Feds fire Colombo captain as a government rat for passing secret notes
A former Colombo captain couldn't cut it as a mob rat.
Reynold Maragni was
supposed to be the star witness against two fellow mobsters charged with money
laundering.
But after two previous
appearances on the witness stand ended in disastrous verdicts for the
government, prosecutors apparently decided to cut their losses and call an end
to Maragni's singing career.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Nadia Shihata repeatedly referred to Maragni only as "the mobster" in
her opening statement, while spelling out his key role in a sting operation
against reputed Colombo consigliore Thomas Farese and associate Pat Truglia.
The defendants were
secretly recorded by Maragni agreeing to launder $40,000 of his illicit cash.
But Maragni's habit of
turning his wristwatch recorder on and off without permission landed him in hot
water. Maragni admitted that he was secretly passing messages to mob associates
when the FBI handlers couldn't listen.
Farese's lawyer Sarita
Kedia spent much of her opening statement filling in the jury on Maragni's
misconduct.
"I don't think the
prosecutor even mentioned the central person's name," Kedia pointed out.
But in a victory for the
government, Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block ruled that Maragni's tapes
could be played for the jury without him taking the witness stand.
At the end of the day,
out of the presence of the jury, Block said, "Obviously he is a key
witness and the jury is going to wonder why he isn't being called."
Maragni provided key
testimony earlier this year at the trials of former boss Thomas “Tommy Shots”
Gioeli and Colombo associate Francis “BF” Guerra, in which both gangsters were
acquitted of murder charges.
Maragni's lawyer did not
return a message seeking comment.
0 comments:
Post a Comment