Judge refuses to rip up Colombo soldier's conviction for racketeering
A gangster serving 50 years in prison for racketeering couldn't convince a Brooklyn federal judge to rip up his conviction.
Colombo soldier Dino "Little Dino" Saracino argued he got subpar lawyering in a 2012 trial that ended with jurors saying he was guilty of murder conspiracies and witness tampering but acquitting him of killing an off-duty cop.
A family feud exploded at trial when Saracino's older brother, Sebastian, took the stand against him. "Don't call me your brother no more!" Saracino barked at him.
On Friday, Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan threw out Saracino's bid to overturn the conviction and sentence.
Saracino wasn't charged in the 1993 killing of Joseph Scopo, an underboss in an opposing faction. But he was charged and convicted of murder conspiracy in crime family faction violence.
When Cogan smacked Saracino with the 50-year sentence in 2014, the judge weighed Saracino's role in the civil war whack. Authorities said Saracino was gathering intelligence on the whereabouts of faction enemies including Scopo.
Saracino argued his lawyer at the time didn't make the right sort of arguments to keep Scopo's death off the scales of justice.
Cogan ruled Saracino's sentence would have been the same, regardless of the arguments.
He noted that Saracino didn't give him any real evidence to weigh against his convicted crimes. "As the Court observed at sentencing, Saracino is a Mafia hitman, and that's about all there is to him," Cogan wrote Friday.
Saracino, 45, is locked up at a Pennsylvania federal prison.
Marc Fernich, Saracino's lawyer on the recent bid, said he was "disappointed in the ruling."
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/colombo-mobster-loses-bid-racketeering-conviction-tossed-article-1.3546023
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