Mobster asks judge for permission to go to Las Vegas
This wiseguy’s a real joker.
Mobster Paul Cassano was charged with 46 others last August in a massive racketeering takedown, which implicated him in sports gambling business based in New York, Florida and Costa Rica, prosecutors said.
That didn’t stop Cassano from asking Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan, who’s presiding over his case, to let him go to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.
The 38-year-old is currently only allowed to travel freely through portions of New York state while he awaits trial.
“Mr. Cassano is a registered poker player is requesting permission to travel to Las Vegas ... to participate in the World Series of Poker tournament. He has participated in this tournament each year since 2005 and constitutes a substantial portion of his yearly income that goes to provide for himself and his family,” wrote Cassano's lawyer A. James Bell.
"The tournament is scheduled to begin on May 30th and concludes on July 13th of 2017. Mr. Cassano, however, is requesting permission travel to Las Vegas, staying through June 12th of 2017.”
But Sullivan shot down Cassano’s request on Thursday.
Given that Cassano "has been charged with participating in a racketing enterprise engaged in, inter alia, illegal gambling activity," Sullivan reasoned, "the Court is unwilling to modify Defendant's bail conditions to allow him to travel to Las Vegas to participate in a poker tournament."
Bell did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
Cassano isn't the first accused East Coast La Cosa Nostra member in this indictment to unsuccessfully ask Sullivan for gambling-related breaks.
Anthony "The Kid" Camisa was on the lam around four months after the racketeering charges came down in August.
The feds caught Camisa in late December and prosecutors pushed for him to be jailed pending trial — saying his MIA status made him flighty.
Camisa's lawyer argued for bail, telling Sullivan his client's MIA status was for a "practical reason."
"Your Honor knows that the government claims that my client has a gambling business,"his lawyer, Gerald McMahon, said at a Jan. 12 bail hearing. "Without being indelicate, I think it is fair to say that my client expressed to me that he intended to surrender after the Super Bowl ... "
"Judge, I told you what the reality is. The reality is he was going to come in after the Super Bowl," McMahon continued.
"If we accept the government's allegations for purposes of this bail hearing that he is a gambler, there is a practical reason why somebody would wait until after the Super Bowl to surrender," McMahon contended.
Sullivan said Camisa demonstrated "impulsivity and immaturity" in denying his request.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mobster-charged-racketeering-takedown-requests-travel-vegas-article-1.3030551
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