The Justice Department announced that a federal jury in Chicago convicted former Chicago Police Department (CPD) Commander Jon Burge, 60, of Apollo Beach, Fla., on perjury and obstruction charges related to his denials that he participated in the torture of suspects in police custody decades ago. The jury found that Burge lied and impeded court proceedings in November 2003 when he provided false statements in a civil lawsuit that alleged that he and others tortured and abused people in their custody.
During the trial, several victims testified that they had been tortured by Burge and other officers who worked for him in area two of the CPD. Various witnesses testified that the officers administered electric shocks to their genitals, suffocated them with typewriter covers, threatened them with loaded guns and burned them on radiators. The jury found that Burge had lied under oath when he claimed that he did not participate in any of these acts of torture, and that he was unaware of any other officers having done so.
“For decades, Jon Burge’s horrific actions ran contrary to all that our justice system stands for. Burge betrayed the public trust, first by abusing suspects in his custody, and then by lying under oath to cover up what he and other officers had done. The jury’s verdict allows those harmed by his actions to finally start the healing process,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will aggressively prosecute any officer who violates the Constitution.”
“At long last, a measure of justice was delivered today when a jury returned a verdict of guilty against Jon Burge on obstruction of justice and perjury. The verdict necessarily found that torture and abuse occurred in police districts in the city of Chicago in the 1980s. It’s disgraceful that torture happened and sad that it took so long to bring Burge to justice, and the only thing that would have been worse is if this measure of justice never happened,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Burge faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of obstruction of justice and five years in prison for perjury.
This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Weisman and April Perry and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement will not appeal Casino License to a construction firm that it believes has ties to Organized Crime
Bringing a contentious case to a close, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement will not appeal the award of a casino license to a construction firm that the agency believes has ties to organized crime.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, over vehement objections from the DGE, approved a license in May for Pleasantville-based Bayshore Rebar Inc. and its owners, Joseph N. Merlino and his mother, Phyllis Merlino.
The DGE, which had discussed the possibility of an appeal, had 45 days in which to challenge the commission's ruling in state court. However, the division allowed the appeal deadline to lapse. DGE spokesman Paul Loriquet said Friday that the agency would not comment further about the case.
The licensing dispute pitted two government agencies against each other, with both sides accusing the other of misconduct as the case unfolded. The commission serves as the chief regulatory body for Atlantic City's $3.9 billion casino industry, while the DGE acts as an investigative agency.
John M. Donnelly, an Atlantic City attorney representing the Merlinos, said he is relieved the grueling regulatory battle has finally come to an end. "It's been an expensive ordeal," Donnelly said. "We don't need any more litigation."
During Bayshore's licensing hearing, DGE attorneys alleged that the Merlinos were linked to organized crime through their relatives. Joseph N. Merlino's cousin is jailed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph S. "Skinny Joey" Merlino. The late Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino, a high-ranking mobster, was Joseph N. Merlino's father and the ex-husband of Phyllis Merlino.
In a unanimous vote May 5, the five-member Casino Control Commission concluded the Merlinos were not connected to organized crime. The license allows the Merlinos and Bayshore to do business with Atlantic City's casinos.
The ruling reversed 21 years of state policy. The Merlinos were denied a license by the commission in 1989 and again in 1997 based on the belief that they had "inimical associations" with organized crime.
This time around, the commission ruled the Merlinos were free of any mob influence. Joseph N. Merlino and his mother insisted they had long ago severed all ties to any family members involved in organized crime.
Thanks to Donald Wittkowski
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, over vehement objections from the DGE, approved a license in May for Pleasantville-based Bayshore Rebar Inc. and its owners, Joseph N. Merlino and his mother, Phyllis Merlino.
The DGE, which had discussed the possibility of an appeal, had 45 days in which to challenge the commission's ruling in state court. However, the division allowed the appeal deadline to lapse. DGE spokesman Paul Loriquet said Friday that the agency would not comment further about the case.
The licensing dispute pitted two government agencies against each other, with both sides accusing the other of misconduct as the case unfolded. The commission serves as the chief regulatory body for Atlantic City's $3.9 billion casino industry, while the DGE acts as an investigative agency.
John M. Donnelly, an Atlantic City attorney representing the Merlinos, said he is relieved the grueling regulatory battle has finally come to an end. "It's been an expensive ordeal," Donnelly said. "We don't need any more litigation."
During Bayshore's licensing hearing, DGE attorneys alleged that the Merlinos were linked to organized crime through their relatives. Joseph N. Merlino's cousin is jailed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph S. "Skinny Joey" Merlino. The late Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino, a high-ranking mobster, was Joseph N. Merlino's father and the ex-husband of Phyllis Merlino.
In a unanimous vote May 5, the five-member Casino Control Commission concluded the Merlinos were not connected to organized crime. The license allows the Merlinos and Bayshore to do business with Atlantic City's casinos.
The ruling reversed 21 years of state policy. The Merlinos were denied a license by the commission in 1989 and again in 1997 based on the belief that they had "inimical associations" with organized crime.
This time around, the commission ruled the Merlinos were free of any mob influence. Joseph N. Merlino and his mother insisted they had long ago severed all ties to any family members involved in organized crime.
Thanks to Donald Wittkowski
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Jonathan Eig's "Get Capone"
The fix was in.
Al Capone, the iconic Chicago gangster who in the 1920s gave a face to the American mob, got sandbagged by the legal system he had artfully abused for years.
The result: a conviction for income-tax evasion and a sentence of 11 years in prison. But that wasn’t the way it was supposed to play out.
According to Jonathan Eig, in his fascinating new book “Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster,” Big Al was supposed to get 2 1/2 years after pleading guilty in 1931 to income-tax evasion and Prohibition-violation charges.
The deal was worked about by his lawyers and federal prosecutor George Johnson, head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
Johnson knew he had a weak case built on circumstantial evidence and less-than-credible witnesses. He agreed to the deal, figuring any conviction involving Capone — who epitomized a criminal underworld out of control — was worth taking. But the federal judge in the case, after what Eig implies was pressure from President Herbert Hoover, nixed the deal. Hoover, Eig writes, used to start each day with an exercise routine, but before he began, he would ask his Cabinet members, “Have you got Capone yet?” Not only did Judge James H. Wilkerson sandbag the lawyers and prosecutors, Eig writes, but he also may have rigged the jury pool for the subsequent trial, making sure it was stacked with middle-aged or older white males from the suburbs.
Capone’s lawyers had hoped for at least some ethnic, working-class Chicagoans as potential jurors. But there were none.
Eig’s book is a sweeping account of Capone’s life set against the backdrop of a city where corruption was the norm and a country dealing with the hypocrisy of Prohibition and the devastation of the Great Depression.
Federal court was the only place authorities had a shot at convicting Capone, Eig wrote, noting that city courts were a place where “crooked lawyers bribed crooked cops to testify the right way before crooked judges.”
Capone had quickly established himself in the bootlegging business after moving from New York to Chicago.
He also generated income from gambling, extortion, narcotics and prostitution and was a suspect in more than a few murders. But he was never convicted of any of those crimes.
Eig has built his book around extensive research in court records and in newspaper accounts from the day — Capone was an unbelievably loquacious mob boss who was constantly granting interviews.
Some samples of his bons mots to reporters:
“You can get a lot farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.”
“Ninety-nine percent of the people in Chicago drink and gamble. I’ve tried to serve them decent liquor and square games.”
“If I were guilty of all the newspapers accuse me of, I would be afraid of myself.”
In addition to positing that the judicial system was manipulated to send Capone to jail, the book also puts the lie to the theory that Capone was behind one of Chicago’s more infamous mob hits — the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.
More probable, Eig writes, is that the shootings, in which seven gangsters were killed, were carried out by police to avenge the murder of the son of a law enforcement figure.
Eig also says it was a bookish accountant with the Internal Revenue Bureau named Frank Wilson who built the tax case used to convict Capone.
In a short chapter titled “The So-Called Untouchables,” Eig notes that Eliot Ness “gave terrific interviews” and that he came up with a “catchy nickname for his squad of gangbusters” that had newspaper reporters “dashing for their typewriters.” But while Ness’ squad busted up some breweries, it did little to bust up the mob.
The book also provides an interesting account of Capone’s arrest in Philadelphia and his one-year stay at Eastern State Prison. Capone was pinched on a gun-possession charge as he exited the old Stanley Theater after watching a movie.
Big Al and three associates had stopped there while traveling home by train from Atlantic City, where a big mob confab had been held.
Capone, who was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1930 in an article that described him as the “John D. Rockefeller of the underworld,” is presented by Eig as a multifaceted and charismatic crime titan.
He could be violent and short-tempered, yet was also caring and sympathetic. A loving father and husband, he also ran and frequented brothels. He counseled peace during a turbulent period of underworld unrest, yet was suspected of orchestrating some of gangland’s most violent murders. And all the while, he and other members of the Chicago Outfit made millions.
The estimates: $50 million a year from bootlegging; $25 million from gambling; and $10 million each from prostitution and narcotics. That came to $95 million annually, or, Eig noted, “about $1.2 billion by today’s dollars.”
Capone never denied he was a bootlegger, but said he was just giving the public what it wanted. In an interview with the New York Times just days before his aborted sentencing, he asked how his crimes stacked up against the pirates in the banking business and on Wall Street who had stolen from the public.
“Why don’t they go after those bankers who took the savings of thousands of poor people and lost them in bank failures?” asked Capone, who was sitting behind his desk in a suite of rooms he kept at the Lexington Hotel, “his hulking frame clad in black, silk pajamas.” But those bankers, Eig seems to argue, were part of the system.
Capone was not. His lavish lifestyle — a home in Florida, another in Chicago, fancy clothes, big cigars, and days of leisure at the racetrack, on the golf course, or in some brothel — did not sit well with Hoover and those in his administration.
While the feds were never able to prove many of the things they believed Capone had done, “Get Capone” argues that they were determined to put him behind bars because of who he was — a quick-talking, larger-than-life outlaw who had become America’s first celebrity gangster.
Thanks to George Anastasia
Al Capone, the iconic Chicago gangster who in the 1920s gave a face to the American mob, got sandbagged by the legal system he had artfully abused for years.
The result: a conviction for income-tax evasion and a sentence of 11 years in prison. But that wasn’t the way it was supposed to play out.
According to Jonathan Eig, in his fascinating new book “Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster,” Big Al was supposed to get 2 1/2 years after pleading guilty in 1931 to income-tax evasion and Prohibition-violation charges.
The deal was worked about by his lawyers and federal prosecutor George Johnson, head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
Johnson knew he had a weak case built on circumstantial evidence and less-than-credible witnesses. He agreed to the deal, figuring any conviction involving Capone — who epitomized a criminal underworld out of control — was worth taking. But the federal judge in the case, after what Eig implies was pressure from President Herbert Hoover, nixed the deal. Hoover, Eig writes, used to start each day with an exercise routine, but before he began, he would ask his Cabinet members, “Have you got Capone yet?” Not only did Judge James H. Wilkerson sandbag the lawyers and prosecutors, Eig writes, but he also may have rigged the jury pool for the subsequent trial, making sure it was stacked with middle-aged or older white males from the suburbs.
Capone’s lawyers had hoped for at least some ethnic, working-class Chicagoans as potential jurors. But there were none.
Eig’s book is a sweeping account of Capone’s life set against the backdrop of a city where corruption was the norm and a country dealing with the hypocrisy of Prohibition and the devastation of the Great Depression.
Federal court was the only place authorities had a shot at convicting Capone, Eig wrote, noting that city courts were a place where “crooked lawyers bribed crooked cops to testify the right way before crooked judges.”
Capone had quickly established himself in the bootlegging business after moving from New York to Chicago.
He also generated income from gambling, extortion, narcotics and prostitution and was a suspect in more than a few murders. But he was never convicted of any of those crimes.
Eig has built his book around extensive research in court records and in newspaper accounts from the day — Capone was an unbelievably loquacious mob boss who was constantly granting interviews.
Some samples of his bons mots to reporters:
“You can get a lot farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.”
“Ninety-nine percent of the people in Chicago drink and gamble. I’ve tried to serve them decent liquor and square games.”
“If I were guilty of all the newspapers accuse me of, I would be afraid of myself.”
In addition to positing that the judicial system was manipulated to send Capone to jail, the book also puts the lie to the theory that Capone was behind one of Chicago’s more infamous mob hits — the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.
More probable, Eig writes, is that the shootings, in which seven gangsters were killed, were carried out by police to avenge the murder of the son of a law enforcement figure.
Eig also says it was a bookish accountant with the Internal Revenue Bureau named Frank Wilson who built the tax case used to convict Capone.
In a short chapter titled “The So-Called Untouchables,” Eig notes that Eliot Ness “gave terrific interviews” and that he came up with a “catchy nickname for his squad of gangbusters” that had newspaper reporters “dashing for their typewriters.” But while Ness’ squad busted up some breweries, it did little to bust up the mob.
The book also provides an interesting account of Capone’s arrest in Philadelphia and his one-year stay at Eastern State Prison. Capone was pinched on a gun-possession charge as he exited the old Stanley Theater after watching a movie.
Big Al and three associates had stopped there while traveling home by train from Atlantic City, where a big mob confab had been held.
Capone, who was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1930 in an article that described him as the “John D. Rockefeller of the underworld,” is presented by Eig as a multifaceted and charismatic crime titan.
He could be violent and short-tempered, yet was also caring and sympathetic. A loving father and husband, he also ran and frequented brothels. He counseled peace during a turbulent period of underworld unrest, yet was suspected of orchestrating some of gangland’s most violent murders. And all the while, he and other members of the Chicago Outfit made millions.
The estimates: $50 million a year from bootlegging; $25 million from gambling; and $10 million each from prostitution and narcotics. That came to $95 million annually, or, Eig noted, “about $1.2 billion by today’s dollars.”
Capone never denied he was a bootlegger, but said he was just giving the public what it wanted. In an interview with the New York Times just days before his aborted sentencing, he asked how his crimes stacked up against the pirates in the banking business and on Wall Street who had stolen from the public.
“Why don’t they go after those bankers who took the savings of thousands of poor people and lost them in bank failures?” asked Capone, who was sitting behind his desk in a suite of rooms he kept at the Lexington Hotel, “his hulking frame clad in black, silk pajamas.” But those bankers, Eig seems to argue, were part of the system.
Capone was not. His lavish lifestyle — a home in Florida, another in Chicago, fancy clothes, big cigars, and days of leisure at the racetrack, on the golf course, or in some brothel — did not sit well with Hoover and those in his administration.
While the feds were never able to prove many of the things they believed Capone had done, “Get Capone” argues that they were determined to put him behind bars because of who he was — a quick-talking, larger-than-life outlaw who had become America’s first celebrity gangster.
Thanks to George Anastasia
Friday, June 04, 2010
Leaders of the Detroit Highwaymen Found Guilty of Racketeering, Drug, and Weapons Charges
Six leaders of the Detroit Highwaymen Motorcycle Club were found guilty on a variety of charges, including conspiracy to violate federal racketeering laws and conspiracy to commit murder, along with controlled substance, stolen property, and firearm violations, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced. These six defendants are the first of 91 Detroit Highwaymen members and associates to go to trial.
United States Attorney McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Leonard “Dad” Moore, 61, Joseph “Little Joe” Whiting, 56, Anthony “Mad Anthony” Clark, 52, Michael “Cocoa” Cicchetti, 55, Aref “Scarfare” Nagi, 46, and Gary “Junior” Ball Jr., 44, were found guilty today by a federal jury in United States District Court empaneled before Judge Nancy G. Edmunds. The jury deliberated for approximately 25 hours before returning the verdict, concluding a two-month long trial.
United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade said, “Violent crime is a top priority of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and we will use all of the tools available to us to attack violent criminal organizations like this one.”
“Dismantling violent gangs is a continuing priority for the FBI. This verdict is the direct result of joint efforts with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, and we will continue to work diligently with our colleagues to investigate and eradicate gangs and the violence they perpetrate,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena. “Together we are committed to restoring safety and security to our neighborhoods.”
The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club is headquartered in southwest Detroit and has numerous chapters in the city of Detroit, in several cities in southeast Michigan, and has chapters in other states. Prosecutors were able to prove the violent nature of the club when witnesses testified to a range of criminal activity including armed robbery, attempted murder, conspiracies to kill witnesses, use of firearms during acts of violence, and the distribution of large amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and steroids.
Evidence at trial also established the highly structured organization and chain of the command of the Highwaymen. These six defendants represented many of the officers, or bosses, of the enterprise. Evidence also showed that other members of the club were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking and theft offenses.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their Violent Crime Task Force, with the assistance of the Brownstown Township Police Department, Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and the Michigan State Police. FBI Special Agent Ted Brzezinski was the lead case agent responsible for handling and coordinating the multi-year investigative effort.
Each defendant faces a potential life sentence due to the nature of the offenses. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Diane Marion and Christopher Graveline.
United States Attorney McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Leonard “Dad” Moore, 61, Joseph “Little Joe” Whiting, 56, Anthony “Mad Anthony” Clark, 52, Michael “Cocoa” Cicchetti, 55, Aref “Scarfare” Nagi, 46, and Gary “Junior” Ball Jr., 44, were found guilty today by a federal jury in United States District Court empaneled before Judge Nancy G. Edmunds. The jury deliberated for approximately 25 hours before returning the verdict, concluding a two-month long trial.
United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade said, “Violent crime is a top priority of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and we will use all of the tools available to us to attack violent criminal organizations like this one.”
“Dismantling violent gangs is a continuing priority for the FBI. This verdict is the direct result of joint efforts with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, and we will continue to work diligently with our colleagues to investigate and eradicate gangs and the violence they perpetrate,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena. “Together we are committed to restoring safety and security to our neighborhoods.”
The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club is headquartered in southwest Detroit and has numerous chapters in the city of Detroit, in several cities in southeast Michigan, and has chapters in other states. Prosecutors were able to prove the violent nature of the club when witnesses testified to a range of criminal activity including armed robbery, attempted murder, conspiracies to kill witnesses, use of firearms during acts of violence, and the distribution of large amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and steroids.
Evidence at trial also established the highly structured organization and chain of the command of the Highwaymen. These six defendants represented many of the officers, or bosses, of the enterprise. Evidence also showed that other members of the club were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking and theft offenses.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their Violent Crime Task Force, with the assistance of the Brownstown Township Police Department, Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and the Michigan State Police. FBI Special Agent Ted Brzezinski was the lead case agent responsible for handling and coordinating the multi-year investigative effort.
Each defendant faces a potential life sentence due to the nature of the offenses. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Diane Marion and Christopher Graveline.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Jon Burge Compared to Al Capone by Jury Prospect?
A prospective juror accused of likening former Chicago Police Commander. Jon Burge to infamous mob boss Al Capone told a federal judge she did not recall saying that.
The juror was called in early this morning after another juror told the court Tuesday that the woman said that Burge, who is on trial for lying about the torturing suspects during the 70s and 80s, was like Capone because "he got away with a lot of stuff and now they're trying to hang him."
When asked about the alleged statement, the juror told U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow, "I do not recall that."
Lefkow conferred privately with both sides and sent the woman back to the pool of prospective jurors.
Prior to questioning the juror, Burge attorney Marc Martin asked Lefkow to individually question each of the 43 prospective jurors about whether they had seen any news reports on the trial since Tuesday, saying the the alleged Capone statement was widely reported and was prejudicial to his client.
Lefkow agreed to question the panel as a group, and said she and the attorneys could later decide what to do with any prospective jurors who admitted to seeing or hearing news accounts of Tuesday's proceedings.
Opening statements are expected today in the trial. Jury selection is slated to wrap up earlier in the day.
Burge is charged with obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about torture that allegedly occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all
counts.
The trial is expected to take six weeks.
Thanks to Matthew Walberg
The juror was called in early this morning after another juror told the court Tuesday that the woman said that Burge, who is on trial for lying about the torturing suspects during the 70s and 80s, was like Capone because "he got away with a lot of stuff and now they're trying to hang him."
When asked about the alleged statement, the juror told U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow, "I do not recall that."
Lefkow conferred privately with both sides and sent the woman back to the pool of prospective jurors.
Prior to questioning the juror, Burge attorney Marc Martin asked Lefkow to individually question each of the 43 prospective jurors about whether they had seen any news reports on the trial since Tuesday, saying the the alleged Capone statement was widely reported and was prejudicial to his client.
Lefkow agreed to question the panel as a group, and said she and the attorneys could later decide what to do with any prospective jurors who admitted to seeing or hearing news accounts of Tuesday's proceedings.
Opening statements are expected today in the trial. Jury selection is slated to wrap up earlier in the day.
Burge is charged with obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about torture that allegedly occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all
counts.
The trial is expected to take six weeks.
Thanks to Matthew Walberg
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