New Junior Gotti pal on law's side
Castel also is considering whether the defense can call Junior's former probation officer, who oversaw the second-generation gangster's supervised release from 2005 to 2007.
October 30, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 30, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 30, 2009 Dapper_Don
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October 29, 2009 Dapper_Don
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October 27, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 27, 2009 Dapper_Don
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October 26, 2009 Dapper_Don
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October 22, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 22, 2009 Dapper_Don
"John said the usual way of us fighting cases is over," D'Angelo told jurors in federal court in Manhattan. Instead, Gotti proposed one of them taking the stand "to say, 'I'm a member of a family, but I've been in jail for years, what have I done?'" Gotti assured him that Gambino family elders and Vincent Basciano, the head of the Bonanno family, among others, had blessed the new approach, and said he could just lie about any criminal activity he was asked about, D'Angelo testified. But D'Angelo, who became an informant in 2005, concluded that the tactic might be tolerated for a bigwig like Gotti, but not for him. * * * Basciano, who prosecutors say was in the federal lockup in Manhattan at the same time as Gotti in 2004, has also advanced a withdrawal defense in court. Gotti, D'Angelo testified, said Basciano told him in 2004, "I'm following your lead."Federal prosecutors today "also introduced new audio evidence to try to prove that Gotti was still trying to collect a loan-sharking debt years after his alleged withdrawal from the mob, and within five years of his 2008 indictment":
In an August 2003 recorded conversation with his sister Angel at Raybrook federal prison, Gotti tells her that his cousin Peter Gotti owes him $20,000. Then, in a 2007 conversation an informant recorded with the cousin, Peter complains about Gotti's refusal to forgive the loan, and about pressure from Gotti's brother, also named Peter. "He didn't do nothing for me," the cousin complains on the recording. "So then he starts sending Peter. . . . Peter says he's gonna, he's gonna beat up my friends if I don't do the right thing."
October 21, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 21, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 21, 2009 Dapper_Don
Instead, prosecutors played a 2007 conversation between Kasman and Junior's cousin Peter. The chat - which Kasman taped - purportedly shows Junior was still collecting mob money. Prosecutors must demonstrate Junior was involved in illegal Mafia activity since 2003 in order to win a conviction.
During a hearing last year in Florida, Kasman, who is not expected to testify in the Gotti trial, testified as a star witness against reputed Gambino gangster Vincent Artuso. During that hearing, federal prosecutors played recorded tapes of Kasman and Gambino consigliere Joseph "JoJo" Corozzo discussing the dysfunctional Gotti family. "He [John Sr.] died hating that kid [John Jr.], you know that," Kasman told Corozzo. Kasman told the feds he'd paid hundreds of thousands in cash to Gotti lawyers, including Gerald Shargel and Joseph Corozzo, who represented Gotti brothers Peter and Richard in 2002. In a jaw-dropping move, Kasman even wore a wire inside Manhattan federal court in 2005 during the first of three trials for "Junior" Gotti in a failed attempt to snare defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman. He asked Lichtman to accompany him to a "nearby establishment" and offered him $11,500 in off-the-books cash for attorney fees. But Lichtman didn't bite, taking only $9,500, which is under the legal limit.
October 21, 2009 Dapper_Don
[The judge] will allow two informants - Gambino family soldier Joseph D'Angelo and Bonanno family capo Dominick Cicale - to testify that Gotti and Basciano told them they had consulted on the plan. "We need to come up with a new way of defending," prosecutor Elie Honig quoted Gotti as telling D'Angelo in a jailhouse conversation after he and Gotti were indicted in a racketeering conspiracy in 2004. Both informants, Honig said, will testify that they were assured that admitting the mob's existence had been cleared, and that by denying they had engaged in crime for five years they would fall outside the statute of limitations on racketeering. "Don't worry about it," Honig said Basciano told Cicale. "I've discussed it with John Gotti Junior, and Junior's going to have Joey D'Angelo do the same type of thing." * * * Castel's ruling, not unexpected, came after a day in which prosecutors played a series of 2003 prison tapes in which Gotti rants about his disgust with the treachery of gang life as a lawyer describes the need to "plant the seeds" for the legal claim that he has withdrawn from organized crime.
Junior's former driver and a one-time Bonanno family capo will testify beginning today that Gotti's claim of Mafia retirement is a ruse designed to beat his racketeering case. Joseph (Little Joey) D'Angelo will appear first, saying Gotti told him in July 2004 that the way to beat any mob rap was through the "withdrawal defense." Dominick Cicale will follow, testifying that he heard the same thing about Junior that year during a conversation with now-jailed Bonanno boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano. The timing is crucial to the government case. The feds must prove that Gotti's criminal activities with the Gambino family continued through 2003 - or Junior can beat the case through the statute of limitations. Gotti, 45, facing his fourth trial in five years, says he quit the mob a decade ago.Further reporting:
October 20, 2009 Dapper_Don
Gotti lawyer Charles Carnesi said he thinks Gravano could help clear his client on a murder allegation that he hung on the late Gambino family boss John J. Gotti 17 years ago, and hopes to talk to the legendary turncoat before making a final tactical decision on calling him. "It remains to be seen," Carnesi told reporters. "We'll interview him, and then see what we do." * * * Gravano, after leaving the federal witness protection program, was living under an assumed name and working as a swimming pool installer in Arizona when he was charged in 2001 with running a major drug ring that sold Ecstasy in the Southwest. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in 2002. At the elder Gotti's trial in 1992, Gravano provided testimony linking the boss to the 1990 murder of Louis DiBono, a mob soldier, in a garage at the World Trade Center, and jurors found the elder Gotti guilty of that charge.
Gravano has testified about the DiBono killing in other trials, but never mentioned Junior. Joseph DiBenedetto, who once represented Junior's uncle, Peter Gotti, said putting Gravano on the stand "could be a double-edged sword." "The government can then question him about crimes he committed with [Junior] or any member of the conspiracy," DiBenedetto said. * * * Putting Gravano on the stand has backfired. Six years ago, wiseguy Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro was on trial for trying to rub out the mob turncoat - on Peter Gotti's orders. Carbonaro's lawyers hoped Gravano would testify Carbonaro would not try to kill his friend. Instead, he said Carbonaro would have been killed for disobeying orders.
October 20, 2009 Dapper_Don
The rubout was ordered by Vincent Gotti, the younger brother of late crime boss John Gotti, who suspected the baker was fooling around with his wife. Mormando became a government informant shortly after the shooting. He did not have have to testify against accomplices Vincent Gotti, his nephew Richard Gotti and Angelo Ruggiero Jr., because they pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy charges last year. Sources said Mormando's cooperation was kept a closely guarded secret until he came out Monday. * * * Defense lawyer Nancy Ennis told the judge Mormando was given the contract a month after he was inducted into the crime family in 2002. "He was summoned to perform an act that he found totally unacceptable afterward," Ennis said. "He did follow through, but he found the incident to be so disagreeable shortly after that he started having strong thoughts about leaving the mob. * * * Ennis' biggest bombshell was announcing that Mormando is out of the closet. "He has been openly gay since he left the mob," Ennis said. Mormando's partner has refused to enter the witness protection program, but they have relocated and together they "live a peaceful working life," she said.
Former DeCavalcante crime boss John D'Amato was whacked in 1992 for being gay. A burly gay hit man named Vito Arena was a member of the murderous Roy DeMeo crew. He, too, became a mob informant, but he returned to a life of a crime and was shot dead in a botched armed robbery.
October 19, 2009 Dapper_Don
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October 16, 2009 Dapper_Don
Gotti, according to earlier testimony from former lieutenant John Alite, set up a plan to identify and compromise jurors in the 1989 heroin trafficking trial of his uncle Gene Gotti, and then stymied a federal probe by having brother-in-law Carmine Agnello take responsibility after Agnello got an immunity grant from a grand jury. His father, Gambino boss John J. Gotti, imprisoned in 1994 in Marion, Ill., was skeptical - at least on tape. He told his son he hadn't known about the plan in advance and didn't like the idea of family members talking to a grand jury under any circumstances. "If there was a church I robbed and I had the steeple sticking out of my --, I wouldn't say nothin,' " Gotti told his son on the tape played in federal court in Manhattan. The younger Gotti said it had stopped prosecutors in their tracks. "From what I was told, it was a very ingenious move," he told his father. ". . . I was told by all the lawyers, all the lawyers involved, it was a very ingenious move." His father praised him: "Well then, whoever done it should get stripes or somethin.'"
October 16, 2009 Dapper_Don
Gotti, 45, shocked observers last Thursday in Manhattan federal court by launching into a furious tirade against ex-pal John Alite, calling the turncoat mobster a "punk" and a "dog" after Alite, on his way out of the courtroom, turned to Gotti and said: "You got something to say to me?" Last week, a prosecutor told the judge that the entire incident -- which took place just after the jury left for lunch -- was prompted by Gotti mouthing the words "I'll kill you" to Alite. That account came from a marshal with the witness-protection program who was stationed near Alite, prosecutor Elie Honig said. But Judge P. Kevin Castel said today that he had discussed the outburst with the US Marshals and determined that they "did not observe" the threat that Alite said Gotti had made towards him. Alite later told the judge that Gotti "lipped" the threat, saying: "We're gonna kill you."
October 16, 2009 Dapper_Don
John Galano, 40, recalled driving Royal Crown Bakery owner Joseph Generoso to meetings with Anthony Anastasio at his travel agency in Brooklyn, and hosting the longtime Gambino soldier "frequently" at the Hylan Boulevard bakery, including three separate sitdowns between Generoso, Anastasio and the mobster’s friends. Galano said he never saw money exchange hands, but he was working at the bakery when a third and final meeting erupted in front of patrons with a loud argument between Generoso, Anastasio and a third man identified by prosecutors as reputed Gambino muscle man William (Billy) Scotto.
October 14, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 14, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 14, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 13, 2009 Dapper_Don
October 13, 2009 Dapper_Don