Slain officer's sister to address Gambino hit man Charles Carneglia
A Brooklyn judge will let the sister of slain court officer Albert Gelb speak at Thursday's sentencing of a Gambino hit man, despite the defense claim that her testimony is "irrelevant."
"I'm entitled to closure," Emily Gelb told the Daily News on Tuesday. "I need to explain my grief and relief that this is finally over for us.
"I think it's my obligation to speak about this crime perpetrated against my family."
Charles Carneglia was convicted in March of four gangland killings. The jury deadlocked on whether he killed Gelb in 1976 to prevent the decorated officer from testifying against him in a gun case.
Defense lawyer Kelley Sharkey had argued that since there was no conviction, Gelb had no right to speak.
"With all due respect to their loss, the comments of the [Gelb] family are irrelevant," Sharkey said.
Federal Judge Jack Weinstein said Gelb could speak because there was ample evidence of Carneglia's involvement in the assassination.
Dennis Quirk, president of the state court officers association, called the defense team "scum" for trying to muzzle Gelb's sister.
"It's not going to change the outcome of [Carneglia's life sentence], so why deny her the right to speak?" Quirk said. "The attorneys have to do their job, but this was a low blow."
Carneglia will face a sea of blue in the courtroom, with 60 uniformed court officers expected to attend the sentencing.
"We want him to wake up every day in prison to that picture in his mind of all those officers," Quirk said.
The mob goon will also get an earful from the daughters of armored car driver Jose Delgado Rivera, who was gunned down in 1990 in a stickup at Kennedy Airport.
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