattan Federal Court Picture Story Evokes Work Of Kenny McCabe

He's gone ten years now, but former mob-busting federal investigator Kenny McCabe would have been proud of the work that a team of Nassau County detectives did in chronicling the activities of a bunch of Genovese gangsters during and after they allegedly took part in a plot to whack a mob rival two years ago.

McCabe snapped thousands of pictures of wiseguys and mob associates all around the town in his 35 plus years as an NYPD detective and an investigator for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. He popped into Gang Land's mind Monday when we finally got a couple of "action" shots of a few Genovese gangsters awaiting trial in McCabe's old haunts in Manhattan Federal court.

In one shot, white-haired wiseguy Robert (Old Man) Debello and burly mob associate Ryan (Baldy) Ellis are seen walking toward a meeting they are about to have with several others regarding an alleged scheme to murder Queens gangster Joseph Bonelli in June of 2014.

The meeting was a day after two mob associates in the plot, Salvatore (Fat Sal) Delligatti and Robert Sowulski, were arrested by detectives who learned about the murder plot while working a gambling case and quickly moved into action to stop the rubout.

In the second photo, Ellis is seen speaking to Luigi (Louis Sunoco) Romano, who owns the Exxon gas station where the get together takes place, and who allegedly paid $5000 for the hit team. If so, he didn't get his money's worth. The hitmen failed in their first try, and got themselves arrested when they tried a second time.

A few minutes later, according to federal prosecutor Samson Enzer, the trio had their not-so-secret gas station meeting with Sowulski, who has since become a cooperating witness. The enterprising Nassau detectives also caputured a shot of the meeting, with Debello, his hands raised in anger yelling at Sowulski about the potential nightmare they were all facing.

That photo, in a decision that makes no sense to Gang Land, is still sealed. But Enzer described it in detail at a bail hearing for Debello last month.

"A very worried looking Luigi Romano, with his hands on his head," looks on, said Enzer, who noted that Debello was "upset about the fact that Delligatti has been arrested and that the murder crew was caught in the car (which was supplied by Sowulski and owned by his girl friend, according to court records) with a gun."

Enzer stated that at the meeting, Debello, who was nailed in a Genovese family racketeering conspiracy case back in 2001, told his cohorts, "You can't beat a fucking conspiracy," and warned them "to stay away from" Delligatti because he was "going to get us all pinched."

Debello, 74, Delligatti, 40, and Ellis, 34, are detained as dangers to the community as they await trial on racketeering and murder conspiracy charges. Romano, 38, is confined to his home, except from 6AM until 8PM, when he can be found at the Exxon gas station and mini mart he runs at 150-65 Cross Island Parkway in Whitestone Queens, or next door at his car wash.

[Pogo The Clown]

Hilarious that the Boss had to reach and they had a sit down over a guy getting picked on.


Thanks for posting this weeks column.


Pogo

[B.]

Hilarious that the Boss had to reach and they had a sit down over a guy getting picked on.


Thanks for posting this weeks column.


Pogo

Yeah, that had me cracking up. Just how small is the guy? I've seen the photos and he's definitely small but it's hard to tell. A lot of these guys in the life are short, so Spata must be bordering on dwarfism if he's getting this much shit for it.

Also, Persico's defense is right that he wasn't the boss when Galante was killed. He may have been pulling the strings behind DiBella, but he was not on the Commission. Was it DeChristopher who claimed that Persico said he "voted against" killing Galante or was that someone else? DeChristopher also said that Persico admitted to killing Anastasia. Sounds like Persico was building himself up, though maybe he did pass word to DiBella to vote against the Galante hit. I'd hate to get life in prison for a murder I was opposed to.

[Allie Boy]

I like how Bobby HaHa doesn't give a fuck who this guy's father-in-law is.

[johnny_scootch]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

[B.]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

That'd be Frank Guerra's father-in-law, right?

[Cheech]

ED Scarpo just wrote anpbout this Spata

[johnny_scootch]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

That'd be Frank Guerra's father-in-law, right?

Lou Barbati, I'm not sure if he's the father in law or not.

[B.]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

That'd be Frank Guerra's father-in-law, right?

Lou Barbati, I'm not sure if he's the father in law or not.

His wife's (might be ex) family are the owners which is why Guerra was involved in that beef with the former L&B employee who stole the sauce recipe a few years back. No idea if it's his wife's father, on second thought, maybe just relatives.

The reports are saying it was definitely "organized crime related." The suspect is a white male in his 30s.

[Lupara]

Sucks to be Persico.

[johnny_scootch]

A friend of a friend was one of the paramedics on the scene. He said he got hit 4 times in the back and once in the neck.

[Rocco]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

That'd be Frank Guerra's father-in-law, right?

Lou Barbati, I'm not sure if he's the father in law or not.

No Guerra's former brother inlaw who was killed. To early to tell if it was mob related. From what I know of it. The Barbati's were not happy about being dragged into some extortion racket of Guerra's. The whole thing was some bullshit Idea of Guerra's to make money off extorting the SI restaurant. I have been told that the Barbati's did NOT ask Guerra to do anything as they are totally legit people from what I am told. Of course that could be bullshit too. But if they were mob associates there would be a history there because the place has been around forever. Remember this is how these mob associates make money by finding an angle to extort someone.

[B.]

Unrelated and not to sidetrack the thread but the owner of L & B spumoni gardens was shot and killed outside his house on 76 and 12 in Dyker a few hours ago.

That'd be Frank Guerra's father-in-law, right?

Lou Barbati, I'm not sure if he's the father in law or not.

No Guerra's former brother inlaw who was killed. To early to tell if it was mob related. From what I know of it. The Barbati's were not happy about being dragged into some extortion racket of Guerra's. The whole thing was some bullshit Idea of Guerra's to make money off extorting the SI restaurant. I have been told that the Barbati's did NOT ask Guerra to do anything as they are totally legit people from what I am told. Of course that could be bullshit too. But if they were mob associates there would be a history there because the place has been around forever. Remember this is how these mob associates make money by finding an angle to extort someone.

His former father-in-law was the previous owner then.

Will be interesting to see what comes of this. The initial news reports I read said it was definitely OC related so maybe they have some information or good reason to believe that, aside from the fact that this guy was connected to mob guys and killed "gangland style".

[Rocco]

The only reason they are saying its mob related is because the shooter was a white guy. That's all they got and went with the mob angle. If it is mob related it will come out eventually.

[willychichi]

Persico Appeal Raises Serious Questions About "Mafia Commission" Case's Validity

http://www.cosanostranews.com/2017/02/p ... .html#more