Jury delivers stinging verdict against the government at Philadelphia mob trial
In a stunning rebuke of the government's case, a jury today
found mobster George Borgesi not guilty of racketeering conspiracy, acquitted
mob boss Joe Ligambi of a witness tampering charge and hung on three other
counts against Ligambi.
The panel of 11 women and one man had voted 10-2 to acquit
Ligambi of a conspiracy charge and two gambling charges he faced.
Ligambi's lawyer,
Edwin Jacobs Jr., said he would file a motion next week asking for bail for
Ligambi, 74, who has been jailed since he was indicted in the case back in May
2011. Borgesi, 50, was released today. The South Philadelphia capo, who is
Ligambi's nephew, has been in jail since his arrest in an unrelated
racketeering case in March 2000 for which he subsequently was sentenced to 14
years.
"Thank you, thank you," Borgesi's brother,
Anthony, said to the jurors as they left the courtroom after announcing the
partial verdict in the case.
It was the second time in less than a year that a federal
jury rejected the government's charges against Ligambi and Borgesi. Family
members and friends smiled and hugged one another after the jury left the
courtroom.
"Thank God," said Manny Borgesi, George's
Borgesi's mother, as she hugged her son Anthony. They had attended nearly every
day of the trial. Manny Borgesi is Joe Ligambi's sister. Borgesi's wife Alyson,
who had been barred from the courtroom, smiled and hugged family members in the
hallway after learning of the verdict that will send her husband home for the
first time since they were married.
The couple wed while Borgesi was in a federal prison in West
Virginia serving the 14-year sentence from the 2000 case.
"Once again they did not lay a finger on us,"
Jacobs said after the jury's decisions were announced. (Ligambi) has emerged
from two federal trials without a scratch."
Jacobs was referring to the fact that Ligambi was found not
guilty of five of the nine counts he faced in the first trial that ended in
February. The current trial focused on the four remaining counts. Jacobs also
said he was disappointed that the jury in the current case was unable to reach
a decision on the three counts on which they hung.
"It's a damn shame the two dissenters didn't respect
the views of the 10 who were clearly on the right path," he said. In
addition to filing a motion for bail, Jacobs is expected to ask for a quick
decision from the government on whether they intend to retry Ligambi a third
time.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor, the lead prosecutor in
the case, said that decision rests with the Justice Department in Washington.
Labor said he was "disappointed" in the jury verdict. But he pointed
out that the overall impact of the case has been to "disrupt La Cosa
Nostra in Philadelphia."
Of the 14 defendants named in the indictment handed up in
this case, 10 have either been convicted or pleaded guilty. Only two, Joseph
"Scoops" Licata and Borgesi, have been acquitted. One defendant is
still awaiting trial and Ligambi's status remains in limbo.
Borgesi's lawyer, Christopher Warren, was quick to praise
Jacobs for leading the defense during the eight-week trial.
"The architect of (the acquittals of both defendants)
is standing right over there," Warren said as he pointed toward Jacobs.
Warren also urged everyone in both camps and those he has seen filing comments
on this website to tone down the rhetoric.
"It's been an exhausting and gut-wrenching trial,"
he said. "We're well passed the time for the ugly vitriol to be put to
bed. Let's move on."
Both lawyers chided the government for calling witnesses
whose credibility and motivation were suspect. In fact, the case against
Borgesi was built almost entirely around the testimony of mob informants Louis
"Bent Finger Lou" Monacello and Anthony Aponick.
Jacobs, repeating an argument he made in his closing, said
it was impossible to believe that "any reasonable grown-up would base any
important decision" on the word of the suspect witnesses the government
used to build its case.
And, as he had argued to the jury, Jacobs said the
government's case was built on "ancient history" and the phony
assumption that Ligambi was the boss of a criminal organization. The mob,
Jacobs had told the jury, was dismantled more than a decade ago.
While gambling and loansharking still takes place, "as
it does in every major city," Jacobs said, those involved in those
businesses are "independent contractors" and not part of an organized
criminal conspiracy.
While Jacobs said he was prepared to retry the case a third time,
he said he hoped the government would not waste taxpayer money for a third
chance at conviction.
Warren took a parting shot at Monacello, who is reportedly
living in Ventnor, joking that "there are a lot of walnuts cracking in an
asshole in Ventnor right now." Warren defended Borgesi in the current
case. He had represented Licata in the first case. His clients are the only two
defendants to win acquittals thus far.
Borgesi was found not guilty of 13 of the 14 counts he faced
in the first trial, but the jury hung on the conspiracy count that was retried
this time. The defendant left the federal building with his wife, mother and
other family members. They were reportedly celebrating his release this
afternoon at a party at his brother Anthony's South Philadelphia home.
http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/day-nine-in-mob-jury-deliberatoins.html#AoWh14VDJvj7qMZu.99
0 comments:
Post a Comment