Showing posts with label Dino Saracino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dino Saracino. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Judge tells Colombo mobster Tommy Shots and feds to settle
She wants an offer no one can refuse.
The judge who will rule on jailed mobster Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli’s $10 million case against the feds for a prison rec-room slip-and-fall wants the two parties to settle.
Gioeli is suing the feds because he broke his kneecap after slipping on a puddle while retrieving an errant ping-pong ball during a game at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in 2013.
But Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto nudged the two sides to strike a deal, rather than forcing her to issue a bench ruling on the case.
“Mr. Gioeli needs to lower his expectations,” Matsumoto said, referring to his $10 million ask. “The government ought to think about increasing its offer.”
Matsumoto indicated both sides may be at fault for the injury — the lockup for not addressing the underlying cause of the puddle, and Gioeli for chasing the ball into an area he knew was hazardous.
Gioeli, who has since been moved to a federal pen in North Carolina, is serving 18 years on a racketeering conviction.
He was convicted in 2012 of plotting the murders of gangland enemies and a general charge of orchestrating violence against rivals to gain power.
But Gioeli was acquitted of several murders in that case that could have sent him to jail for life, including the 1997 hit on NYPD cop Ralph Dols, who was rubbed out allegedly because he married the ex-wife of Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, a former Colombo consigliere.
Gioeli and Colombo soldier Dino Saracino were also cleared of the 1999 slaying of Colombo underboss William “Wild Bill” Cutolo, and the 1995 execution of Colombo associate Richard Greaves.
Both sides have until July 18 to make submissions laying out the facts of the case — then they’ll be given two weeks to respond to one another before Matsumoto can issue a ruling.
Gioeli, who has since been moved to a federal pen in North Carolina, is serving 18 years on a racketeering conviction.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/05/judge-in-mobsters-ping-pong-injury-case-wants-settlement/
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Colombo soldier given time served for testifying against the crime family
A reluctant mobster got his reward Monday for airing dirty family laundry.
Years after Sebastian Saracino testified against his brother and mafia bigs, he received a sentence of time served for crimes that could have imprisoned him for up to 70 years.
“I never wanted this life,” Saracino told Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan. “Somehow, it seems like this life found me.”
The Colombo soldier said he could’ve been “perfectly fine being a nobody.”
Back in 2010, the feds busted Sicilian-born Saracino for lying in his immigration documents. They held him for a couple months and he quickly started talking about gangland mayhem that helped build cases against mafiosi like Colombo street boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli.
It culminated in Saracino’s explosive 2012 testimony against his brother, Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, while his brother and family watched. “Don’t call me your brother no more!” Little Dino, another reputed Colombo solider, barked.
Saracino received a sentence of time served for crimes that could have imprisoned him for up to 70 years.
Jurors convicted Gioeli and Little Dino on racketeering, but acquitted them in the 1997 murder of off-duty NYPD officer Ralph Dols, who married the ex-wife of another mobster.
One of the crimes Saracino admitted to himself was disposing a bag thought to have the clothes of Dols’ assassin.
Six years after his gut-wrenching testimony, Saracino said he’d “always love” his brother. “Will God be with you.”
Though mob turncoats can ask for waivers barring testimony against their flesh and blood, Saracino didn’t ask for one.
Cogan remembered Saracino’s testimony against his brother as the most tense courtroom scene he’d ever witnessed. “It was the stuff you think you’re going to only see in the movies,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Gatta said Saracino “turned his back on the mob. But he also turned his back on his family, and they turned their back really on him.” He noted Saracino, never a triggerman, faced future deportation.
Saracino was, and continued to be, a wellspring of information on the Colombos, according to Gatta.
Cogan said Saracino “took no glory” in mob life “and that makes him a better person.”
Saracino will have to forfeit two Brooklyn properties, pay $75,000 for an insurance-related arson and another $18,500 for the funeral expenses of a killed mob associate.
Saracino testified Little Dino shot the associate, Richard Greaves, in the back of the head in the basement of the 76th St. Brooklyn home owned by Saracino’s parents.
Saracino’s lawyer, John Jordan, said his client took big risks and paid dearly to help prosecutors. He cooperated, looking out for his wife and two daughters, according to Jordan.
Saracino said the irony is “I’m here because of my family and I’m here because of my family.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mob-turncoat-time-served-testifying-mafia-bigs-article-1.3843236
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Judge refuses to rip up Colombo soldier's conviction for racketeering
A gangster serving 50 years in prison for racketeering couldn't convince a Brooklyn federal judge to rip up his conviction.
Colombo soldier Dino "Little Dino" Saracino argued he got subpar lawyering in a 2012 trial that ended with jurors saying he was guilty of murder conspiracies and witness tampering but acquitting him of killing an off-duty cop.
A family feud exploded at trial when Saracino's older brother, Sebastian, took the stand against him. "Don't call me your brother no more!" Saracino barked at him.
On Friday, Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan threw out Saracino's bid to overturn the conviction and sentence.
Saracino wasn't charged in the 1993 killing of Joseph Scopo, an underboss in an opposing faction. But he was charged and convicted of murder conspiracy in crime family faction violence.
When Cogan smacked Saracino with the 50-year sentence in 2014, the judge weighed Saracino's role in the civil war whack. Authorities said Saracino was gathering intelligence on the whereabouts of faction enemies including Scopo.
Saracino argued his lawyer at the time didn't make the right sort of arguments to keep Scopo's death off the scales of justice.
Cogan ruled Saracino's sentence would have been the same, regardless of the arguments.
He noted that Saracino didn't give him any real evidence to weigh against his convicted crimes. "As the Court observed at sentencing, Saracino is a Mafia hitman, and that's about all there is to him," Cogan wrote Friday.
Saracino, 45, is locked up at a Pennsylvania federal prison.
Marc Fernich, Saracino's lawyer on the recent bid, said he was "disappointed in the ruling."
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/colombo-mobster-loses-bid-racketeering-conviction-tossed-article-1.3546023
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Imprisoned former Colombo boss Tommy Shots sues feds for $10M for injuries suffered while playing prison ping pong
That’s what former Colombo crime boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli has done — suing the federal government for $10 million over injuries from a game of prison ping-pong.
The table tennis tumble happened Aug. 29, 2013, while Gioeli was being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
More than a year earlier, a Brooklyn Federal Court jury had found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy connected to murder plots.
Gioeli, 64, and fellow defendant Dino "Little Dino" Saracino also were accused of carrying out murders, including the killing of a police officer, but acquitted on the murder charges.
According to government court papers, Gioeli argues his slip and fall occurred because of prison officials’ negligence. They knew — or should have known — about the hazardous wet floor in recreation area, pointing to the proximity of showers and an allegedly leaky slop sink pipe.
Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli, Colombo acting boss.
The leak was reported to prison employees for days, if not weeks before the accident, Gioeli claims.
The burly Gioeli fractured his right kneecap and had to be hospitalized. The injury required surgery, physical therapy and occupational therapy, court papers obtained by the Daily News show.
The government rejects any charge of negligence, saying it acted with necessary care at all times. And part of its defense is that there’s some risk that comes with playing table tennis — and Gioeli chose to take that risk.
The case has been assigned to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.
A bench trial is estimated to take about three days, though the case docket shows no trial date yet.
Gioeli is expected to make it up from his low-security North Carolina prison to testify about his spill and subsequent suffering, according to court papers.
He did not take the stand at his criminal case.
The doctor who examined Gioeli is scheduled to testify about the mafioso’s mishap.
Another person who had been held at the lockup is expected to talk about the floor layout, prisoners tracking in water from the showers, and his complaints about the alleged leak.
The government said it plans to put on witnesses including a Metropolitan Detention Center general foreman.
Gioeli claims he slipped on a wet floor while playing table tennis. He's accusing prison officials of negligence.
The man is expected to say he searched for records of reported water leaks or repair orders for leaks around the time of the incident, but found none.
Another planned government witness is a correction officer who says he found Gioeli on the wet floor, near the showers.
Gioeli is serving an 18-year prison sentence.
Both Gioeli’s lawyer Martin Schiowitz and the Bureau of Prisons declined comment Monday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mob-boss-injured-playing-prison-ping-pong-sues-feds-10m-article-1.2965825
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Colombo cop killer turned rat sentenced to 12 years in prison for role in 5 murders
The family of slain NYPD cop Ralph Dols was a no-show Tuesday at the sentencing of a mob rat who received 12 years in prison for five gangland murders, including the rubout of the off-duty police officer.
Ex-Colombo soldier Joseph Competiello, who helped authorities crack the long-unsolved murder case, has maintained that he did not know Dols was a cop when he was given the contract by mob superiors in 1997.
No one from Dols’ family wrote the judge expressing a view on sentencing.
Linda Rosa Gargano holds a photograph of her murdered son Carmine. 'I still do not have my son’s body — and he wants to go home to his wife and family,' the bereaved mom cried in court Tuesday as her son's convicted killer, Joseph Competiello, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars.
Dols was allegedly marked for death by then-acting Colombo boss Joel Cacace because Cacace’s ex-wife had married the policeman. Cacace and two other alleged participants in the plot, Thomas Gioeli and Dino Saracino, were acquitted by federal juries of Dols’ murder.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan said he believed Competiello testified truthfully, but added: “I don’t think he played well to either jury.”
The scene of NYPD cop Ralph Dols' slaying.
Competiello, 43, has served more than six years in prison since he was arrested.
“I feel like a horrible, heartless person up here admitting to all these crimes I committed, but I’m not that person anymore,” he told the judge.
Ralph Dols was allegedly marked for death by then-acting Colombo boss Joel Cacace, pictured, because Cacace’s ex-wife had married the cop.
Rosa Gargano, the mother of victim Carmine Gargano, urged the judge to show no mercy to the “bloodthirsty” hit man.
“I still do not have my son’s body — and he wants to go home to his wife and family,” Gargano cried, holding a framed photo of her son who was fatally shot by Competiello and finished off with a sledgehammer.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ex-colombo-hitman-12-years-murder-nypd-dols-article-1.2039848
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Judge sentences Colombo soldier Little Dino to 50 years in prison for racketeering
A veteran Colombo wiseguy suspected of taking part in the 1997 gangland slaying of an NYPD cop was hit with 50 years in prison for a slew of racketeering raps Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
Crime family soldier Dino Saracino, 41, was acquitted in 2012 of the slaying of officer Ralph Dols but was convicted of several other criminal charges that allowed Judge Brian Cogan to level the stiff term.
Saracino was accused of the slaying along with Colombo street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli on orders from then family boss Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace.
Prosecutors said Cacace wanted Dols dead because he married his ex-wife. In a stunning verdict, both Gioeli and Saracino skated on that killing and several others.
Saracino celebrated his acquittals that day but was in a far less bubbly mood Monday after Cogan handed down the term that will carry him into his 90s for loan sharking, gambling and other mob staples.
The gangster’s family dissolved into wails and tears in the court gallery after Saracino’s fate was announced.
The seething mobster told prosecutors that the rats who testified against him at trial — Dino Calabro and Joe Competiello — deserved the same sentence.
“I hope you give Calabro and Competiello the same amount,” the hoodlum said before vanishing into custody for the next half century.
http://nypost.com/2014/04/28/mob-gangster-gets-50-years-in-prison-for-racketeering/
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Feds request leniency for Colombo captain who turned rat
A Colombo crime family rat who wore a Dick Tracy-style watch to record his Mafia brethren is about to get his hunk of government cheese.
Mob capo Reynold Maragni was arrested on an avalanche of racketeering and other charges in January 2011 and quickly agreed to turn federal witness in exchange for a lighter sentence, court papers say.
Citing his testimony in a slew of high-profile mob trials, government prosecutors submitted a recommendation that he be sentenced to less than what federal guidelines call for.
The feds are lobbying for leniency despite Maragni’s choppy tenure as a government rat. He sang in two murder trials that ended in acquittals.
He took the stand in the murder trial of Dino “Little Dino” Saracino and Tommy “Tommy Shots” Gioeli, and both men beat the rap.
He also sang in court in another unsuccessful murder case against Colombo associate Francis Guerra.
Despite those setbacks, the feds argue that Maragni should catch a break for the information he provided in prosecuting Colombo cases.
“Maragni has provided substantial cooperation in the government’s longstanding and continuing investigation into the Colombo family,” the court filing states.
Prosecutors note that Maragni’s cooperation was cut short after he was busted for turning off his recording device during mob sitdowns without permission.
He pleaded guilty to racketeering raps in 2011.
http://nypost.com/2014/01/28/mob-guy-gets-prison-for-racketeering-gambling-raps/
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Jury deliberates Colombo gangster's fate in NYPD cop killing case
A defense lawyer urged jurors in the cop-killing trial of Long Island mobster Joel Cacace to reject as "pure speculation" the prosecution theory that he acted out of jealousy over the NYPD officer's marriage to his ex-wife, in summations Monday.
"That is made up out of whole cloth," lawyer Susan Kellman argued. "They have no evidence."
Cacace, 72, of Deer Park, a ponytailed former Colombo family consigliere, is accused of ordering the 1997 ambush of Officer Ralph Dols outside his Brooklyn apartment just after he and Cacace's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh had a baby girl.
Prosecutors in the two-week trial in federal court in Brooklyn relied on testimony from two informants, Dino Calabro and Joe Competiello, who said they carried out the hit after their boss, Colombo captain Tommy Gioeli of Farmingdale, told them Cacace ordered it.
But there was no direct evidence of Cacace's involvement, no witness who heard him complain about the marriage and no testimony about any arguments with his ex-wife, said Kellman, who argued prosecutors hoped an anti-mob bias would fill the gaps.
"The government wants you to go back and say, 'Organized crime, organized crime, organized crime, Colombo family, Colombo family, consigliere,' " she said. "There's a different standard of proof for these guys."
But Competiello and Calabro didn't know Dols and had no reason to kill him except for an order, said prosecutors, who argued that Cacace's motive was a reasonable surmise based on his age, his status in the crime family and mob hostility to police.
"There is no other explanation for why Ralph Dols was killed by men who did not even know who he was," prosecutor James Gatta said. "Doesn't it make sense that a man like Joel Cacace would find it unacceptable that his ex-wife married a man in his 20s, started a family with a police officer?"
Gatta also told the jury that men who rose to Cacace's rank got there by being careful, and said it was unreasonable for the defense to suggest the government needed to have Cacace explicitly acknowledging guilt on tape or to a witness.
"You know that's not the way these guys operate," he said. "They're secretive."
Calabro and Competiello testified last year against Gioeli and Dino Saracino, a third alleged member of the team that executed Dols. The jury returned racketeering convictions, but found that their claims about the Dols killing were not proven.
Kellman said they were falsely implicating Cacace to improve their chance of leniency.
"Nobody is saying these guys weren't involved in the shooting of Dols," she said. "But they had every reason to point the finger at a figure higher up in the Colombo crime family."
Jury deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday.
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/jury-gets-cop-killing-case-1.6497038
Monday, November 25, 2013
Colombo consigliere ordered NYPD cop's murder out of jealousy
Joel Cacace, 72, is on trial allegedly ordering the murder of NYPD police officer Ralph Dols in 1997 because the cop married his former wife.
A Colombo mobster felt so disrespected by his ex-wife marrying an NYPD Police Officer Ralph Dols and bearing his baby, he ordered the cop's murder, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace showed no reaction as Assistant U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz argued that the 72-year-old mobster was so consumed by jealousy he violated the Mafia's code against killing a member of law enforcement.
Kim Kennaugh, ex-wife of Joel Carace, who allegedly put a hit out on her next nusband, NYPD cop Ralph Dols.
"The defendant simply could not accept that Ralph Dols, a young man, a police officer, had married his ex-wife and had a baby with her," Lifshitz said in Brooklyn federal court. "He could not accept that especially as a leader of organized crime and especially because Ralph Dols was a police officer."
Dols was gunned down by a hit team waiting to ambush him outside his Sheepshead Bay apartment building Aug. 25, 1997.
Ralph Dols, the NYPD cop who allegedly incurred the wrath of Joel Cacace by marrying the mobster's former wife.
Two of the killers, Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello, testified for the government that they were carrying out the orders of then-consigliere Cacace to kill a "Mexican guy," and that they were not told the victim was a cop.
Kim Kennaugh married her fourth husband, NYPD cop Ralph Dols, pictured here at their wedding. Her ex-husband Joel Cacace allegedly didn't take kindly to the nuptials, and the mobster is on trial for arranging the policeman's murder.
Calabro, Competiello and a third alleged killer, Dino Saracino, were later rewarded for the rubout with induction as made men.
The jury listened to a tape of a conversation between Cacace in jail speaking on the phone to his son Steve the day after Calabro was arrested in 2008.
NYPD brass leave the crime scene where police officer Ralph Dols was shot dead in Brooklyn.
"The bicycle [a code name for Calabro]) broke down," Steve Cacace told his father.
Kim Kennaugh, former wife of murder defendant Joel Cacace and widow of the mobster's alleged victim Ralph Dols.
"Ah s---," Joel Cacace said wearily. "Everything's over. Ah s---."
Defense lawyer Susan Kellman urged the jury to focus on the lack of evidence to support the government's claim as to motive. She suggested no one knows why Dols was killed and that prosecutors invented the jealousy angle.
The family of slain police officer Ralph Dols outside Brooklyn federal court on April 12, 2012. The man who allegedly arranged the hit on Dols, Joel Cacace, is currently on trial.
"If Mr. Lifshitz had been married to Mr. Cacace, he might have known those things," Kellman scoffed. "Maybe Tony Soprano wouldn't want his wife married to a police officer, but this is real life."
The jury will begin deliberating murder in aid of racketeering charges Tuesday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/prosecutor-mob-man-ordered-slay-envy-article-1.1528814#ixzz2lhy9VTGL
Monday, November 18, 2013
Turncoat Colombo captain says he was shocked to learn he whacked an NYPD officer
Mob snitch Dino Calabro (pictured) says he killed Ralph Dols on orders from Colombo honcho Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.
An ex-Colombo hit man testified Thursday that he had no idea the victim he whacked on orders from his Mafia superior was an off-duty NYPD police officer.
Mob snitch Dino "Big Dino" Calabro claims he was shocked the day after the 1997 killing when the murder was splashed on the front pages of the tabloids.
"Whoa, what the f---, it was a cop!" Calabro said in Brooklyn Federal Court at the murder trial of Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.
Calabro said he was part of a hit team that had been stalking Officer Ralph Dols for weeks after receiving orders from then-Colombo consigliere Cacace.
Prosecutors contend Cacace wanted the cop dead because he had "dared" to marry the gangster's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh.
NYPD Officer Ralph Dols, who was gunned down in 1997.
Cacace, who was referred to as "she" by his underlings because of his long hair, had only described the victim as a Mexican who worked in a Queens social club, according to Calabro.
"'She' had to know," Calabro said he fumed to alleged co-conspirator Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli the day after the killing.
Calabro admitted he shot Dols as he emerged from a car outside his Sheepshead Bay apartment building. Calabro identified his cousin, Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, as the second gunman.
Gioeli and Saracino were acquitted of the cop's murder last year.
Defense lawyer David Stern pounded the witness over lying to the government initially when he did not finger Saracino as a shooter and blamed someone else.
Prosecutors say Cacace wanted Dols dead because he had "dared" to marry the gangster's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh.
Stern also ridiculed Calabro's claim that he had discussed the murder with Cacace in a Bensonurst pastry shop two weeks before it was carried out.
"He (Cacace) didn't say 'We have to whack this guy,' did he?" Stern said.
"We don't use a vocabulary like that," Calabro insisted.
Calabro said it is against mob protocol to kill a cop. "You don't hurt children, you don't hurt girls, you don't hurt law enforcement," he said. "It's just a rule."
Fearful of the death penalty, the cop killers agreed to refer to the Dols murder with the code word "AIDS" or a gesture of sticking a needle in their arm to signify the lethal injection punishment.
Calabro was rewarded with induction into the Colombo family and promoted to captain before he decided to cooperate with the government and plead guilty to eight murders.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mafia-snitch-shocked-learn-killed-article-1.1517856#ixzz2l3fQGamI
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Turncoat NYPD cop killer testifies during trial of former Colombo consigliere
An embarrassed mobster ordered the brutal murder of an NYPD cop because the officer had the nerve to marry his ex-wife, prosecutors said at a former Colombo consigliere’s trial on Tuesday.
The pony-tailed Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace’s is accused of orchestrating the 1997 shooting of Ralph Dols outside the Gravesend home he shared with Cacace’s ex-wife, Kim Kennaugh, and their infant child.
“Officer Dols was gunned down for one reason — he dared to marry the wife of a high ranking member of organized crime,”said prosecutor Sam Nitze during his opening statement at Brooklyn federal court.
Nitze painted Cacace, 72, as a ruthless force within the powerful crime clan whose orders were carried out without question.
“They knew that an order from Joel Cacace was an order they had to follow,” Nitze said of the men who carried out the kill.
“The defendant may not have pulled the trigger, but he is responsible because he ordered it.”
But Cacace’s attorney, Susan Kellman, said that there was no evidence that her client had anything to do with Dols’s murder — and that prosecutors were hitching their hopes solely on his association with La Cosa Nostra.
Kellman skewered the government’s main witnesses — the alleged killers — who flipped on Cacace and will testify against him.
Calling them “subhuman,” “maniacs,” and “animals,” Kellman characterized the men as soulless killers who are looking to save their own hide by lying about her client.
“It gives me chills to think about the type of crimes they’ve committed,” she told jurors.
Kellman added that Cacace and his wife had split cleanly and that he didn’t care that she took up with a new man — even a cop.
One of the men involved in the Dols killing, Joseph Competiello, testified Tuesday that he and his pals were ordered to do a “favor” for Cacace by Colombo brass.
Asked what that favor was, the bald-headed, grunting lookout man said simply: “To kill.”
Competiello’s alleged mob accomplices, Dino Saracino and Dino Calabro, were accused of firing the shots that killed Dols.
Calabro admitted to his role in the crime but Saracino and Colombo hoodlum Tommy “Tommy Shots” Gioeli were acquitted last year.
Competiello made a deal with the feds on other killings and is awaiting sentencing.
Now dependent on a cane, Cacace is separately facing 10 more years in prison for his role in the botched 1987 hit on mafia prosecutor William Aronwald. The thugs killed their target’s elderly father by mistake.
One of the killers in the Aronwald case, Eddie Carnini, was married to Kennaugh at the time of that killing.
Cacace allegedly had Carnini killed because of the bungled slay — before shacking up with his widow.
Former Bonnano underboss Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale also made an appearance Tuesday to offer jurors a basic primer on mob activity.
Currently in a witness protection program for ratting out dozens of mobsters, Vitale’s main mafia rule was a simple one.
“Do what you’re told,” he said.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/12/capo-on-trial-for-ordering-hit-on-cop-whod-wed-his-ex/
Friday, May 24, 2013
Informant claims jailed Colombo boss is innocent of murder conspiracy as sentencing is postponed
Colombo boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli may be getting another shot at beating a murder rap.
Gioeli’s sentencing next week on racketeering charges has been postponed indefinitely after federal prosecutors informed Brooklyn Judge Brian Cogan that new information has surfaced implicating someone other than Gioeli in a 1991 murder conspiracy he was convicted of last year.
The judge has ordered both sides to appear in his courtroom May 28 to figure out the next move, sources said.
Gioeli had beat the rap for eight gangland murders, but the jury convicted him of conspiracy in the killing of Frank "Chestnut" Marasa.
Although he dodged a life sentence, Gioeli still faced a maximum of 20 years in prison.
After the stunning verdict, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration snitch secretly recorded a conversation with someone claiming that Gioeli was not involved in the Marasa hit after all, sources said.
Shockingly, the information was not passed on to the FBI or the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office until recently, sources said.
"The whole thing stinks," one source said.
Gioeli could ask the judge to throw out the verdict and seek a new trial or demand that he be released on bail while defense lawyers and the government hash out the fiasco.
The revelation does not appear to affect Gioeli's co-defendant Dino Saracino who was not involved in Marasa's murder.
"We have always maintained he (Gioeli) is innocent of all the charges," defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter told The Daily News.
If the alternate theory is proven true — which it hasn't yet — it could call into question the testimony of star witness Dino Calabro who ratted about Gioeli's role in the murder.
"Tommy always said, 'Shoot him in the body first. Then walk up and cap him,'” Calabro said.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Feds drop death penalty against Joe Waverly for murder of NYPD cop
Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, 61, reputed acting boss of the Colombo crime family, won't face death penalty at trial for 1990s murder of NYPD cop Ralph Dols. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered federal prosecutors in Brooklyn not to pursue Cacace's execution in the case.
The feds will no longer seek the death penalty against a former Colombo mob boss for ordering the 1997 murder of NYPD cop Ralph Dols, it was disclosed Monday.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered prosecutors in Brooklyn to withdraw its intention for the ultimate punishment against former acting boss Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, who is still awaiting trial in the case.
Last year two of Cacace’s underlings, Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli and alleged shooter Dino Saracino, were cleared by a Brooklyn jury of the off-duty cop’s killing. Prosecutors contend that Cacace marked the cop for death because he had married the mobster’s ex-wife, Kim Kennaugh.
Officer Ralph Dols, 28, was shot to death in August 1997. Authorities allege that Cacace ordered a hit on him because Dols was dating his old flame.
“Nobody should face the death penalty in a case when there is no forensic evidence and only two witnesses whose mothers don’t even believe them,” said defense lawyer Susan Kellman who had asked the attorney general to reconsider the death penalty issue after last year’s acquittals.
A spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association could not be reached for comment Monday.
Dols was ambushed by a hit team outside his Sheepshead Bay apartment building.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/feds-switch-death-penalty-mob-case-article-1.1317619#ixzz2QdOgvUNr
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Former Colombo crime boss Tommy Shots blogs that God was on his side in the jury room
HE SAYS he’s going to hell for whacking a former nun, but Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli is still on speaking terms with God.
In his first public statement since a Brooklyn jury acquitted him of six gangland murders last week, Tommy Shots blogged from prison that he owes the stunning verdict to divine intervention. He gave no credit to his defense team.
Of course, the jury knew Gioeli was a religious wiseguy — mob rat Dino Calabro testified that Gioeli passed the order to kill former underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo in the rosary garden of a Long Island church.
“I am so loved and blessed by our Heavenly Father that if I was to pass in the night it would be as the richest man,” Gioeli stated in an email from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is still being held without bail because the jury convicted him of racketeering.
“So when, through God’s grace, my jury said not guilty five times and not proven 28 times at the conclusion of my recent federal trial for RICO and multiple murders, I was humbled, as well as reminded, just how much our God, our Heavenly Father, loves me and all of us,” he said, referring to his wife and four daughters.
Federal prosecutors were poised to present evidence to the jury that Gioeli had confessed to Calabro he was “going to hell” for the death of ex- nun Veronica Zuraw, fatally wounded by a stray bullet during a gangland rubout in Brooklyn.
William Cutolo Jr. said he is still outraged by the jury’s failure to convict on the substantial evidence that Gioeli and co-defendant Dino Saracino killed his father in 1997.
In his first public statement since a Brooklyn jury acquitted him of six gangland murders last week, Tommy Shots blogged from prison that he owes the stunning verdict to divine intervention. He gave no credit to his defense team.
Of course, the jury knew Gioeli was a religious wiseguy — mob rat Dino Calabro testified that Gioeli passed the order to kill former underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo in the rosary garden of a Long Island church.
“I am so loved and blessed by our Heavenly Father that if I was to pass in the night it would be as the richest man,” Gioeli stated in an email from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is still being held without bail because the jury convicted him of racketeering.
“So when, through God’s grace, my jury said not guilty five times and not proven 28 times at the conclusion of my recent federal trial for RICO and multiple murders, I was humbled, as well as reminded, just how much our God, our Heavenly Father, loves me and all of us,” he said, referring to his wife and four daughters.
Federal prosecutors were poised to present evidence to the jury that Gioeli had confessed to Calabro he was “going to hell” for the death of ex- nun Veronica Zuraw, fatally wounded by a stray bullet during a gangland rubout in Brooklyn.
William Cutolo Jr. said he is still outraged by the jury’s failure to convict on the substantial evidence that Gioeli and co-defendant Dino Saracino killed his father in 1997.
Friday, May 11, 2012
State murder charges might be brought against Tommy Shots
A COLOMBO CRIME boss and his alleged hit man — who beat federal charges of killing an off-duty NYPD cop — may not be off the hook yet.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes could bring a state murder case against Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli and Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, sources told the Daily News.
Should he do so, it wouldn’t be double jeopardy, because murder charges brought in state court would differ from the federal racketeering murder charges that the two men just faced, former federal prosecutor Brad Simon said.
Gioeli and Saracino were cleared of multiple gangland murders in a stunning verdict Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
A decision on new charges won’t be made until after the upcoming federal trial of former Colombo acting boss Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, who is charged with ordering Ralph Dols’ murder because the cop had married his ex-wife, sources said.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA — whose office monitored the federal trial on at least one occasion — declined to comment. Five years ago, Hynes brought a murder case against two Genovese mobsters whose federal convictions had been overturned on a legal technicality.
Gioeli received a standing ovation from fellow inmates and their visitors in the visiting room of the Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday night, another source said.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes could bring a state murder case against Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli and Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, sources told the Daily News.
Should he do so, it wouldn’t be double jeopardy, because murder charges brought in state court would differ from the federal racketeering murder charges that the two men just faced, former federal prosecutor Brad Simon said.
Gioeli and Saracino were cleared of multiple gangland murders in a stunning verdict Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
A decision on new charges won’t be made until after the upcoming federal trial of former Colombo acting boss Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, who is charged with ordering Ralph Dols’ murder because the cop had married his ex-wife, sources said.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA — whose office monitored the federal trial on at least one occasion — declined to comment. Five years ago, Hynes brought a murder case against two Genovese mobsters whose federal convictions had been overturned on a legal technicality.
Gioeli received a standing ovation from fellow inmates and their visitors in the visiting room of the Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday night, another source said.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Colombo mobsters cleared of killing NYPD cop
A Brooklyn jury today cleared two notorious mobsters on all murder charges they faced, in a stunning setback for federal prosecutors.
Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli beat the rap on six murder counts while soldier Dino "Little Dino" Saracino was cleared for three rubouts. They were both cleared in connection to the infamous Aug. 25, 1997 slaying of NYPD officer Ralph Dols.
Gioeli and Saracino were convicted on lesser charges -- three murder conspiracies on “Tommy Shots” and a single murder conspiracy on “Little Dino.”
Gioeli was convicted of planning the slayings of mob rivals John Minerva on March 25, 1992, Frank “Chestnut” Marasa on June 12, 1991, and other unnamed crime figures in a bloody Colombo civil war. But he beat the rap on more serious charges that he gave the final order to have them rubbed out.
Saracino was convicted of conspiring to hit Michael Burnside, who was suspected of killing "Little Dino’s" brother. Saracino was also convicted on several other charges, including extortion, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
Gioeli stands to get anything from time served to 20 years in prison, and Saracino time served to 100 years when they’re sentenced. There was no date set for sentencing as defense lawyers planned their appeals.
Despite that looming prison time, both defendants couldn’t hide their joy over the verdicts.
“Little Dino” joyously bear hugged defense lawyer Sam Braverman and said: “I’m gonna go home [someday].”
Had the men been convicted of committing any of the murders, instead of just planning them, they would have surely been sent to the big house for life.
Gioeli’s wife and family smiled broadly and hugged outside the courthouse.
“We’re obviously very grateful to the jury for analyzing the evidence and not the emotion of the case,” said Gieoli’s defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter. “He [Gioeli] was very moved. He was heartened by the fact that he could, one day, return to his family and grandchildren.”
Prosecutors marched out of court without speaking to reporters.
A spokeman for the US Attorney's Office put his best spin on the handful of convictions, saying: "The evidence at trial established the defendants' involvement in a racketeering conspiracy that spanned 1991 through 2008."
The ashen-faced family of the slain officer Dols left courthouse, got into an NYPD van under a uniformed escort and sped away without making any comments.
Dols was savagely rubbed out because he married the ex-wife of Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, a former Colombo consigliere.
Veteran mob lawyer Joseph Corozzo, who closely followed the trial, said prosecutors struggled to make the Dols case stick because they relied heavily on the testimony of trigger man Dino “Big Dino” Calabro, who turned stool pigeon for the government.
“It seems to be a trend to acquit the defendants of murders when the evidence shows it was actually the cooperating witness who committed the murders and try to lay blame on others for directing,” Corozzo said.
Big Dino is behind bars for other mob murders and under witness protection.
Both Gioeli and Saracino were accused of participating in the May 26, 1999 hit on William “Wild Bill” Cutolo, who at the time of his death was the underboss of the Colombo family.
Gioeli and Saracino were also cleared in the rub-out of Colombo associate Richard Greaves on Aug. 3, 1995.
Tommy Shots beat the murder rap for the slaying of Michael Imbergamo, who had no mob ties but was a pal of Minerva and had the misfortune of being with his friend as they were wiped out.
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