Showing posts with label Thomas Gioeli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Gioeli. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Federal judge rules that former Colombo Street Boss Tommy Shots must use lawsuit proceeds to pay restitution to victims
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A clumsy Colombo mobster who famously scored a $250,000 settlement for a Brooklyn federal jailhouse Ping-Pong injury won’t be able to keep his slip-and-fall windfall.
A federal judge ruled that Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli will have to use his portion of the lawsuit cash, more than $182,000, to pay restitution to his victims as part of his 18-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Gioeli argued in recent court filings that the federal government was trying to “claw back” the settlement money so it could be “rewarded for the fruits of its own bad behavior.” Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan disagreed.
“The only thing of which defendant is being deprived is the unrestricted decision on how to apply this newly acquired asset,” Cogan wrote in a July 5 ruling. “What defendant really wants to do is stiff the government on his forfeiture obligation and spend the money on something he would prefer. But the law doesn’t permit that.”
The murderous street boss was playing Ping-Pong in an open area at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Aug. 29, 2013, when the ball got away from him.
He went to retrieve it in an area close to shower stalls and a leaking slop sink, slipped in a puddle and fractured his kneecap. He filed a $10-million lawsuit after the injury.
Cogan had earlier ruled that Gioeli’s $360,000 restitution bill should go to compensate a Chemical Bank branch and a business named Furs by Mina.
Gioeli tried to convince the judge to let him keep the settlement cash to help pay for his cancer treatments after he finishes his prison sentence.
Gioeli, now 70, was convicted at a 2012 federal racketeering trial for conspiring to kill supporters of then-family boss Victor “Little Vic” Orena during a war for control of the Colombo family.
He headed a faction loyal to imprisoned head Carmine “Junior” Persico, and was bumped up to street boss during the bloody conflict, which claimed 13 lives, including a teen bagel shop worker gunned down in a case of mistaken identity.
Cogan has twice denied Gioeli, who suffers from bladder cancer, compassionate release from prison — first in May 2020, when the ailing gangster feared catching COVID at the height of the pandemic, and again in March.
According to court papers, Gioeli was diagnosed last year with a recurrence of bladder cancer followed by surgery and receives weekly hormone injections. The cancer’s return followed an 18-month stretch where Gioeli received no follow-up medical treatment behind bars, court papers said.
The judge ruled in March that Gioeli’s Mafia resume was so “heinous” that it outweighed any request for compassionate release.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-mobster-loses-fight-ping-pong-settlement-thomas-gioeli-tommy-shots-20220712-j7tn2cyktfdh7abknzo5nk6y7q-story.html
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Federal judge denies latest compassionate release request for cancer stricken former Colombo street boss Tommy Shots
A one-time Colombo crime family street boss’ violent life of crime could end with his death behind bars.
A Brooklyn federal judge rejected the latest appeal from cancer-stricken mobster Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli for a compassionate release from prison, declaring the inmate’s murderous Mafia career outweighed any arguments for his freedom.
“The unfortunate fact in this case is that the defendant’s crimes were so heinous and the nature of his leadership role so dangerous that release would not be appropriate,” wrote Judge Brian M. Cogan in the Wednesday decision. “The motion is therefore denied.”
Cogan previously shot down a May 2020 appeal for Gioeli’s freedom based on the ailing gangster’s fears of contracting COVID-19. The judge, in his latest ruling, acknowledged Gioeli’s health woes but declined to set him free.
“I find the defendant’s medical status has deteriorated to the point where he has satisfied his burden of showing extraordinary and compelling reasons (for release) under the statute,” he wrote in the seven-page decision.
“However, the assessment of the sentencing factors has not changed and that assessment precludes release.”
Gioeli, 70, was convicted at a 2012 federal racketeering trial for conspiring to killer supporters of then-family boss “Little Vic” Orena during a lethal war for control of the Colombo family. He was sentenced to 18½ years behind bars.
The family capo, heading a faction loyal to imprisoned head Carmine “Junior” Persico, was bumped up to street boss during the bloody battle where 13 victims were killed — including a teen bagel shop worker gunned down in a case of mistaken identity.
Cogan, in his decision, noted Gioeli and his crew “committed multiple murders that I know of from the evidence at trial ... The evidence of these murders was again detailed, grisly and left me with no doubt as to the defendant’s involvement.”
According to court papers, Gioeli was diagnosed last year with a recurrence of bladder cancer followed by surgery and now receives weekly injections of hormones to battle the illness. The cancer’s return followed an 18-month stretch where Gioeli received no follow-up medical treatment behind bars, court papers said.
“We will never know if his bladder cancer could have been caught earlier, and perhaps treated more effectively,” wrote Cogan.
Gioeli famously collected a $250,000 settlement after an August 2013 slip and fall during a prison ping-pong game left him with a fractured kneecap. The mobster needed surgery and spent a month in the hospital after the accident.
But Cogan, in a November 2019, ruled the financial windfall should go for restitution to a fur store and a bank robbed by the gangster and his crew back in the ‘90s.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-tommy-shots-colombo-mobster-compassionate-release-20220324-f6vkcmqpjrgpfihqm2jjnxs2aq-story.html
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Judge denies compassionate release to former Colombo street boss Tommy Shots
A Brooklyn federal judge ruled former Colombo family street boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli was entitled to the same level of empathy as his
mob murder victims: Zero.
The 67-year-old gangster’s appeal for early release from his 18½-year
prison sentence was pointedly rejected by Judge Brian Cogan in a
Thursday decision that will keep him behind bars despite Gioeli’s
concerns about contracting coronavirus.
Gioeli “displayed a callous disregard for human life, and I am not
persuaded that he warrants more compassion and understanding than I
demonstrated when I imposed a less than maximum sentence,” wrote Cogan
in the nine-page decision. “He and his crew committed multiple murders
that I know of from evidence at trial.”
Some of the killings stemmed from a 1990s war for control of the crime
family between murderous factions representing acting boss Victor "Little Vic" Orena and imprisoned boss Carmine "Junior" Persico.
“The evidence of these murders was detailed, grisly and left me with no
doubt to the defendant’s involvement,” wrote Cogan, who spared Gioeli
an additional 16 months in jail after the mobster’s 2012 federal
conviction.
According to court papers, Gioeli’s appeal for freedom cited an injured
knee, diabetes, prior heart attacks, heart surgery and exposure to
coronavirus while at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn. His current
release date, with credit for good time, is May 2, 2024.
“I cannot find that defendant’s circumstances warrant compassionate
release,” ruled Cogan. “His preexisting medical conditions by themselves
are simply not the kind of life-threatening impairments that militate
towards release ... (and) I cannot find that the danger defendant faces
from the mere threat of (COVID-19) constitutes an extraordinary and
compelling reason for compassionate release.”
The ruling was the latest bit of legal bad luck for Gioeli, who
collected a $250,000 settlement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a
slip-and-fall case — only to see federal prosecutors argue for
forfeiture of $182,000 from the windfall for restitution to his crime
victims.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-tommy-shots-coronavirus-20200521-2ev2pouxp5hthhnluhkwonf2le-story.html
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Jailed Colombo mobster Tommy Shots might get released due to the coronavirus
A federal judge said Monday that he would decide shortly whether to release Thomas Gioeli, one-time head of the Colombo organized-crime family, from federal prison to home confinement because of the convicted mobster’s fear of contracting the coronavirus.
Gioeli, 67, of Farmingdale, who was known as “Tommy Shots,” is serving 18 years for his role in the murderous infighting for control within the family in the 1990s.
He was convicted in 2012 by a federal jury in Brooklyn of a conspiracy involving three murder plots, two of which involved the deaths of mob associates during the so-called “Colombo Wars," between factions of the family headed by Carmine Persico and Victor Orena.
Gioeli had won a $250,000 judgment from the government after slipping on a puddle of water from a leaky shower sink in 2013, and fracturing his right knee.
The incident came up Monday because his attorney, Jennifer Louis-Jeune had argued during a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, that Gioeli should be released to home confinement because of extremely poor health that could lead to his death if contracted the virus.
The defense attorney citied a lengthy list of Gioeli’s medical problems including diabetes, a stroke, prostate cancer, numerous arterial problems, and that he is now facing a gall bladder operation
Before saying he would reserve decision, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan asked about the fracturing of the knee, which, Gioeli had said in a deposition, he had done while playing Ping-Pong.
In the deposition, according to court records, Gioeli testified that while he was playing Ping-Pong, “ the ball went off the table and I missed the shot….I went to retrieve the ball. I stepped in the puddle and I slipped.”
Louis-Jeune, said Gioeli had initially tested positive for the coronavirus at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn. and was transferred to a section with detainees who had the virus. He remained there though later tests showed the first result was a false-positive and another test showed he had an immune response, indicating he had been exposed to the virus, she said.
Now, Louis-Jeune said her client is in a cell by himself, but shares a common bathroom with others on the unit, and still is in danger of getting the virus, perhaps fatally because of his poor health.
Louis-Jeune said her client was not a danger to the community, and referring to his history, added that Gioeli is “a weakened fraction of that man.”
But Eastern District Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Geddes said that the government strongly opposes Gioeli’s release.
Geddes said Gioeli had no problems in the past orchestrating violent crimes despite a history of medical problems even before he was imprisoned.
The prosecutor said that Gioeli has not yet exhausted the administrative procedures for release within the federal Bureau of Prisons, that the prison system has the capability of handling his medical programs, that there is no proof that he has been rehabilitated, and the “seriousness of his crimes cannot be overstated.”
https://www.newsday.com/amp/news/health/coronavirus/gioeli-mobster-coronavirus-bail-1.44749613
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Feds want to seize jailed Colombo mobster's settlement money for restitution
At least mobster Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli still has his health.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors want Gioeli — who collected a $250,000 slip-and-windfall settlement for a 2013 prison ping-pong fall that fractured his since-healed kneecap — to forfeit $182,000 for restitution.
The money would go to victims of crimes committed by the one-time Colombo family street boss and his crew back in the ’90s.
“The only significant asset owned by the defendant that the government has been able to locate is the settlement funds,” prosecutors wrote in their 10-page Brooklyn Federal Court filing. “The fact that the settlement funds are the defendant’s only significant asset is confirmed by the defendant’s own statements . . . concerning his lack of income and status.”
Gioeli, 67, recovered from his injuries and is serving an 18½-year sentence at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn. He was convicted of conspiring to kill supporters of then-Colombo boss Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena during a bloody war for control of the crime family.
The court filing comes five months after Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan ruled that Gioeli’s settlement money should go to compensate a Chemical Bank branch and a business named Furs by Mina. He was ordered to pay the bank roughly $200,000 and the fur store an additional $150,000.
The gangster’s attorney, Jennifer Louis-Jeune, declined comment.
Gioeli filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons following the August 2013 table tennis tumble after skidding in a puddle near the showers in the Metropolitan Detention Center. The inmate was hospitalized for 30 days and eventually settled for $250,000.
The money was placed in an interest-bearing account under the supervision of a federal judge pending resolution of the case.
The feds say they are turning to Gioeli’s settlement money after “due diligence” found no trace of his ill-gotten gains from years past.
“The only inference to be drawn from the financial investigator’s review is that the proceeds have been dissipated by either the defendant or his co-defendants,” prosecutors wrote.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-slip-and-fall-ping-pong-mobster-restitution-20200415-yekdqaqfdbbmdnhdk7xyjvqvty-story.html
Monday, February 24, 2020
Legendary Colombo family underboss Sonny Franzese dead at 103
John Franzese,
who emerged as one of the deadliest, most prosperous and longest-living
Mafia chieftains while basking in the company of celebrities like Frank
Sinatra and Rocky Graziano, died on Monday, almost three years after he
was released from prison because of his advanced age. He was 103.
His
son Michael said Mr. Franzese, who was known as Sonny, died in a
hospital in the New York area but gave no further details. He had
recently lived in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, his son said.
Well
into his 90s — an age when most mobsters are retired or deceased — Mr.
Franzese (pronounced FRANCE-ease) remained a significant underworld
figure, identified by the federal authorities as the underboss, or
second-in-command, of the Colombo crime family in the New York City area.
At
94, in a trial in which he appeared using a wheelchair and hearing
aids, he was convicted on federal charges of running extortion rackets
in Manhattan and on Long Island. He was released from federal detention in
Massachusetts in June 2017 after turning 100. The authorities said at
the time that he was the oldest inmate in the federal prison system.
Prosecutors
portrayed him in his prime as one of the Mafia’s top “earners,”
generating many millions of dollars in loot, and as one of its most
fearsome killers. In 1967, prosecutors asserted that an informer had
heard Mr. Franzese boast that he had been involved in 40 or 50
underworld executions.
At his last
trial, in 2011, prosecutors said a turncoat had secretly recorded him
graphically describing how hit men should dismember and dispose of
bodies to evade arrest. “I killed a lot of guys,” he was quoted as
saying in a pretrial hearing. “You’re not talking about four, five, six,
ten.”
Yet he was tried for murder only once, in a state court in 1967, and acquitted.
John Franzese was
born on Feb. 6, 1917, in Naples, Italy, where his parents, Carmine and
Maria (Corvola) Franzese, were visiting. Both had immigrated to the
United States from Italy. John was the youngest of 19 siblings — four
sons and 15 daughters. His mother gave John the nickname Sonny.
The
parents remained with the child in Italy for six months before
returning to their home in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, then a
largely ethnic Italian neighborhood. His father ran a bakery.
A high school dropout, Sonny worked at the bakery before being drafted
into the Army in 1942, shortly after the United States had entered World
War II. He was discharged that same year, classified as “psychoneurotic
with pronounced homicidal tendencies.” He later contended that the
discharge had mistakenly stemmed from his frequent complaints that he
wanted combat action to “kill” the enemy, rather than being assigned to
kitchen duties.
Back in Brooklyn,
Mr. Franzese, a muscular 5-foot-9, prided himself as an amateur boxer
and rugged brawler. His street swagger attracted the attention of
gangsters in the Profaci organization, one of New York’s five original
Mafia families. With a blood oath he was inducted at age 33 as a “made”
soldier in 1950. He soon earned a reputation as a “workhorse” and a “big
earner” in the Mafia, or Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), running extortion,
bookmaking and loan-sharking rings in Brooklyn and Queens and on Long
Island.
Joseph Profaci, the head of the organization, died of cancer in 1962, and the next year Joseph Colombo
became boss of the family. One of Mr. Colombo’s first moves was to
promote Mr. Franzese to capo, or captain, putting him in charge of a
so-called crew of 10 soldiers and scores of criminal followers known as
associates.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Mr.
Franzese, who listed his occupation as owner of a dry-cleaning store in
Brooklyn, was known for hosting parties for show business luminaries,
including Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. at the Copacabana
nightclub in Manhattan.
An avid boxing
fan, he was frequently at nightclubs in the company of Rocky Graziano
and another middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta, who was the
central character of the 1980 Martin Scorsese film “Raging Bull.”
Another
favorite dining place was the Russian Tea Room, next to Carnegie Hall
in Manhattan, where Mr. Franzese met with movie producers, talent agents
and music record executives. He obtained financial stakes in the
enormously profitable 1972 pornographic film “Deep Throat,” the 2003
feature film “This Thing of Ours” and the Buddah Record Company.
The
district attorneys of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in the 1960s branded
Mr. Franzese the czar of bookmaking and loan sharking on Long Island
after raids on illegal operations. The New York State Liquor Authority
said he was suspected of extorting protection money from nightclubs and
bars in Queens and on Long Island. And the New York State Commission of
Investigation said he had muscled in to extract payoffs from
pornographic peep show suppliers. None of these allegations led to
criminal charges against him.
His first felony conviction — on federal charges of masterminding four
nationwide bank robberies — came in March 1967. Nine months later, in
December 1967, he was the subject of a state trial in Queens on charges
of ordering the death of a suspected government informer, whose body,
with 17 stab wounds and six bullet wounds and weighted with two concrete
blocks, was discovered in Jamaica Bay. He was found not guilty.
After appeals
lasting three years in the bank robbery case were denied, Mr. Franzese,
in 1970, began serving an indeterminate term of up to 50 years. He was
paroled in 1978, but, in a series of revolving-door parole violations,
he spent about 20 of the next 30 years in federal penitentiaries.
Investigators
believed that Mr. Franzese, on being paroled again in 2001, was viewed
as an elder statesman in the Colombo family, which had been racked by
convictions and internal feuds. In 2005, Thomas Gioeli, the Colombo’s
acting boss, elevated him to underboss, according to the F.B.I.
With
the law-enforcement spotlight again on Mr. Franzese in 2011, he was
convicted on federal charges of extorting protection payments from two
Manhattan strip clubs and a Long Island pizzeria. At age 94, he was
sentenced to eight years in prison.
His
son, John Jr., was a vital prosecution witness, testifying that he had
cooperated with prosecutors against his father in an effort to end his
drug addiction and turn his life around. His father had tutored him in
Mafia tactics.
Another son, Michael,
said in an interview for this obituary in 2015 that their father was
“devastated” by John Jr.’s betrayal. Michael and John Jr. are from Mr.
Franzese’s second marriage, to Cristina Capobianco, who died in 2012.
In addition to
Michael and John Jr., Mr. Franzese is survived by another son, Carmine;
two daughters, Marianne Chin and Lorraine Scorsone — all from his first
marriage — and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Michael
Franzese had been a Colombo capo before publicly renouncing his ties to
the Mafia in 1995. He said that he, too, had been taught Cosa Nostra
tactics and rules by his father, and that he was aware that his father
had approved an edict by Colombo leaders to kill him for defecting.
“My
father was a chameleon,” he added. “At home, a loving father and
husband, but on the street, a hard-core guy who never had regrets, never
would admit to any crime, never give anybody up, never violate his
Mafia oaths — a mobster all the way.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/nyregion/john-franzese-dead.html
Monday, December 16, 2019
Judge forces jailed Colombo mobster to give $250K legal settlement to crime victims
That’s the way the ping-pong ball bounces.
One-time
Colombo crime family street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli’s $250,000
settlement for a table tennis tumble while behind bars should go for
restitution to a fur store and a bank robbed by the gangster and his
crew back in the ’90s, a Brooklyn Federal Court judge ruled.
“In
this case, once defendant’s settlement is finalized, he will have
immediate access to (the money),” wrote Judge Brian M. Cogan last week
in his ruling against the notorious Gioeli. “... His financial
circumstances have seismically shifted, and he now has the financial
means to make immediate court-ordered restitution.”
Gioeli
is on the hook for a $360,000 payback to a Chemical Bank branch and a
business called Furs by Mina, with Cogan ruling that Gioeli “personally
profited from these robberies ... (he) was the undisputed leader of the
pack (and) ... the other perpetrators were his direct subordinates
within the Mafia hierarchy, acting pursuant to his orders.”
According
to court papers, the settlement money is currently sitting in an
interest-bearing account under the supervision of Federal Court Judge
Kiyo Matsumoto.
Gioeli’s
lawyer Jennifer Louis-Jeune asked for a extended deadline of Dec. 20 to
respond to Cogan’s decision ordering the defendant to show cause why
the new money should not accelerate the 67-year-old mobster’s payback
process.
Goeli
is less than halfway through an 18 1/2-year prison sentence following
his racketeering conviction. The restitution was part of his sentence,
with the initial payback set at $25 every three months while in custody
and 10% of his gross monthly weekend while on supervised release.
But
in August 2013, the ping-pong playing inmate skidded in a puddle near
the showers inside the Manhattan Detention Center, with Gioeli’s
slip-and-fall leaving him with a broken kneecap and a 30-day hospital
stay.
Cogan
denied Goeli’s motion to vacate or modify the payback, and ordered the
imprisoned Mafioso to show cause why his six-figure windfall “should not
accelerate defendant’s restitution payments, based on a material change
in his economic circumstances.”
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mobster-ping-pong-payout-20191126-z6pdzhmg4ncx5ni3vlg32pma3a-story.html
He sued the federal Bureau of Prisons for $10 million, eventually agreeing to a quarter-million dollar settlement.
The
fur business robbery in 1992 netted 150 fur coats worth an estimated
$900,000, while the 1995 bank heist netted roughly $210,000, according
to court documents. Goeli, a tough guy described by racketeering trial
witnesses as a cold-blooded assassin, was ordered to pay the full amount
to Chemical Bank and $150,000 to Furs by Mina.
As of two months ago, Tommy Shots had ponied up just $450 in restitution — leaving an outstanding balance of $359,550.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mobster-ping-pong-payout-20191126-z6pdzhmg4ncx5ni3vlg32pma3a-story.html
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Junior Gotti locks eyes with former kidnapped rival at Staten Island wedding
Would you like the chicken or the old beef?
Temperatures ran high at a Staten Island wedding over the weekend because Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and John Gotti Jr. were both guests — which was awkward, since Gotti Jr. was charged with the kidnapping and attempted murder of Sliwa back in the ’90s.
We’re told that the pair were kept “on opposite sides of the room” at the nuptials of AM 970 host Frank Morano at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Sliwa — who founded the amateur crime-fighting group in 1979 — was kidnapped in a stolen taxi in 1992 and shot multiple times by a gunman who had been hiding in the front seat.
Sliwa had made disparaging remarks about Junior’s father, John Gotti, the late boss of the Gambino crime family. Gotti Jr. was tried multiple times, but never convicted.
After the wedding, Sliwa told us that he struggled to keep his mind off his fellow reveler.
“I would look in [Gotti Jr.’s] direction … You couldn’t miss John and his sister [Victoria Gotti].”
“To use street terminology, I was mad-dogging him,” he said, meaning that he was staring daggers at Junior. He added, “People were reminding me this was my friend’s wedding — don’t make a scene; don’t get into a dust-up.”
“There were a lot of people … taking my temperature and trying to distract me,” he said.
Also at the celebration was Maureen Gioeli, the wife of Tommy “Shots” Gioeli, an alleged high-ranking member of the Colombo crime family, and lawyer-turned-felon Frank Gangemi.
Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis, Staten Island Borough President James Oddo, City Council Minority Whip Joe Borelli, former Rep. Dan Donovan, billionaire John Catsimatidis and Harvey Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala also attended.
Former “SNL” star Joe Piscopo, who brought model Carol Alt, sang “New York, New York” and “That’s Life.”
https://pagesix.com/2019/09/30/curtis-silwa-guest-at-wedding-with-john-gotti-jr-once-charged-with-his-kidnapping/
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Feds seek to collect Tommy Shots $250K windfall for restitution
Mafia veteran “Tommy Shots” Gioeli’s lucky break — a fractured kneecap — is now a legal pain in the neck.
The
one-time street boss of the Colombo crime family won a recent $250,000
settlement for an August 2013 slip-and-fall while playing ping-pong
behind bars, only to find federal prosecutors want the cash to help
cover $360,000 in court-ordered restitution owed to a bank and a fur
store.
Gioeli,
acting as his own attorney, filed a massive 83-page court document from
his Connecticut prison cell arguing the injury payoff from the federal
Bureau of Prisons was off-limits to authorities.
The
tough guy, described by witnesses as a cold-blooded assassin during a
2012 trial where he was convicted of racketeering, wants the restitution
order amended based on his limited “level of contribution” to the two
heists.
“In
the case of the Furs by Mina robbery, the jury declined to ‘convict’
the defendant of any wrongdoing on that charge,” wrote Gioeli, referring
to himself in the third person. “(And) the defendant was never even
charged with any crime which contributed to a loss by Chemical Bank.”
Gioeli,
citing case law, argued it was “both noteworthy and relevant” that a
2012 ruling found the federal courts lacked the “inherent power” to
impose payback as part of a sentence.
“The
defendant respectfully contends that the $360,000 order of restitution
is void ... insofar as the court lacked the authority to order him to
pay restitution to either of the two victims," contended the gangster,
who is less than halfway through his 18 1/2-year prison term.
The
quarter-million dollar windfall came seven years after Gioeli’s
racketeering conviction in Brooklyn Federal Court, where he was found
guilty of conspiring to kill acolytes of family boss “Little Vic” Orena
in a war for control of the Colombo family.
His fall occurred inside Brooklyn’s Manhattan Detention Center, requiring surgery and a month-long hospitalization.
The
67-year-old mobster is currently paying off the court-ordered debt at
the rate of $25 every three months, with the current balance of money
owed at $359,800, according to court papers.
U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, in a response filed last week, insisted the government was within its rights to exact restitution from the convicted felon.
“Contrary
to Gioeli’s suggestion, (he) was convicted of racketeering conspiracy,
which included as relevant conduct proven by a preponderance of the
evidence the Furs by Mina robbery and the Chemical Bank robbery,” wrote
Donoghue. “It is irrelevant if the jury found either of those particular
acts not proven.”
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mobster-restitution-lawsuit-20190921-ymrvwpm3nneofpzr526s3qm6y4-story.html
U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, in a response filed last week, insisted the government was within its rights to exact restitution from the convicted felon.
"The
fact that Gioeli has received a judgment stemming from a personal
injury does not entitle him to a modification of the restitution
judgment,” Donoghue asserted in his four-page response. “...
Jurisdiction is lacking for the court to modify the restitution and,
even (if) there was jurisdiction, modification is not warranted.”
The
prosecutor also challenged Gioeli’s claim that the jury verdicts spared
him from paying back any money to either the store or the bank.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mobster-restitution-lawsuit-20190921-ymrvwpm3nneofpzr526s3qm6y4-story.html
Monday, December 3, 2018
Judge says Tommy Shots is equally liable for prison ping pong injury
A portly Colombo mobster who sued the U.S. government after he broke his own kneecap playing prison ping-pong is equally liable in his own accident, a judge has ruled.
Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli is 50 percent at fault for his August 2013 slip at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn federal court judge Kiyo Matsumoto found Thursday following a bench trial.
The imprisoned mob boss slid in a puddle of water near the prison showers as he chased an errant ping pong ball during an evening game, he testified earlier this year.
But the aged wiseguy’s off-brand Crock slippers couldn’t handle the pooled liquid and he went down on one knee, cracking his own knee cap.
Matsumoto wrote that she found Gioeli equally at fault for his injury — because he played ping-pong at the table twice a week for exercise, and testified the pooled water was always there.
Yet the judge also noted the federal prison had been equally negligent in cleaning up the water and allowing it to repeatedly accumulate, which led to the accident. The area was also poorly lit, she concluded.
Gioeli was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2012 after a jury found him guilty of helping plot mob-related murders. Yet Gioeli still owes the feds $365,000 in restitution as part of his sentence — meaning any money he’s awarded would go toward that debt first.
He’s due back in court in January for the damages portion of his civil case.
https://nypost.com/2018/11/29/judge-rules-mobster-equally-liable-for-prison-ping-pong-injury/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
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/
Monday, June 4, 2018
Jailed Colombo mobster Tommy Shots testifies in $10M suit against the feds for prison fall
A ping-pong paddle and a shower shoe were among the key evidence at the slip-and-fall trial for a portly ex-Colombo mob boss who is suing the feds for $10 million, claiming he fell and broke his kneecap during a 2013 ping-pong game in prison.
Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli, who was found guilty of racketeering a year earlier and sentenced to 18 years for plotting murders with a henchman, sued the Metropolitan Detention Center for his spill.
Gioeli says he went to retrieve a stray ping-pong ball and slipped on a puddle that frequently gathered outside of the unit’s showers due to a leaky slop sink.
The 65-year-old fat-fella — who appeared in Brooklyn federal court Monday aided by a walker — testified that he had repeatedly complained about the puddle to orderlies and prison personnel. “I got bad eyes to begin with so I didn’t see the water. I didn’t see it, just the ping-pong ball,” the murderous mobster said.
“I was walking to get the ping-pong ball and as I rounded the stairs I must have hit the water and I slipped and landed on my knee. My head went back and I was laying in the water,” Gioeli described.
Gioeli said the cement ground — which is covered in a glossy paint — was so slippery “it was like ice.”
The former wise guy – who testified he played table tennis a few times a week for exercise — was in the hospital for 30 days following the fall.
Government lawyers displayed Gioeli’s off-brand Crocs that he and other inmates use for showers, asking if tracked water from the shoes of the 120 men in the unit caused the puddle rather than a leaking sink.
“They stamp their shoes in the shower and then they walk out…that’s not the type of water I fell in. I fell in a deep puddle,” Gioeli answered.
Later a government lawyer, Kevin Cleary, brought out a ping-pong paddle asking if it could be used as a weapon and also attempted to ask Gioeli about his “goodfellas” friends in prison – questions which Judge Kiyo Matsumoto did not allow Gioeli to respond to.
A prison orderly, Sharif Stewart, backed up Gioeli’s testimony about the slippery conditions when he told the judge he had to clean up the puddle twice daily and had complained to three different prison staffers at least five to 10 times about the slippery area and the leaky sink.
During opening statements, Gioeli’s lawyer, Thomas Sofield, said, “The evidence will show that this was nothing more than an accident waiting to happen.”
Another government lawyer, Michael Castiglione, said in opening remarks that it was “a very unfortunate accident,” but that the prison, “exercised reasonable care.”
Castiglione added that Gioeli, “knowing the risk, seeing the risk went after the ping-pong ball.”
The bench trial is expected to conclude on Tuesday with Matsumoto issuing a ruling at a later date.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/04/mobster-testifies-in-10m-suit-over-prison-ping-pong-injury/
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
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Feds say former Colombo boss knew of dangers involved with playing ping pong
Mob life is dangerous. So, apparently, is Ping-Pong.
The feds, in seeking to toss a slip-and-fall suit filed by Colombo crime family big Thomas Gioeli, say that table tennis is a risky endeavor.
The 65-year-old wiseguy sued the government, saying he slipped in a puddle and hurt himself while playing the game while in federal lockup.
But court papers filed this week argue that Gioeli knew about Ping-Pong's perils — including walking on water to track down errant balls.
"Gioeli, by playing pingpong and retrieving a ball near the showers, assumed the risk of slipping on a wet floor," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevan Cleary wrote.
Gioeli said he slipped in August 2013 at the Metropolitan Detention Center while facing off with a twentysomething inmate he knew as "De."
During the fateful game, Gioeli, nicknamed Tommy Shots, missed a shot.
The ball rolled into the common area, near shower stalls. Gioeli slipped in a puddle and fractured his right kneecap. He needed an operation and physical therapy, according to court papers.
Gioeli's suit insists prison staff fell down on their jobs to create
and maintain safe conditions. He claimed he had long been complaining
about the slippery situation.
But Cleary insisted the case had to get tossed. Gioeli played even
though he knew of the room's showers and puddle, as well as the hazards
of retrieving balls."Scoring points in Ping-Pong entails hitting the ball past the opponent. Thus, an errant ball is the essence of Ping-Pong,” he said.
A trial on liability for the injury is scheduled for next month.
Gioeli's lawyer could be immediately reached for comment.
Gioeli was convicted for racketeering conspiracy in relation to murder plots. He is now incarcerated at a low-security prison in Connecticut, serving an almost 19-year sentence.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mob-boss-filed-slip-fall-suit-knew-ping-pong-perils-feds-article-1.3621940
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Turncoat Colombo captain facing life is sentenced to 11 years for helping feds bring down the crime family
The
last time the world heard from Dino Calabro was in 2012 when,
swaggering and ruddy-faced, he appeared in court as a government
informant and testified about the brutal murders he had once committed
on behalf of his mob employers.
Shrunken
and remorseful, Mr. Calabro was back in court on Friday, this time
facing a possible sentence of life in prison for his crimes and begging a
judge for mercy. His pleas in Federal District Court in Brooklyn were
answered as the judge concluded that his assistance as a witness had
helped to bring down scores of Mafiosi. He was sentenced to a term of 11
years.
The
sentence capped an inglorious career in which Mr. Calabro, known as Big
Dino, rose from a teenage mobster to a vicious captain in the Colombo
crime family who, by his own account, had over the years killed at least
eight people, including Ralph C. Dols,
a New York City police officer whose mistake was marrying the former
wife of the Colombo family leader Joel Cacace, Mr. Calabro’s onetime
boss. After he was arrested in 2008, Mr. Calabro turned informant and
eventually testified at Mr. Cacace’s trial and at the trial of Thomas
Gioeli, the Colombo family’s “street boss.”
For
the last five years, Mr. Calabro, now 59, has been in the witness
protection program and has continued to help the government pursue the
mob, federal prosecutors said. Though many of the cases that he worked
on still remain secret, one of the prosecutors, James Gatta, told the
court on Friday that Mr. Calabro had helped the government essentially
“incapacitate” the Colombo clan.
At
his sentencing hearing, Mr. Calabro renounced his past, saying that he
had been “intoxicated by the greed, power and notoriety” that went with
the gangster life and now was “mortified by the criminal culture” in
which he had chosen to invest his “life and identity.” He apologized to
the relatives of his victims, some of whom were sitting in the room, and
to his own family, which he acknowledged he had left in “shambles.”
Ralph C. Dols, a New York City police officer, was killed in 1997. Mr. Calabro was part of a crew responsible for his murder.
Credit
New York Police Department
Among
his victims was Frank Marsala who was shot to death in 1991 on 19th
Avenue in Brooklyn after Mr. Calabro and members of his crew suspected
him of having helped to kill a Colombo family associate named Ennab
Awjab. The next year, as the Colombo family erupted into violent civil
war, Mr. Calabro took part in the murders of John Minerva and Michael
Imbergamo, two Colombo members who were fatally shot in a car outside a
diner on Long Island.
Even in a city inured to violent crime, the murder of Officer Dols in 1997 was a shock. Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Cacace of ordering the killing because it was embarrassing
that his former wife, Kim T. Kennaugh, would leave him for a man who
worked in law enforcement. At Mr. Cacace’s trial, Mr. Calabro testified
that he was part of a crew that staked out Officer Dols’ house in
Sheepshead Bay and executed him outside.
But
Mr. Calabro reached what he described as “a tipping point” after
prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn issued an indictment
against him and 11 other Colombo family members in June 2008, charging
them with robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, loan-sharking and four
murders. (Officer Dols’ killing was not at first among them.) “Every
ounce of arrogance and bravado that had once been the bedrock of my
personality,” he said on Friday, “instantly sapped out of me.”
He
began to work with his former pursuers, testifying at separate trials
against Mr. Gioeli and Mr. Cacace, who, while acquitted on some of the
charges, were ultimately both imprisoned. The trials were remarkable for
the “level of hostility” with which the defendants’ lawyers treated Mr.
Calabro, his own lawyer, Richard Jasper, said on Friday. Judge Brian M.
Cogan, who oversaw the trials and issued Mr. Calabro’s sentence,
agreed. “I recall it vividly,” Judge Cogan said. “I have never seen
anything like it before or since.”
Before
Judge Cogan handed down the sentence, Rosa Gargano, the mother of a
young man the Colombo family killed, addressed the court. In 1994, Ms.
Gargano’s son, Carmine, then 21 and a college student in Brooklyn,
disappeared from his parents’ home. Years later, Mr. Calabro admitted in
court that he knew about the murder and helped to hide the body, which
has never been found.
“I am angry,” Ms. Gargano said, erupting into tears. “I want justice.”
After Mr. Calabro’s sentence was rendered, Ms. Gargano said she did not get it.
“My son got no mercy — he got mercy,” she said. “I am not happy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/nyregion/dino-calabro-mob-turncoat-sentenced.html
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
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