Judge denies compassionate release to former Colombo street boss Tommy Shots

Judge denies compassionate release to former Colombo street boss Tommy Shots

  May 23, 2020    Dapper_Don

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A Brooklyn federal judge ruled former Colombo family street boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli was entitled to the same level of empathy as his mob murder victims: Zero.

The 67-year-old gangster’s appeal for early release from his 18½-year prison sentence was pointedly rejected by Judge Brian Cogan in a Thursday decision that will keep him behind bars despite Gioeli’s concerns about contracting coronavirus.

Gioeli “displayed a callous disregard for human life, and I am not persuaded that he warrants more compassion and understanding than I demonstrated when I imposed a less than maximum sentence,” wrote Cogan in the nine-page decision. “He and his crew committed multiple murders that I know of from evidence at trial.”

Some of the killings stemmed from a 1990s war for control of the crime family between murderous factions representing acting boss Victor "Little Vic" Orena and imprisoned boss Carmine "Junior" Persico.

“The evidence of these murders was detailed, grisly and left me with no doubt to the defendant’s involvement,” wrote Cogan, who spared Gioeli an additional 16 months in jail after the mobster’s 2012 federal conviction.

According to court papers, Gioeli’s appeal for freedom cited an injured knee, diabetes, prior heart attacks, heart surgery and exposure to coronavirus while at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn. His current release date, with credit for good time, is May 2, 2024.

“I cannot find that defendant’s circumstances warrant compassionate release,” ruled Cogan. “His preexisting medical conditions by themselves are simply not the kind of life-threatening impairments that militate towards release ... (and) I cannot find that the danger defendant faces from the mere threat of (COVID-19) constitutes an extraordinary and compelling reason for compassionate release.”

The ruling was the latest bit of legal bad luck for Gioeli, who collected a $250,000 settlement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a slip-and-fall case — only to see federal prosecutors argue for forfeiture of $182,000 from the windfall for restitution to his crime victims.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-tommy-shots-coronavirus-20200521-2ev2pouxp5hthhnluhkwonf2le-story.html