After a Trial, the Tables Are Turned on a Defense Lawyer

Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito

Bruce Cutler, whose cross-examinations are so ardently aggressive that those who undergo them are often said to have been "Bruce-ified," is expected to be cross-examined himself next month at a highly unusual hearing in the continuing saga of the so-called Mafia Cops trial.

As one of New York's fiercest — and most physically formidable — lawyers, Mr. Cutler has always taken a bellicose approach, making a name for himself as the sort of lawyer who will slam down documents and stretch the limits of invective on behalf of a client. On June 29, however, he will most likely — for the first time in his 30-year career — take the witness stand himself, this time in his own defense.

His former client at the trial, Louis J. Eppolito, a retired New York detective, has accused him in court documents and in the press of shoddy legal work, saying that Mr. Cutler roundly ignored him at the trial and would not allow him to testify before the jury. On April 6, Mr. Eppolito was convicted of helping in at least eight murders by the mob and, despite the fact that he once professed respect for Mr. Cutler, he has now turned against him, hoping that the verdict will be set aside.

As part of that process, Judge Jack B. Weinstein has decided to hold a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn to determine, as the judge wrote in his order, "the competency of the defense," which is to say whether Mr. Cutler botched the job. No matter its result, the hearing is assured to be a courtroom smoker in the old style, as Mr. Cutler (brash, verbose and built like a tugboat) settles in against Mr. Eppolito's new lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy (smooth voice, smooth style, smooth suit).

It is even possible that Mr. Eppolito will take the stand and tell the judge what he has already told The Daily News: He was vastly unhappy with Mr. Cutler's work, despite appearances at trial. On the day of his defense, such as it was ( it was 13 minutes long), Mr. Eppolito told reporters, "I have faith in Bruce and always will," and then, when the verdict was read, the two men hugged — adoringly, it seemed — in open court.

Nonetheless, in papers filed this week, Mr. Eppolito said that, during the trial, he took to writing notes to Mr. Cutler and "was routinely told that I was annoying him and to stop."

Mr. Cutler did not respond yesterday to phone calls seeking comment, but he responded to the charges earlier this week by calling Mr. Eppolito "a desperate man" in "desperate times."

Thanks to Alan Feuer

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Mop Cop Will Make Case for Poor Defense

Friends of ours: John "Dapper Don" Gotti
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Carappa

Mob cop Louis Eppolito will be allowed to air his gripes about his flashy former lawyer Bruce Cutler - who he says defended him poorly at his murder trial.

At the convicted killer's request, Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein ordered lawyers back into court June 29 to hash out the matter, including Cutler. "Defense counsel spent the majority of Mr. Eppolito's closing argument speaking about himself, including [that] he lost 14 pounds during trial," new lawyer Joseph Bondy said in a court document.

The ostentatious lawyer and client parted ways in late April after the conviction. Eppolito and Cutler had even argued about the defense, which lasted about 12 minutes.

Cutler, who also defended late mob boss "Dapper Don" John Gotti, didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.

The hearing is unlikely to have an impact on whether Weinstein will throw out the conviction, because the judge has already hinted strongly that he would let an appeals court decide the matter. The murder conviction could be reversed due to statute-of-limitations considerations.

Eppolito and fellow mob cop Stephen Caracappa are to be sentenced on May 22. The pair face life in the slammer.

The two were convicted of committing a slew of gangland slayings in the late '80s and early '90s while wearing their shields, as well as dealing drugs in Las Vegas in 2004.

Thanks to Heidi Singer

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NY "Mafia" Firm is Closed

Friends of ours: Gambino Crime Family, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, Edward Garofola, Michael "Mickey Scars" DiLeonardo

New York City has ordered a mob-tainted construction company at the center of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik's bribe-taking probe to shut down because the owners "lacked character, honesty and integrity,". The Bloomberg administration's decision to deny permits for Interstate Materials Corp. to work within the five boroughs followed a ruling by the city's Business Integrity Commission that ripped into owners Peter and Frank DiTommaso, officials said.

According to officials, the BIC, formerly known as the Trade Waste Commission, quietly issued a "supplemental ruling" on Interstate's mob connections last fall that determined the company was not fit to do business in or with the city.

The commission also determined the DiTommasos bought the company from two major Gambino crime-family figures - Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, Edward Garofola, and Michael "Mickey Scars" DiLeonardo - merely to help the mobsters "avoid regulatory scrutiny and preserve the mob's influence over the transfer station," commission Chairman Thomas McCormack wrote.

Nearly two months later, the city Sanitation Department yanked "temporary" permits allowing Interstate to operate its massive "clean-fill material" facility on Staten Island for the past 10 years. City officials also instructed Interstate that it had until New Year's Eve to shut down.

Interstate obtained a stay from the Richmond County Supreme Court challenging the edict. A final decision regarding the city's right to cut off Interstate is expected shortly, Sanitation Department spokesman Vito Turso said.

Meanwhile, in The Bronx, a grand jury is continuing to probe whether Interstate paid for nearly $200,000 worth of apartment renovations for Kerik, then city correction commissioner.

It is also investigating whether the firm hired his brother, Donald, and a one-time close friend, Lawrence Ray, in exchange for getting Kerik to go to bat with the Trade Waste Commission. Kerik and the DiTommasos have denied any wrongdoing.

Sources say the Bronx grand jury will be asked in two weeks to indict Kerik.

Thanks to Murray Weis

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Judge: Basis for Appeal in 'Mafia Cops' Trial

The judge, who presided over the Mafia Cops Trial, of two former police detectives convicted of moonlighting as hit men for the mob denied the defendants' request to overturn the verdict, but the judge acknowledged there is basis for an appeal.

Louis Eppolito and former New York Police Department partner Stephen Caracappa were convicted on April 6 of participating in eight killings while on the payroll of a Mafia underboss, Anthony Casso.

Their lawyers appeared before U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein.

Weinstein says "It was not a strong case, and the government was warned that from day one.'' Eppolito and Caracappa were respected detectives who worked as hired killers for Casso from 1986 to 1990. In two of the slayings, they used their police credentials to make traffic stops that ended with the drivers killed.

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Strippers + Golf + Police + The Chicago Mob = Lawsuit

Strippers on a golf course, some suburban police and the Chicago mob. They all come together in an unusual lawsuit that is the subject of this Intelligence Report. The case follows an I-Team report from 2002.

Several patrolmen from west suburban Northlake lost their jobs after participating in a police golf outing that featured exotic dancers acting as caddies. That was almost four years ago. Now, one of the former cops who attended the outing is suing Northlake and its police chief for allegedly smearing his reputation and blackballing him with other police departments.

I-Team surveillance spotted Northlake police officers and some local business leaders gathering with female caddies in the summer of 2002. The women had been deployed to the golf outing from their full-time place of employment: Allstars Gentlemen's Club in west suburban Northlake where they work as strippers or barmaids.

"They were dressed just like anybody else going to a golf outing. I doubt any of the golfers knew if they were waitresses or nurses or whatever, and they were working spending their time their day for a good cause helping people get scholarships, and frankly we applaud the Northlake lodge for the efforts that they are doing," said David Wickster, FOP labor council.

Among the outing organizers was veteran lawman Ementi Coary, a Northlake patrolman. After the I-Team report revealed these 18-hole antics, there was an internal investigation of Coary and several other cops who all resigned.

"The outing in question was not a sanctioned by the police department or city," said Chief Dennis Koletsos, Northlake police. But Chief Dennis Koletsos is being sued by ex-officer Coary for slander and allegedly breaching their agreement that Coary's history would not be revealed to any prospective employers.

In the Cook County suit, Coary says he was not hired for a police position in Rosemont after Koletsos revealed he had a videotape of Coary taking cash from the mob-connected strip club and has telephone records of Coary in phone conversations with Chicago outfit boss James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.

Coary denies the charges and Chief Koletsos says he never made the comments alleged in the lawsuit.

There is another curious element to this story. The Northlake police produced a slick, 20-minute video to recruit new officers. The tape is accessible on Northlake's web site. But four years after Northlake's police department was embarrassed by a stripper golf outing, the officers involved-, resigned long ago, are still on Northlake's recruitment tape.

Even disgraced officer Ementi Coary, who claims the chief has framed him as being mobbed up and is now suing the department, is still starring in their video.

The police chief says Northlake doesn't have enough money to edit out Coary and the others from that recruitment tape. As for the suit, the chief said "when you open Pandora's box, you never know what's going to come out."

Coary now works as part-time policeman in Melrose Park.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

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