Budget Crisis Costs Defendant in Mob Boss Murder Case One of His Attorneys

Fallout from the state budget crisis is cropping up in the darnedest places.

A defendant charged in federal court in a mob murder conspiracy lost one of three appointed lawyers after a hearing on Wednesday. The lawyer argued her state-funded office is too cash-strapped for her to remain on the case.

Fotios A. "Freddy" Geas Jr., accused in the 2003 murder of organized crime boss Adolfo M. "Big Al" Bruno and facing a potential death penalty if convicted, lost the services of defense lawyer Stephanie Page. Page works for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state agency that provides legal counsel to indigent defendants.

Page said that as a state employee, she felt compelled to withdraw from the federal case. Her agency, like others with operations financed by the state, is reeling from deep budget cuts announced last month by Gov. Deval L. Patrick. "In light of the budget crisis, I felt I had to bow out," she said after the hearing in U.S. District. "I'm a full-time state employee."

Page represents Geas in a parallel murder case in Hampden Superior Court, and will remain his legal counsel in that venue.

David P. Hoose and Peter L. Ettenberg, both private lawyers who were appointed to the case, will stay on Geas' defense team in the federal court. The case is crawling along as Justice Department officials consider whether they will seek the death penalty.

Geas, 41, was indicted in federal court for murder in aid of racketeering, a charge that can trigger capital punishment. He also is charged with murder in state court along with Brendan D. Croteau and Frankie A. Roche.

Roche, the admitted gunman in the case, turned government informant and has offered testimony against others in the case. Prosecutors say Geas paid Roche $10,000 to shoot Bruno on Nov. 23, 2003, in the midst of a power struggle.

Like most state offices, the Committee for Public Counsel Services' budget was slashed when the governor announced $191 million in emergency cuts for this fiscal year and $871 million in proposed cuts for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. The agency's budget plummeted from about $186 million to roughly $158 million, according to state records.

Page is one of 200 members of the committee's Public Defender Division. The agency also pays thousands of private lawyers out of its budget for the bulk of the defense work it provides.

Thanks to Stephanie Barry

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Omerta - The Massive Multiplayer Text-Based RPG Gangster Game

While the gangster games are on their way – basically in the form of 2K Games’ Mafia II and EA’s GodFather II: The Game – another company is updating an MMOG that takes the whole mobster concept and puts some spice on it…and a little black-handing, because gamers like black-handing.

Comments Steve Biddick, CEO of Omerta Game commented in the press release about the new update, saying... "There had been a lot of talk among our players about making a change to how players are killed within the game. We have since implemented these changes so that in effect, the strength of the players account will be a crucial factor in a duel as a higher ranked player can take more bullets. But now is the best time for new players to join in with Omerta as with a new version, everybody starts from what is effectively a level playing field”.

The game, surprisingly enough, boasts 3.5 million subscriptions. Yizers, that’s a lot of people playing a game that is relatively unheard of. One of the things that makes Omerta different from other MMOGs is that a lot of the content is contributed by players. Kind of neat, eh?

"We pride ourselves on involving our players, listening to their feedback and then responding accordingly. Our players can make recommendations which are then discussed in the user group and actioned by our development team”. Said Biddick.

More than 250 volunteers help out with Omerta and the game is available in 34 different languages. For gamers interested in this game be sure to check out the Main Website for more information.

Thanks to William Usher

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Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob by Jeff Coen

Painting a vivid picture of the scenes both inside and outside the courtroom and re-creating events from court transcripts, police records, interviews, and notes taken day after day as the story unfolded in court in 2007, this narrative accurately portrays cold-blooded—and sometimes incompetent—killers and their crimes. In 1998 Frank Calabrese Jr. offered to wear a wire to help the FBI build a case against his father, Frank Sr., and his uncle Nick. A top Mob boss, a reputed consigliore, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were eventually accused in a total of 18 gangland killings, revealing organized crime's ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. After a series of other defendants pled guilty, those left to face off in court alongside Frank Sr. were James “Little Jimmy” Marcello, the acting head of the Chicago mob; Joey “the Clown” Lombardo, one of Chicago’s most colorful mobsters; and Paul “the Indian” Schiro. A former Chicago police officer who worked in evidence, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, rounded out the list. The riveting testimony and wide-angle view provide one of the best accounts on record of the inner workings of the Chicago syndicate and its control over the city's streets.

The author, Jeff Coen, is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering federal trials and investigations from the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in downtown Chicago. He was present in the courtroom throughout the Family Secrets trial, and his pieces on the case were featured in a popular series in the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Oak Park, Illinois.

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