U.S. v. Angiulo
| Decision Date | 10 December 1987 |
| Docket Number | 86-2017 and 87-1745,86-2000,Nos. 86-1965,s. 86-1965 |
| Citation | 847 F.2d 956 |
| Parties | , 26 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 515 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jason Brion ANGIULO, Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. John Carmen CINCOTTI, Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. William Joseph KAZONIS, Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. John Carmen CINCOTTI, William Joseph Kazonis, Jason Brion Angiulo, Defendants, Appellants. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Robert L. Sheketoff, Boston, Mass., with whom Kimberly Homan and Zalkind, Sheketoff, Homan, Rodriguez & Lunt, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellant Jason Brion Angiulo.
Carolyn M. Conway with whom Francis J. DiMento and DiMento & Sullivan, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellant William Joseph Kazonis.
Willie J. Davis with whom Davis, Robinson & Smith, Boston, Mass., was on brief, for defendant, appellant John Carmen Cincotti.
Frank J. Marine, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., with whom Frank L. McNamara, Jr., U.S. Atty., Robert S. Mueller, III, Acting U.S. Atty., Jeremiah T. O'Sullivan, Jeffrey Auerhahn and John Voorhees, Sp. Attys., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., were on briefs for appellee.
Before COFFIN, BREYER and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.
These are consolidated appeals from convictions on jury verdicts rendered after 58 days of trial. The defendants, Jason Angiulo, William Kazonis, and John Cincotti, were connected with the Patriarca Family of La Cosa Nostra, which has developed a reputation in United States law enforcement circles for highly organized criminal activities. Defendant Angiulo was convicted of participating in illegal gambling (18 U.S.C. Sec. 1955); Kazonis was convicted of conspiring to obstruct and obstructing justice (18 U.S.C. Secs. 371, 1503); and Cincotti was convicted of conspiring to participate and participating in an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering or collection of an unlawful debt (18 U.S.C. Sec. 1962(d) and (c), respectively) and participating in an illegal gambling business (18 U.S.C. Sec. 1955). We briefly describe the essential facts pertaining to these convictions and then discuss the issues raised by defendants on appeal.
The bulk of evidence admitted against the defendants was the product of lengthy electronic surveillance, both audio and video, conducted in 1981 at 98 Prince Street in Boston, the headquarters for operations of Gennaro Angiulo, father of defendant Jason Angiulo and a known "underboss" of the Patriarca Family, 1 and at 51 North Margin Street, Boston, the site of certain high-stakes poker games, with which defendant Cincotti had certain affiliations. Numerous search warrants executed by FBI agents in 1981 produced physical evidence that was introduced against Cincotti.
From this and other evidence introduced at trial, the jury would have been warranted in finding the following facts pertaining to each defendant:
John Cincotti
In 1980 and 1981, Cincotti and other individuals operated high-stakes poker games at 51 North Margin Street, Boston. Cincotti managed these games and extended credit to players. Chips were provided at $500 each to the players. Electronic surveillance conducted at one of these games revealed that betting reached a sum of over $10,000. Cincotti kept a list of the gambling debts owed by each player for each game. After a night of gambling, Cincotti would "settle accounts" with the players and negotiate further extensions of credit and terms of payment.
The gambling business at 51 North Margin Street was "owned" by a partnership that included Gennaro Angiulo and Ilario Zannino, among others. 2 A recorded conversation between these two men, introduced at trial, revealed that Cincotti was responsible for keeping track of the profits earned by the gambling operation. On May 18, 1981, pursuant to authorized search warrants, FBI agents entered 51 North Margin Street while poker games were in progress and seized gambling paraphernalia. Searching Cincotti, they found on his person $9500 in cash and slips of paper containing the names of individuals owing debts from poker games that totalled over $56,000. The agents also found on a table next to Cincotti a spiral notebook containing names of players to whom credit had been extended that evening.
Tape recordings of conversations at 51 North Margin Street, not directly related to the gambling operation, revealed Cincotti's participation in a plot to murder one Harvey Cohen, the owner of an air freight business that operated in competition with a similar business run by the Patriarca Family. The recordings also revealed Cincotti's knowledge of murders previously committed by members or associates of the Patriarca Family in furtherance of the interests of the Family's operations.
Between 1979 and 1981, Jason Angiulo managed and supervised a gambling operation known as "Las Vegas Nights." Las Vegas Nights was routinely held at various locations in the Greater Boston area ostensibly to raise money for non-profit, charitable organizations. Testimony from members of the supposed sponsoring charities as well as from undercover FBI agents who attended Las Vegas Nights events revealed the following: (1) permits for certain events were obtained by falsifying signatures of members of charitable organizations in whose names the events were run; (2) gambling at the events was not operated by members of the charitable organizations that supposedly sponsored them; (3) events were held in the names of organizations that never authorized the use of their names; and (4) organizations, in whose names the events were held, received, in some instances, only token portions of the proceeds and, in others, nothing. In conversations intercepted at 98 Prince Street between January and March 1981 and introduced at trial, Jason Angiulo discussed the division of profits from Las Vegas Nights with his father, Gennaro Angiulo, and others.
Evidence from recordings made at 98 Prince Street on March 24 and 25, 1981 revealed that once a grand jury was convened to investigate matters described above as well as the activities of other alleged co-conspirators in the Patriarca Family, defendant Kazonis conspired with Gennaro Angiulo and others to obstruct the grand jury investigation.
One Walter LaFreniere had been involved in loansharking activities of the Patriarca Family. In March 1981, Gennaro Angiulo learned that LaFreniere had been served with a grand jury subpoena to testify about the nature of those activities. Although Gennaro Angiulo was aware that LaFreniere refused to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds, he expressed concerns to LaFreniere's attorney, William Cintolo, 3 that if LaFreniere were granted immunity he would be compelled to expose the lending activities of defendant Jason Angiulo. A recorded conversation between Gennaro Angiulo, Richard Gambale, and Peter Limone 4 showed that Gennaro Angiulo asked the latter two to seek assurances from LaFreniere that he would not cooperate with the grand jury investigation. Gennaro Angiulo also instructed Cintolo to direct LaFreniere to refuse to testify and to serve a prison sentence instead. Other recorded conversations revealed that it was Gennaro Angiulo's intention to arrange the murder of LaFreniere if he did not cooperate. LaFreniere subsequently was informed by the FBI that there was a murder contract on his life.
On March 24, 1981, defendants Kazonis and Jason Angiulo met with Gennaro Angiulo. Kazonis explained that he had learned that LaFreniere planned to refuse to testify and to go to jail instead. After Gennaro Angiulo instructed defendant Jason Angiulo to testify falsely before the grand jury and he agreed to do so, the three men discussed the consequences that might befall defendant Jason Angiulo if he were caught lying. They also discussed the danger that LaFreniere's testimony posed for them. Gennaro Angiulo instructed Kazonis to meet with LaFreniere and explain the plan that he go to jail rather than testify. He made clear that it was Kazonis's responsibility to make sure that LaFreniere said nothing to the grand jury.
The following day, Kazonis reported back to Gennaro Angiulo and assured him that LaFreniere was told to keep quiet and go to jail for contempt. Later that same day, Kazonis and Cintolo each described to Gennaro Angiulo their meetings with LaFreniere and explained that they had each told LaFreniere that the maximum sentence he would serve for contempt would be 18 months.
On April 1, 1981, the government granted LaFreniere immunity for the testimony he was to give to the grand jury the following day. On April 2, Gennaro Angiulo and Cintolo instructed Kazonis to get a message to LaFreniere that if he were arrested for contempt, he should not talk to authorities. After seeking a continuance due to Cintolo's disqualification as his attorney, LaFreniere eventually appeared before the grand jury on April 23, 1981 and refused to testify. On June 2, he was held in contempt and subsequently served 18 months in prison for that offense.
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The defendants raise numerous issues on appeal. Cincotti raises issues that pertain only to his conviction. Angiulo and Kazonis raise issues in common. We begin by addressing Cincotti's arguments. We then turn to the common issues raised by Angiulo and Kazonis and related issues asserted individually by those defendants.
We set the stage for our analysis of Cincotti's appeal by describing the allegations in the indictment pertaining to the RICO charges as well as the context in which Cincotti alleged errors at trial.
Cincotti was charged, in Count I, with conspiring to violate section 1962(c) of the Racketeer Influenced...
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