Uncle Joe is released from prison after fending off government efforts to convict him a second time
Mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi is being processed
out of prison this morning, ending a two
and a half year stay as a "guest" of the
government in the Federal Detention Center at 7th and Arch streets.
Judge Eduardo Robreno
dismissed the remaining counts pending against the 74-year-old crime leader
after federal prosecutors filed a motion yesterday declaring that they would
not retry Ligambi a third time on conspiracy and gambling charges.
Ligambi has been in jail since he and a dozen others were
indicted on racketeering conspiracy and related gambling and loansharking
charges in May 2011. He was twice denied bail.
But once federal authorities filed a motion to dismiss the
remaining counts against him, bail was no longer an issue.
Most observers believe the U.S. Attorney's Office wisely
opted to cut its losses and save the fight for another day. Whether that day is
close at hand remains an open question. If the government comes again with a
mob case, those in both law enforcement and the criminal defense bar believe,
it will need a more substantial body of evidence than it had this time around.
A jury on Friday acquitted Ligambi of one count of witness
tampering and hung -- voting 10-2 to acquit -- on the three other counts.
Earlier this year, in the first trial based on the same indictment, a jury
found Ligambi not guilty of five of the nine counts he faced. The four
remaining counts were the basis for the trial that ended last week.
The anonymously chosen jury of 11 women and one man was
apparently less than overwhelmed by the government's case.
"There was very little physical evidence and the
witnesses were convicted criminals," one juror, who asked not to be
identified, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "... if the government could
have provided us with credible witnesses, maybe things would have been
different."
The jury also found Ligambi's co-defendant, George Borgesi,
50, not guilty of a conspiracy charge.
Borgesi was freed on Friday.
The two veteran mobsters returned to an underworld that is
at best unsettled. Whether either will attempt to exert control and influence
is an open question being asked by both state and federal authorities. Borgesi,
who was serving a 14-year sentence in a separate racketeering case when he was
indicted in May 2011, will be on supervised release for about 18 months.
Free for the first time since March 2000, he is not
permitted to associate with any convicted felons or organized crime figures and
his travel is limited to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania unless he
receives permission from his probation officer.
Borgesi, a leader in the mob once headed by Joseph
"Skinny Joey" Merlino, is one of nearly a dozen mobsters who comprise
at least three difference factions in the beleaguered Philadelphia - South
Jersey underworld.
Several individuals convicted and jailed in the 1980s with
mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo are now back on the streets.
While Merlino is living in Florida, several key associates, including Borgesi,
Steven Mazzone and John Ciancaglini, are in town. And Ligambi and some other
veteran mobsters who could line up in either camp, are also now part of the
landscape.
Does everyone play nice and get along or does greed and
treachery dominate? That's the question several veteran law enforcement
investigators are asking.
The situation is further clouded by two pending criminal
prosecutions.
Mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo, 42, is awaiting trial for the
gangland murder of Gino DiPietro in December 2012. The day light shooting on a
South Philadelphia street corner has been described by investigators as one of
the "dumbest" mob hits in Philadelphia history.
Nicodemo was arrested 30 minutes after the shooting in his
home about five blocks from the murder scene. A gun and other evidence linked
to the crime were found in his SUV parked in his driveway.
A year later Ronald Galati, a mob associate and South
Philadelphia auto body shop owner, was arrested on witness intimidation and
murder-for-hire charges. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office formalized
those charges in an indictment that was unveiled yesterday a few hours before
the feds were moving to dismiss the charges against Ligambi.
Galati is charged with hiring hitmen to kill two witnesses
against him in a insurance fraud investigation. The 63-year-old wannabe wiseguy
did 37 months on similar fraud charges in 1995.
"This time he's turned an insurance fraud case into a
murder-for-hire case," said one law enforcement source. And that has
raised the stakes considerably.
Galati, who claims he is in poor health (a judge has denied
him bail, rejecting the medical argument), is now looking at a possible 30-year
prison sentence. In addition, a broader indictment charging him with insurance
fraud is expected from the District Attorney's Office within the next two
weeks.
And in New Jersey, an ongoing investigation continues into
the shooting of Galati's daughter's boyfriend in Atlantic City. The same hitmen
tied to the murder-for-hire case in Philadelphia are believed to be those who
carried out that shooting. The boyfriend survived. The shooters are said to be
cooperating in both cases.
Galati is a target in that shooting and in a separate
insurance fraud investigation focusing on the arson of at least one boat,
according to sources familiar with the case.
At some point the various agencies handling the
investigations are expected to map out a strategy for prosecution that could
include the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The unanswered question -- and one that could put a damper
on the welcome home festivities for both Ligambi and Borgesi -- is whether
Nicodemo and Galati opt to cut deals with authorities in order to get out from
under their own criminal problems.
Authorities would like to question both men about a series
of unsolved mob murders. For either defendant, that could be their get out of
jail card. But as the juror in the Ligambi trial pointed out, the question for
prosecutors as they consider building new cases is whether Nicodemo and Galati would be "credible
witnesses" or just two more "convicted criminals" taking the stand
in a government deal with the devil.
http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/uncle-joe-is-heading-home-to-unsettled.html#3KIpz5eUA2x3x54m.99
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