Family of mob victim blasts judge for recommending his early release
A Brooklyn federal judge may be seeking leniency for a convicted mobster-turned-model prisoner — but the victim’s family sure isn’t.
The family is outraged at the judge’s resentencing recommendation — saying the “chance that this animal can get out earlier than 20 years is taking its toll on me physically and mentally,” the dead man's 82-year-old mother wrote to the judge and prosecutors.
John Imbrieco is doing 20 years for a plea to RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice following a fatal 1994 shooting at a Genovese crime family social club in Williamsburg.
Sabato Lombardi was killed and another man was wounded in the shooting. Imbrieco was a Bonnano associate at the time, while Lombardi and the other shooting victim, Michael D’Urso, were members of the Genovese crime family.
Last month, Brooklyn Federal Judge Leo Glasser recommended prosecutors agree to a sentence of time served for Imbrieco.
Imbrieco is more than 15 years into his 20-year prison sentence. The 53-year-old former mobster had written Glasser — saying he was a reformed man, while co-defendants ultimately had no convictions for the shooting. Imbrieco noted his efforts to improve himself behind bars, ticking off completed programs including taking plumbing courses and even spin classes.
Lombardi’s family learned of the judge's request after reading the Daily News. Now they’re urging prosecutors not to disturb Imbrieco’s sentence.
It would be an injustice for Imbrieco to get out early, Lombardi’s mother, sister, brothers and would-be future sister-in-law told Glasser and Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers.
In one of the letters submitted Monday, younger brother Antonio, 40, said the family sat through months of trials and appeals.
“An early release to John Imbrieco only makes us feel the judicial system failed us once again,” he wrote.
Lombardi’s mother, Pasqualina, said no mother should bury her son — especially the way she had to, without saying how much she loved Lombardi.
“Prison doesn't change murderers,” she wrote.
In an interview with The News, Lombardi’s older sister, Assunta, wondered: “Is Judge Glasser setting precedent for a murderer?”
She said Imbrieco “knows how to game the system.”
Whatever life her brother led, Assunta, 58, said Lombardi "kept us out of it.”
“Above all, he was a human being," she added.
Lombardi never came home that November 1994 night, Assunta said.
"We've been dealing with that for 23 years,” she said.
Prosecutors haven't filed a reply yet to Glasser's recommendation. A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office declined comment Tuesday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/vic-kin-outraged-nyc-mobster-shot-early-released-article-1.2972649
0 comments:
Post a Comment