Feds: Mobster dangled mother-in-law from roof
Disputes within organized- crime families that are settled through violence are legendary.
But the crime family is not the only one that sees violence when reputed wiseguys set out to settle scores, federal prosecutors say. Sometimes it reaches into the mobsters' homes.
Take the case of Peter Pace, a 49-year-old reputed Genovese crime family associate charged along with 126 other reputed Mafia members and associates in last month's historic FBI takedown.
Pace, who lives in Patterson, is alleged to have settled one family dispute by dangling an adversary from the roof of a six-story Bronx building.
That adversary was not another mobster, though. It was his mother-in-law, federal prosecutors say.
Pace was said to be upset that his mother-in-law was telling people that he was going to rob them. In an expletive-laden diatribe recounted in court papers by federal prosecutors, Pace called his wife's mother "a ... junkie."
"I tried to throw her off the roof on Viewmont Avenue back in 1988," he said, according to court papers. He reputedly said she was trying to "set me up with the neighborhood."
"So I brought her up to the ... roof about six stories ... I hung her off the ... side of the roof," he said.
In an indictment unsealed Jan. 20, Pace was charged along with three other men with extortion. He also was charged with racketeering.
Prosecutors said Pace conspired with reputed longtime Genovese soldier Daniel Cilenti, 83, of Yonkers to shake down a construction industry executive. They are also charged with extorting a second victim who owed money to the first victim.
In that case, they are alleged to have enlisted the aid of Dominic Caramanica, a retired New York City police officer from Suffern, to pay a visit to the second victim so that the "message will be sent," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank quoted one defendant as saying about Caramanica's visit.
Caramanica's lawyer, James Frocarro said Caramanica "pled not guilty and is presumed innocent."
A lawyer for Pace, who also pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court, did not respond to requests for comment.
Frank asked that Pace be held without bail, citing his assault conviction in 1991 in Westchester County Court for which Pace was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Pace is alleged to have told an extortion victim that he had shot a man and sustained several bullet wounds himself, according to court papers.
Caramanica and Pace each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Pace was released on $1.5 million bond, and Caramanica on $1 million bond.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20110203/NEWS02/102030392/-1/newsfront/Feds--Mobster-dangled-mother-in-law-from-roof
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