Your Witness for 30 Days Blogging Event

Your Witness for 30 Days is a blogging event that will provide you with snippets of wisdom straight from the new book Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination and Life from Great Chicago Trial Lawyers. Over the next month, you can visit http://yourwitness.wordpress.com for your daily dose of legal drama, poignant observations, and hilarious anecdotes from some of the country’s top lawyers. Feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends – because everyone needs a good cross.

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Angelo Nicosia, Genovese Crime Family Associate, Found Guilty of $50,000 Extortion and Conspiracy

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ANGELO NICOSIA, an associate of the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, was found guilty of extortion and extortion conspiracy after a one-week jury trial before the Honorable SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN. According to the Indictment and the evidence at trial:

NICOSIA was an associate in the crew of Genovese Family captain, or “capo,” ANGELO PRISCO. In 1997, a Manhattan-based contractor hired NICOSIA as a sub-contractor on a construction job in New Jersey. At the conclusion of that job, NICOSIA claimed that the contractor owed him tens of thousands of dollars for work that NICOSIA had not actually completed. When the contractor resisted making payment, PETER RIZZO, a Genovese Family associate in PRISCO’S crew, went to the contractor’s construction site and attacked the contractor’s business partner. During the attack, RIZZO broke a coffee pot over the business partner’s head, causing serious head and facial injuries.

In 2004, NICOSIA again approached the contractor, claiming that the contractor still owed tens of thousands of dollars from the 1997 construction job. NICOSIA, accompanied by Genovese Family associates JOHN MELICHAREK, a/k/a “Rocky,” and MICHAEL IUNI, then went to Victim-1’s workplace unannounced and threatened the contractor and the contractor’s family with violence if the contractor did not pay. Because of these threats, the contractor paid NICOSIA and his co-conspirators a total of $50,000. After receiving the money, NICOSIA and his co-conspirators divided the money among themselves, including by paying $10,000 to Prisco as “tribute.”

NICOSIA was one of eight defendants who were indicted in this case. Seven have now been convicted, and the eighth is at large. MELICHAREK pleaded guilty to robbery conspiracy, a firearms offense, and the extortion of Victim-1. IUNI pleaded guilty to the extortion of Victim-1. DOMINICK MEMOLI, a/k/a“Shakes,” pleaded guilty to robbery and firearms offenses. LOUIS PIPOLO pleaded guilty to a robbery charge. DARDIAN CELAJ, a/k/a“Danny,” pleaded guilty to robbery and firearms charges. ENED GJELAJ, a/k/a “Neddy,” pleaded guilty to a robbery offense. GJELOSH KRASNIQI, a/k/a “Jimmy,” has not been arrested, and remains at large. The charges against KRASNIQI are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

NICOSIA, 46, of East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 30, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. before Judge SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN.

Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newark Field Office. Mr. GARCIA also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; the Orange County, New York District Attorney’s Office; the Westchester County, New York District Attorney’s Office; the New York State Police; the Morris County, New Jersey Prosecutor’s Office; the Rockaway Township, New Jersey Police Department; and the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys ELIE HONIG and LISA ZORNBERG are in charge of the prosecution.

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Are the Chicago Outfit and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club Connected to a Pipe Bombing?

The west suburban home of a reputed mobster was among the locations raided by federal agents investigating a 2003 pipe-bombing outside a Berwyn video and vending machine business.

Authorities confirmed searching a home in the 3000 block of Kensington Avenue in Westchester that is registered to Michael Sarno, 50, who was convicted in the early 1990s of being part of a crime family led by mobster Ernest Rocco Infelice. Sources said Sarno, who was released from federal prison in 1999, was the target of the search and that a large amount of cash was recovered.

Sarno has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the bombing. He could not be reached Thursday for comment, and his lawyer declined to comment.

On Thursday authorities unsealed an indictment against Samuel Volpendesto, 84, of Oak Brook and Mark Polchan, 41, of Justice, following a series of raids across the Chicago area Wednesday by the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In addition to the search at Sarno's home, raids were conducted on Polchan's Cicero pawn shop, Goldberg Jewelers, and three clubhouses of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Chicago, Elgin and Kankakee.

During an initial appearance Thursday in federal court, Volpendesto was all smiles. "Looks like I'm having fun, huh?" he said as he held up his handcuffs for reporters.

Both Volpendesto and Polchan were charged in connection with a nighttime explosion outside C&S Coin Operated Amusements in Berwyn. No one was injured, but the blast blew out windows and caused extensive interior damage.

A lawyer for Volpendesto and Polchan denied either has connections to the Chicago Outfit or the Outlaws. "Sam couldn't get his leg over a motorcycle," attorney Alexander Salerno said of Volpendesto, who he said has bladder cancer and needs to be on oxygen.

Volpendesto was charged in 1990 in the baseball-bat beating of a government witness who was cooperating against Infelice. Salerno said the charge was later dismissed.

The FBI SWAT team on Thursday brought in its military-style armored vehicle to pop off heavily fortified steel doors at the Outlaw's North Side chapter in the 3700 block of West Division Street. Agents later used a torch to remove a padlock from a door. The assault vehicle's presence in the Humboldt Park neighborhood brought curious onlookers with their cameras to the scene.

Kyle Knight of Merrillville was charged last year with supplying materials for the Berwyn pipe-bomb as well as conspiring to rob a series of jewelry stores. Court records show he is scheduled to plead guilty later this month. Prosecutors have said Knight and at least five other undisclosed individuals robbed the jewelry stories of a combined $1.27 million and shot a New York salesman during one holdup.

Volpendesto and Polchan pleaded not guilty Thursday in the bombing case and were ordered held by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox until a detention hearing next week. Neither was charged in the jewelry heists.

According to court records, Polchan has a record of arrests for felony aggravated battery and burglary charges as well as numerous misdemeanor charges from the 1980s and 1990s.

Last year, a patron at a downtown nightclub where Polchan worked as a bouncer sued Polchan after an altercation at the club. Polchan ordered the patron, Adam Cavitch, to leave the club because the flip-flops he wore on the dance floor violated the club's dress code, said Cavitch's lawyer, Kevin McNamara.

As Polchan was escorting Cavitch from the club, the two exchanged words. Polchan allegedly punched Cavitch, shattering his cheek bone, McNamara said. Attorney Al Ambutas, who represents Polchan in the lawsuit, said his client denies the allegations.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the scope of the investigation that snared Polchan and Volpendesto. Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk, who is assigned to the organized crime section, told the judge he expects to play audio and video tapes from the investigation in court at the detention hearing Wednesday.

Both face up to life in prison if convicted, authorities said.

Thanks to Jeff Coen and Todd Lighty

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Who Took Mob Killer Frank Schweihs' Body from Funeral Home?

The family members of reputed mob enforcer Frank "The German" Schweihs who gathered Monday morning for his funeral learned there would be no body to bury.

Authorities called the funeral home as an estimated 10 to 15 people gathered for a private graveside service and ordered that the body be turned over to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The service was held without the body.

"All of a sudden as they were about to start the service on Monday, the funeral home gets notified," Paul Brayman, one of Schweihs' attorneys, said Tuesday.

The medical examiner's office said it was not notified of Schweihs' death July 23 at Thorek Medical Center in Chicago while awaiting trial, even though it was widely reported Friday. The law requires that anyone dying in custody be examined by the medical examiner's office.

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Frank 'The German' Schweihs - "A Killer, That's All, A Killer of a Girl"

Diane Pappas learned that Chicago isn't Camelot a lifetime ago when a tugboat captain found her sister's murdered body in the Chicago River. Eugenia "Becca" Pappas was only 18.

So last week, 46 years after Becca's death, when Diane heard the German was dead, she knew what to do: Drive out to the cemetery, to Becca's grave in the shade of a giant Norwegian pine, and talk to her little sister. "I'm going to the cemetery right now," Diane said. "I've got to be there. Now I want to tell Becca. The big, tough man. The big killer. The murderer of my sister. The German. The murderer of a girl."

If Frank "The German" Schweihs ever wondered about hell, he's not wondering now. He died last week, at 78, of cancer, waiting to stand federal trial in the Family Secrets case.

The FBI considers him the Babe Ruth of Outfit hit men, with dozens of Outfit victims, mobsters from New York to Los Angeles, murderous bosses and their turncoat business associates. Other hit men were terrified to be near him, even when he was sleeping. A glimpse of the German in Los Angeles, a chance sighting in a car window, frightened Jimmy "The Weasel" Frattiano so much that the mobster ran shrieking into the federal witness protection program.

Schweihs the enforcer was the reason those frail, old men could run things without worrying about ambitious underlings. He's the reason they made fortunes, and a president and mayors and judges.

The list of the German's dead is a history of organized crime in America. Except for Becca Pappas, a beauty, tall, slim, black eyes, black hair. "I know he killed her. I just know. She was in his car. She was driving his car the last time anyone saw her. His car disappeared. Then it was auctioned a month later, totally stripped clean, washed down," Diane said.

Becca's murder was investigated by corrupt Chicago lawman Richard Cain. This being Chicago, Schweihs was released without charges. Still, I agree with Diane that Schweihs killed her sister.

Why? Because, as explained to me by mob-watchers and former FBI agents, no man in Chicago, or anywhere else, would have dared approach the German's girlfriend. Not even to say hello. They wouldn't have allowed their brains to think of it. Not one. Schweihs would have skinned them alive with a paring knife.

The German is said to have later shotgunned Cain at Rose's Sandwich Shop. And killed Jimmy "the Bomber" Catuara. Teamsters lawyer Allan Dorfman died in a parking lot, shot in the head with a .22. Joe Testa was blown up in his car. Sam DeStefano's arms were shotgunned off in his garage. Patsy Riccardi, Chucky Nicoletti, the list continues.

The Chicago Outfit's flamboyant Hollywood connection, Johnny Rosselli, was found stuffed into an oil drum, floating at sea. Angelo Boscarino was shotgunned, though his son was later given a piece of the failed Rosemont casino deal.

If I've missed a few names, Schweihs didn't miss.

In the late 1980s, he was held in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center at the same time as Outfit member-turned-federal informant Gerald Scarpelli. The official story is Scarpelli committed suicide. He must have seen the German in the day room and then decided to tie his own feet and hands and choke himself to death with a plastic bag in the shower. The German is also credited with torturing and killing several burglars who dared rob the home of Anthony Accardo.

"He never informed. He killed who they told him to kill. And if he was involved in the killing of that young woman—it sheds an entirely new light on his personality," said FBI Special Agent John Mallul, a supervisor of the Organized Crime Unit. "No criminal ever wanted to see this guy around. Even if they knew that Frank was coming around and knew why, they were still terrified."

Law enforcement says that just about his only friend was Chicago political figure Peter Schivarelli, currently the manager of the rock group Chicago and the former 43rd Ward supervisor of Streets and San. Schivarelli is reputed to have been around Outfit types all his life and is the nephew of late mobster Johnny "The Bug" Varelli.

One night, Schweihs was arrested after fighting with police. "Schivarelli came down to the station trying to get him out, throwing his political clout around, and all hell broke loose," former FBI agent Jack O'Rourke recalled a while back. "It was a madhouse."

"That's not my recollection," Schivarelli said when I tracked him down. He talked on the phone as if I held a subpoena. "But I'd rather not debate it. I'll respectfully decline to comment."

Too bad. I was waiting to hear that the German was kind to tiny children and animals and helped old women cross the street. None of it matters to Becca Pappas' sister. "Schweihs still lived 46 years when he shouldn't have. And people glorify him, and they glorify the mob with their movies and TV shows. But all he was, was a killer. That's all. A killer of a girl."

Thanks to John Kass

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