Friends of ours: John "Dapper Don" Gotti
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Carappa
Mob cop Louis Eppolito will be allowed to air his gripes about his flashy former lawyer Bruce Cutler - who he says defended him poorly at his murder trial.
At the convicted killer's request, Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein ordered lawyers back into court June 29 to hash out the matter, including Cutler. "Defense counsel spent the majority of Mr. Eppolito's closing argument speaking about himself, including [that] he lost 14 pounds during trial," new lawyer Joseph Bondy said in a court document.
The ostentatious lawyer and client parted ways in late April after the conviction. Eppolito and Cutler had even argued about the defense, which lasted about 12 minutes.
Cutler, who also defended late mob boss "Dapper Don" John Gotti, didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.
The hearing is unlikely to have an impact on whether Weinstein will throw out the conviction, because the judge has already hinted strongly that he would let an appeals court decide the matter. The murder conviction could be reversed due to statute-of-limitations considerations.
Eppolito and fellow mob cop Stephen Caracappa are to be sentenced on May 22. The pair face life in the slammer.
The two were convicted of committing a slew of gangland slayings in the late '80s and early '90s while wearing their shields, as well as dealing drugs in Las Vegas in 2004.
Thanks to Heidi Singer
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Friday, May 05, 2006
NY "Mafia" Firm is Closed
Friends of ours: Gambino Crime Family, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, Edward Garofola, Michael "Mickey Scars" DiLeonardo
New York City has ordered a mob-tainted construction company at the center of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik's bribe-taking probe to shut down because the owners "lacked character, honesty and integrity,". The Bloomberg administration's decision to deny permits for Interstate Materials Corp. to work within the five boroughs followed a ruling by the city's Business Integrity Commission that ripped into owners Peter and Frank DiTommaso, officials said.
According to officials, the BIC, formerly known as the Trade Waste Commission, quietly issued a "supplemental ruling" on Interstate's mob connections last fall that determined the company was not fit to do business in or with the city.
The commission also determined the DiTommasos bought the company from two major Gambino crime-family figures - Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, Edward Garofola, and Michael "Mickey Scars" DiLeonardo - merely to help the mobsters "avoid regulatory scrutiny and preserve the mob's influence over the transfer station," commission Chairman Thomas McCormack wrote.
Nearly two months later, the city Sanitation Department yanked "temporary" permits allowing Interstate to operate its massive "clean-fill material" facility on Staten Island for the past 10 years. City officials also instructed Interstate that it had until New Year's Eve to shut down.
Interstate obtained a stay from the Richmond County Supreme Court challenging the edict. A final decision regarding the city's right to cut off Interstate is expected shortly, Sanitation Department spokesman Vito Turso said.
Meanwhile, in The Bronx, a grand jury is continuing to probe whether Interstate paid for nearly $200,000 worth of apartment renovations for Kerik, then city correction commissioner.
It is also investigating whether the firm hired his brother, Donald, and a one-time close friend, Lawrence Ray, in exchange for getting Kerik to go to bat with the Trade Waste Commission. Kerik and the DiTommasos have denied any wrongdoing.
Sources say the Bronx grand jury will be asked in two weeks to indict Kerik.
Thanks to Murray Weis
New York City has ordered a mob-tainted construction company at the center of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik's bribe-taking probe to shut down because the owners "lacked character, honesty and integrity,". The Bloomberg administration's decision to deny permits for Interstate Materials Corp. to work within the five boroughs followed a ruling by the city's Business Integrity Commission that ripped into owners Peter and Frank DiTommaso, officials said.
According to officials, the BIC, formerly known as the Trade Waste Commission, quietly issued a "supplemental ruling" on Interstate's mob connections last fall that determined the company was not fit to do business in or with the city.
The commission also determined the DiTommasos bought the company from two major Gambino crime-family figures - Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, Edward Garofola, and Michael "Mickey Scars" DiLeonardo - merely to help the mobsters "avoid regulatory scrutiny and preserve the mob's influence over the transfer station," commission Chairman Thomas McCormack wrote.
Nearly two months later, the city Sanitation Department yanked "temporary" permits allowing Interstate to operate its massive "clean-fill material" facility on Staten Island for the past 10 years. City officials also instructed Interstate that it had until New Year's Eve to shut down.
Interstate obtained a stay from the Richmond County Supreme Court challenging the edict. A final decision regarding the city's right to cut off Interstate is expected shortly, Sanitation Department spokesman Vito Turso said.
Meanwhile, in The Bronx, a grand jury is continuing to probe whether Interstate paid for nearly $200,000 worth of apartment renovations for Kerik, then city correction commissioner.
It is also investigating whether the firm hired his brother, Donald, and a one-time close friend, Lawrence Ray, in exchange for getting Kerik to go to bat with the Trade Waste Commission. Kerik and the DiTommasos have denied any wrongdoing.
Sources say the Bronx grand jury will be asked in two weeks to indict Kerik.
Thanks to Murray Weis
Judge: Basis for Appeal in 'Mafia Cops' Trial
The judge
, who presided over the Mafia Cops Trial, of two former police detectives convicted of moonlighting as hit men for the mob denied the defendants' request to overturn the verdict, but the judge acknowledged there is basis for an appeal.
Louis Eppolito and former New York Police Department partner Stephen Caracappa were convicted on April 6 of participating in eight killings while on the payroll of a Mafia underboss, Anthony Casso.
Their lawyers appeared before U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein.
Weinstein says "It was not a strong case, and the government was warned that from day one.'' Eppolito and Caracappa were respected detectives who worked as hired killers for Casso from 1986 to 1990. In two of the slayings, they used their police credentials to make traffic stops that ended with the drivers killed.
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, who presided over the Mafia Cops Trial, of two former police detectives convicted of moonlighting as hit men for the mob denied the defendants' request to overturn the verdict, but the judge acknowledged there is basis for an appeal.Louis Eppolito and former New York Police Department partner Stephen Caracappa were convicted on April 6 of participating in eight killings while on the payroll of a Mafia underboss, Anthony Casso.
Their lawyers appeared before U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein.
Weinstein says "It was not a strong case, and the government was warned that from day one.'' Eppolito and Caracappa were respected detectives who worked as hired killers for Casso from 1986 to 1990. In two of the slayings, they used their police credentials to make traffic stops that ended with the drivers killed.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Strippers + Golf + Police + The Chicago Mob = Lawsuit
Strippers on a golf course, some suburban police and the Chicago mob. They all come together in an unusual lawsuit that is the subject of this Intelligence Report. The case follows an I-Team report from 2002.
Several patrolmen from west suburban Northlake lost their jobs after participating in a police golf outing that featured exotic dancers acting as caddies. That was almost four years ago. Now, one of the former cops who attended the outing is suing Northlake and its police chief for allegedly smearing his reputation and blackballing him with other police departments.
I-Team surveillance spotted Northlake police officers and some local business leaders gathering with female caddies in the summer of 2002. The women had been deployed to the golf outing from their full-time place of employment: Allstars Gentlemen's Club in west suburban Northlake where they work as strippers or barmaids.
"They were dressed just like anybody else going to a golf outing. I doubt any of the golfers knew if they were waitresses or nurses or whatever, and they were working spending their time their day for a good cause helping people get scholarships, and frankly we applaud the Northlake lodge for the efforts that they are doing," said David Wickster, FOP labor council.
Among the outing organizers was veteran lawman Ementi Coary, a Northlake patrolman. After the I-Team report revealed these 18-hole antics, there was an internal investigation of Coary and several other cops who all resigned.
"The outing in question was not a sanctioned by the police department or city," said Chief Dennis Koletsos, Northlake police. But Chief Dennis Koletsos is being sued by ex-officer Coary for slander and allegedly breaching their agreement that Coary's history would not be revealed to any prospective employers.
In the Cook County suit, Coary says he was not hired for a police position in Rosemont after Koletsos revealed he had a videotape of Coary taking cash from the mob-connected strip club and has telephone records of Coary in phone conversations with Chicago outfit boss James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.
Coary denies the charges and Chief Koletsos says he never made the comments alleged in the lawsuit.
There is another curious element to this story. The Northlake police produced a slick, 20-minute video to recruit new officers. The tape is accessible on Northlake's web site. But four years after Northlake's police department was embarrassed by a stripper golf outing, the officers involved-, resigned long ago, are still on Northlake's recruitment tape.
Even disgraced officer Ementi Coary, who claims the chief has framed him as being mobbed up and is now suing the department, is still starring in their video.
The police chief says Northlake doesn't have enough money to edit out Coary and the others from that recruitment tape. As for the suit, the chief said "when you open Pandora's box, you never know what's going to come out."
Coary now works as part-time policeman in Melrose Park.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
I-Team surveillance spotted Northlake police officers and some local business leaders gathering with female caddies in the summer of 2002. The women had been deployed to the golf outing from their full-time place of employment: Allstars Gentlemen's Club in west suburban Northlake where they work as strippers or barmaids.
"They were dressed just like anybody else going to a golf outing. I doubt any of the golfers knew if they were waitresses or nurses or whatever, and they were working spending their time their day for a good cause helping people get scholarships, and frankly we applaud the Northlake lodge for the efforts that they are doing," said David Wickster, FOP labor council.
Among the outing organizers was veteran lawman Ementi Coary, a Northlake patrolman. After the I-Team report revealed these 18-hole antics, there was an internal investigation of Coary and several other cops who all resigned.
"The outing in question was not a sanctioned by the police department or city," said Chief Dennis Koletsos, Northlake police. But Chief Dennis Koletsos is being sued by ex-officer Coary for slander and allegedly breaching their agreement that Coary's history would not be revealed to any prospective employers.
In the Cook County suit, Coary says he was not hired for a police position in Rosemont after Koletsos revealed he had a videotape of Coary taking cash from the mob-connected strip club and has telephone records of Coary in phone conversations with Chicago outfit boss James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.
Coary denies the charges and Chief Koletsos says he never made the comments alleged in the lawsuit.
There is another curious element to this story. The Northlake police produced a slick, 20-minute video to recruit new officers. The tape is accessible on Northlake's web site. But four years after Northlake's police department was embarrassed by a stripper golf outing, the officers involved-, resigned long ago, are still on Northlake's recruitment tape.
Even disgraced officer Ementi Coary, who claims the chief has framed him as being mobbed up and is now suing the department, is still starring in their video.
The police chief says Northlake doesn't have enough money to edit out Coary and the others from that recruitment tape. As for the suit, the chief said "when you open Pandora's box, you never know what's going to come out."
Coary now works as part-time policeman in Melrose Park.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
The Mafia Guide to Succeeding in Business
California based Network Media, Inc. has released a new Web site that shows how entrepreneurs can learn valuable business lessons from the Mafia.
MafiaGuide is based on the lifelong friendship that a company associate shared with a reputed mob boss, and his list of "rules" for succeeding in business." Network Media President, Christopher Stewart, calls the Web site the first of its kind.
"The Mafia Guide to Succeeding in Business draws positive business lessons from a nefarious source," says Stewart. "That's the obvious hook. However, as visitors to the Web site will quickly see, the lessons learned are powerful and invaluable to anyone either starting a business or building one."
The Web site is a teaser for the upcomming book, The Mafia Guide to Starting a Small Business, which is currently in production.
MafiaGuide is based on the lifelong friendship that a company associate shared with a reputed mob boss, and his list of "rules" for succeeding in business." Network Media President, Christopher Stewart, calls the Web site the first of its kind.
"The Mafia Guide to Succeeding in Business draws positive business lessons from a nefarious source," says Stewart. "That's the obvious hook. However, as visitors to the Web site will quickly see, the lessons learned are powerful and invaluable to anyone either starting a business or building one."
The Web site is a teaser for the upcomming book, The Mafia Guide to Starting a Small Business, which is currently in production.
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