Jailed Underboss of the Buffalo crime family gets a new chance at freedom
An imprisoned Canadian who claimed he was the second-in-command of a New York Mafia family has won a new chance for freedom — after arguing he was never convicted of being a mobster and so he shouldn’t be considered one by the parole board.
Domenico Violi’s family has been an important part of Mafia history in both Canada and Italy for generations.
His father was Montreal Mafia boss Paolo Violi, who was killed in 1978 by members of the rival Rizzuto clan; his mother is the daughter of former Hamilton, Ont., Mafia chief Giacomo Luppino; and his namesake grandfather led a Mafia clan back in Italy.
In 2017, police wiretaps caught Violi boasting of making some Mafia history of his own, according to documents filed in court.
Violi, now 55, was caught in an unusual police probe that featured a “made member” of a New York City Mafia organization, the Bonanno family, working as a police informant for both U.S. and Canadian police. Because the Mafia is a secret society, recording what alleged members privately said to each other offered a rare, insider’s view of the Mafia on both sides of the border, prosecutors said.
When the American informant met with Violi in 2017, according to court documents, Violi told him he had been made “the underboss” of the Mafia organization based in Buffalo, N.Y. The underboss is the second-highest position in an American Mafia family.
If true, he would be the only person in Canada to ever be named to one of the top leadership positions in any U.S.-based Mafia clan.
“Domenic, you know you made history,” Violi said the alleged boss of the Buffalo Mafia told him when Violi was promoted to the position, according to a wiretap summary.
Violi was arrested at the end of the three-year probe.
At his trial in 2018, Violi struck a deal, pleading guilty to drug trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime while criminal organization charges against him were dropped. His guilty plea meant the veracity of the wiretaps were never tested in court.
He was sentenced to six years, four months and 21 days in prison.
The plea also meant Violi was never judicially deemed a mob member, let alone the underboss of a Mafia family, and that became important this month when Violi made his case for freedom.
His application for day parole and full parole had been denied in April by the Parole Board of Canada.
At that parole hearing, the board heard Violi’s application and numerous letters of support from members of the community of his positive contribution as a businessman and a philanthropist.
Just 35 minutes into that hearing, however, board members started directly asking him about his alleged ties to “traditional organized crime,” which is what Canadian police and justice officials call the Mafia.
The board was told of Violi’s behaviour in prison.
“You have maintained institutional employment, with excellent work reports, and participated in voluntary activities including learning new languages and playing guitar, as well as attending church services institutionally,” the April decision said. It also cautioned he had been involved in the purchase of money orders by a known associate of his, and sent to other inmates, “some of whom are known to be involved in the institutional drug subculture.”
Police told the board in April that Violi’s safety, as well as public safety, “could be at risk due to retaliatory violent occurrences in the community.”
As well, the board heard confidential information from police and prison officials. Prison officials recommended his parole be denied, partly due to his “ties to organized crime as a key player in an identified crime family.”
Violi denied being involved in organized crime.
Nonetheless, the parole board in April denied him release.
“It is the Board’s opinion that any involvement with organized crime will not result in the protection of society. Therefore, on balance the risk that you present to the community as a whole is not manageable on either a day or full parole release,” the April decision said.
Violi complained that the board relied on unproven police information.
He appealed the decision to the parole board’s appeal division, saying it was procedurally unfair to ask him questions about being involved in organized crime because he hasn’t been convicted of gangsterism.
“You argue that saying someone is involved in organized crime does not necessarily imply that a person has committed any particular offence and it certainly does not mean that they are an unmanageable risk of criminally offending if released,” the appeal decision summarized some of Violi’s complaint.
In the appeal decision, written on Sept. 13 but only released Tuesday, Violi’s complaint was accepted. The appeal division said it was “problematic” for the board members at the April hearing to question him on being a mobster for two reasons.
The first was that while board members can consider information someone may be a gangster, it is improper to directly demand answers about it during a hearing, based on past court decisions. The second was that the board’s written reasons did not explain the concern over organized crime.
The board failed to reconcile the disconnect between Violi’s impressive support from the community and good behaviour with being too risky to release because of an expected return to organized crime.
The appeal division said Violi’s successful complaint did not mean there aren’t potential problems with his bid for release, but that his application would have to face a better analysis at a new hearing.
Until then, the board’s decision to keep him in prison remains.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/mafia-underboss-gets-new-chance-for-freedom-because-parole-board-asked-about-mafia
0 comments:
Post a Comment