United States v. Salerno, 86 Crim. 245 (MJL).

Citation631 F. Supp. 1364
Decision Date02 April 1986
Docket NumberNo. 86 Crim. 245 (MJL).,86 Crim. 245 (MJL).
PartiesUNITED STATES of America v. Anthony SALERNO, a/k/a "Fat Tony," Vincent Cafaro, a/k/a "Fish," Vincent DiNapoli, a/k/a "Vinnie," Louis DiNapoli, a/k/a "Louie," Giuseppe Sabato, a/k/a "Pepe," Carmine Della Cava, a/k/a "Carmine," Thomas Cafaro, a/k/a "Tommy," John Tronolone, a/k/a "Peanuts," Milton Rockman, a/k/a "Maishe," Nicholas Auletta, a/k/a "Nick," Edward J. Halloran, a/k/a "Biff," Alvin O. Chattin, a/k/a "Al," Richard Costa, a/k/a "Richie," Alphonse Mosca, a/k/a "Funzi," and Neil Migliore, a/k/a "Neil," Defendants.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. Southern District of New York

Allan Cohen and Mark Hellerer, U.S. Atty's. Office for S.D.N.Y., New York City, for U.S.

Anthony M. Cardinale, Boston, Mass., for defendant Salerno.

Michael Rosen, New York City, for defendant Cafaro.

WALKER, District Judge:

The government has moved pursuant to the Bail Reform Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. section 3142(f)(1)(A), "in a case ... that involves ... a crime of violence" for pretrial detention of defendants Anthony Salerno and Vincent Cafaro, who, with thirteen other defendants, are named in indictment 86 Cr. 245 (MJL) filed on March 20, 1986, and unsealed on March 21, 1986. The government concedes that neither defendant poses a risk of flight but urges strenuously that no condition of bail or combination of conditions will assure the safety of the community or of any person and that therefore pretrial detention is mandated under 18 U.S.C. section 3142(e). For the reasons set forth below, this court finds that the government has established by clear and convincing evidence that both defendants pose a present danger to the community and that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.

On March 21, 1986, both defendants appeared for the first time before this court, sitting in Part I. Both defendants moved for a 5-day continuance as provided in 18 U.S.C. section 3142(f), and this court set the hearing for March 26, 1986. The hearing was held on March 26 and 27, 1986.1 The information received from both sides was by way of proffer as permitted by United States v. Martir, 782 F.2d 1141 (2d Cir. Feb. 3, 1986).

The 88-page indictment charges that the fifteen defendants were leaders, members, and associates of the "Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (The Genovese Family)," that the Genovese Family was an "enterprise" as defined in 18 U.S.C. section 1961(4), and that the purposes of the enterprise included the unlawful infiltration in New York City of legitimate businesses in the concrete construction, food manufacturing, and food distribution industries, exercise of control over unions in these and other industries, operation of illegal gambling businesses, loansharking, murder and conspiracies to murder those who would threaten the enterprise, engendering fear of the enterprise through violence and concealment of the existence of the enterprise from law enforcement authority.

The indictment charges that the means and methods of the enterprise included the maintenance of a hierarchical "organized criminal group" operating in New York and other states. The enterprise operated through "crews" made up of "members" and "associates" and led by a Captain, or "Capo." In charge of the several "crews" and their "capos" was an overall "Boss" and, at times, an "Underboss." When a "Boss" was incapacitated or imprisoned, one of the "Capos" in the Genovese Family served as "Acting Boss." The "Bosses" and "Capos" supervised and protected the criminal activities of the enterprise's members and associates. The indictment charges that Anthony Salerno is the present "Boss" of the Genovese Family and has served in the past as its "Acting Boss" and "Consigliere" and that Vincent Cafaro is a "Capo" in the Genovese Family.

The indictment delineates the roles of all defendants in the Genovese Family hierarchy and in its criminal racketeering activities of bid-rigging in the concrete construction industry, extortion, loansharking, labor racketeering, gambling, and the use of violence. The defendants are charged both with conspiracy to participate in the above racketeering enterprise and actual participation in the enterprise in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1962. The indictment further charges sixteen counts of mail fraud, under 18 U.S.C. sections 1341 and 1342, in connection with the bid-rigging scheme in the concrete construction industry whereby the enterprise rigged subcontract bids valued variously in the range of $3,000,000 to $13,000,000 in major building projects in New York City. The indictment further alleges an 18 U.S.C. section 1343 wire fraud count relating to the election and control of Roy L. Williams as President of the Teamsters International; a conspiracy to extort payments from a food distributor, Marathon enterprises, seven extortion counts relating to Marathon's distribution arrangements with legitimate retailers, and a conspiracy to extort payments from one Anthony Giordano, all in violation of 18 U.S.C. sections 1951 and 1952; one count of illegal numbers in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1955 and one count of illegal book-making, both in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1955.

A principal thrust of the indictment is that the power and effectiveness of the Genovese Family to carry out its criminal activities depends on its ability and willingness to use violence and its reputation for violence. Violence is alleged as a method and means of the racketeering enterprise and the specific racketeering acts alleged include not only the foregoing extortion counts, but two murder conspiracies as well.

FACTS

The government's proffer in support of detention consisted of the prospective testimony of two witnesses who had previously testified in organized crime trials, James Fratianno and Angelo Lonardo, evidence from a search conducted at the apartment at 115th Street and First Avenue, the full-time residence of Cafaro and the in-town residence of Salerno, as well as excerpts from electronic surveillance in two locations in Manhattan from which Genovese Family business was conducted — the Palma Boys Social Club and the Social Club at 2244 First Avenue — and one location in a trailer in Edgewater, New Jersey.2 The proffers related primarily to conspiracies to murder, and labor, loansharking, and gambling violence.

Conspiracy to Murder

The government proffered that Fratianno would testify, as he had in a previous trial, that in 1976 he attended a meeting in a back room of a store in which members of Genovese Family including Salerno were present. Those assembled decided to murder John Spencer Ullo, a person engaged in loansharking for the Genovese Family. There was a vote taken and, Fratianno testified that "Gigante said `I vote to hit,' Tieri said `Hit,' Salerno said `Hit,' and it went around the table in a unanimous fashion." The "contract" was not carried out when Ullo got wind of the plan in California and was himself able to kill the hitman. The government proffered that it would corroborate Ullo's role in the Genovese Family, that Ullo feared certain individuals in the family and took steps to protect himself once he learned that the individual in California was out to kill him. T. 13-15. The trial at which Fratianno testified resulted in the conviction of Tieri.

The government proffered that according to another prospective witness, Angelo Lonardo, Salerno and the Genovese Family issued a "contract" in 1980 to kill John Simone who was also known as Johnny Keyes. The "contract" arose out of the murder of Angelo Bruno, the former head of the LCN family in Philadelphia. Salerno contacted one John Tronolone and asked him to pass out the word that there was a "contract" on the life of Johnny Keyes and others. While in Florida, Tronolone told Lonardo that if Keyes shows up then the "contract" should be fulfilled. Lonardo at the time was the head of the Cleveland LCN family that reported to the Genovese Family in New York and Tronolone was its "consigliere" who, in effect reported to two bosses, Salerno and Lonardo. Johnny "Keyes" Simone asked Tronolone for his assistance in settling the matter. However, Tronolone lied to Keyes in saying that he would try to settle his dispute with Salerno. Tronolone told Lonardo that instead he would go to New York to see Salerno to set Keyes up. After speaking to Salerno, Tronolone told Lonardo that he would now tell Keyes to travel to New York and that everything was okay. Keyes went to New York to see Salerno and was killed with three bullets in the head. Later Tronolone explained to Lonardo that he had set Keyes up. T. 16-18.

Lonardo will also testify that two individuals, John Nardi and Danny Green in the Cleveland LCN were killed in 1977. Prior to the murders, Lonardo and Jack Licavoli of the Cleveland Family came to New York to explain the problem to Salerno and Philip Lombardo, alias Benny Squint, who was at that time the "Boss" of the Genovese Family. Licavoli and Lonardo asked Salerno and Lombardo to request Castellano to carry out the "contract" on Green and Nardi if they appeared in New York to meet with him. Both Salerno and Lombardo approved the "contract" and agreed to do so. Before the "contract" could be fulfilled in New York, Nardi and Green were killed elsewhere in car bombing incidents. T. 18-24.

In another murder conspiracy, one Milton Parness requested permission of Salerno to kill Anthony Giordano, a debtor to Parness' extortion operations. Parness is overheard on surveillance in January 1985 telling an associate that Salerno responded to Parness' inquiry "Do we kill him and get it over with?" by replying "If you want to kill him, we will kill him." T. 24-29.

In addition to witness testimony indicating that Salerno is presently the Genovese Family "Boss," the government proffered an intercept of Salerno in 1984 on an occasion when Salerno...

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4 cases
  • United States v. Salerno
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • May 26, 1987
    ...as usual involves threats, beatings, and murder, the present danger such people pose in the community is self-evident." 631 F.Supp. 1364, 1375 (S.D.N.Y.1986).2 Respondents appealed, contending that to the extent that the Bail Reform Act permits pretrial detention on the ground that the arre......
  • U.S. v. Salerno
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
    • July 3, 1986
    ...Anthony Salerno and Vincent Cafaro appeal from orders of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 631 F.Supp. 1364, committing them to the custody of the Attorney General for pretrial detention pursuant to the Bail Reform Act of 1984 (the "Bail Reform Act" or ......
  • United States v. Montecalvo
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • May 21, 2012
    ...in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. As the Government has pointed out, bid-rigging is a form of racketeering ( see United States v. Salerno, 631 F.Supp. 1364 (S.D.N.Y.1986)), and racketeering has been found to be “serious” for Speedy Trial Act purposes. See United States v. Gambino, 59 F.3d 3......
  • California Software Inc. v. Reliability Research
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Central District of California
    • April 2, 1986
    ......White; and Larry Martin, Defendants. . No. CV-85-6569-AHS. . United States District Court, C.D. California. . April 2, 1986. 631 F. Supp. 1357          ......
1 books & journal articles
  • The Constitutional Case for Clear and Convincing Evidence in Bail Hearings.
    • United States
    • Stanford Law Review Vol. 75 No. 2, February 2023
    • February 1, 2023
    ...CHRISTOPHER PANARELLA & JAY WORTHINGTON, BUSTING THE MOB: UNITED STATES V. COSA NOSTRA 82 n.7 (1994); United States v. Salerno, 631 F. Supp. 1364, 1375 (S.D.N.Y.), vacated, 794 F.2d 64 (2d Cir. 1986), rev'd, 481 U.S. 739 (109.) Salerno, 631 F. Supp. at 1371-75. (110.) Brief for Responde......

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