Will Family Secrets Mob Attorney, "The Shark" Represent Drew Peterson?

Drew Peterson might want to give Joseph R. Lopez a call.

Lopez, a high-profile attorney, managed to hang a jury in his defense of Peterson at a Thursday night mock murder trial at Chicago-Kent College of Law. WGN Radio sponsored the event and will broadcast it June 14 and 21.

The jury only had a half hour to come up with a unanimous verdict and failed to do so. When asked how they voted, the panel revealed it split 6-6.

The attorneys involved in the mock trial based their cases on information reported through the press, as they do not have access to the state's evidence.

Peterson was unavailable for the mock trial. To get up to Chicago, he would have needed to come up with $20 million bail to get out of the Will County jail, where he is awaiting a real trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004.

Mock prosecutor Karen Conti, an attorney and co-host of WGN Radio's "Legally Speaking," pointed out the questionable death scene that state police found completely unsuspicious until Peterson's next wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007.

"None of this makes sense," Conti said. "People don't die this way."

Peterson and Savio were in the midst of a contentious divorce when she turned up dead. She was only weeks away from taking a substantial amount of his assets in divorce court.

"Murders don't make sense," Conti said. "Don't try to make sense of this one."

Lopez, who apparently is nicknamed "the Shark" and is famous for representing alleged mob hit men and drug cartels, argued the murder makes no sense because it is not a murder at all.

"It's obvious that she slipped and fell in the tub," Lopez said.

That's exactly what the state police thought, at least until three and a half years later, when Stacy vanished and mounting public pressure prompted them to re-examine Savio's death.

The state police also are probing Stacy's disappearance. They consider her a "potential homicide" victim and have named Peterson their sole suspect.

While Stacy's case would have to be a mock trial for another day, Conti focused on a conversation the young woman supposedly had with her pastor, the Rev. Neil Schori, only weeks before she disappeared. In the actual trial, prosecutors will likely attempt to get these statements entered through recently passed hearsay legislation dubbed "Drew's Law."

"Drew said, 'I killed Kathleen. I killed Kathleen and made it look like an accident. I hit her in the back of the head and put her in the bathtub,'" Conti claimed Schori said. "Why would he lie?" Conti said. "He doesn't have a dog in this fight."

Lopez was dismissive of Schori's supposed testimony. "Here's another guy who jumped on the bandwagon and claimed Stacy Peterson made those statements," Lopez said, adding, "He lied to you."

He also questioned why Schori, upon supposedly hearing such a shocking revelation, took no action beyond telling Stacy to "go home and pray about it."

The mock trial actually consisted of nothing more than closing arguments — a small section of a real trial.

Lopez said during his argument that he would have called no witnesses during the testimony phase of the trial because "the state failed to prove its case."

Lopez did concede that "everybody hates Drew. There's no question about it." But he then went on to speak to all of his mock client's virtues.

Peterson, for instance, joined the Army. "He didn't have to do that," Lopez said. "He could have been a draft dodger. He could have gone to Canada and smoked pot."

And from the Army, Peterson went on to become a Bolingbrook police officer. "That's not something to sneeze at either," Lopez said. But it was while he was supposed to be protecting and serving that Peterson was storing away the knowledge that would help him plan the murder of his wife, Conti said.

"He was a student of crime," she said. "He was a student of crime scenes. Is it a surprise he didn't leave a trace? I'm not surprised by it."

Lopez maintained Peterson was the victim of a witch hunt conducted by authorities facing intense media scrutiny. And Peterson's public persona didn't help him any either. "People hate him because he likes young girls," Lopez said. "That doesn't make him a killer. They haven't even shown any evidence there was a homicide."

Peterson's real attorney, Joel Brodsky, was in the audience watching the mock trial, possibly hoping to glean ideas for how to defend his client after losing his first two challenges to the state — objecting to a change off judge and attempting to get Peterson's bond reduced.

Despite the spectacle of the mock trial, the gravity of the case was not lost on the participants. In fact, during the proceedings, Conti stressed the reality of Savio's death.

"This is not a book," she said. "It is not a movie. It's a real-life murder with someone executed in the prime of her life."

Thanks to Joe Hosey

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Do the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" Have Mob Ties?

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" personality Danielle Staub is one of the only women on the Bravo show without rumored mob links - but those alleged mafia ladies may have nothing on her when it comes to crime ties.

Fans are all aflutter today over reports that Staub's mugshot may appear in a now out-of-print book called Cop Without a Badge: The Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher.

The book, written by Charles Kipps, is described as the true story of an ex-conman turned criminal informant.

It was published in 1995 by Carroll & Graf, and is summarized on Amazon.com like this:

"Former FBI and Secret Service agent Kevin Maher describes the intervention that prevented him from following a life of crime and recounts his dangerous career in which he solved homicides, targeted the mafia, and fought in the drug war."

So where does Staub fit in?

Last night's show featured her throwing a spa party - the highlight for the Jersey gals was the free Botox injections - and sinking into a feud with rival housewife Dina Manzo, who talks trash about Staub's sexual history.

Next week's episode will apparently shed new light on Staub's connection to the book "Cop Without a Badge," which may or may not feature her mugshot, according to NJ.com.

Star Magazine has reported that Staub was arrested in early April at her home in Wayne, NJ in connection to financial issues surrounding her divorce settlement.

Thanks to Lauren Johnston

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Gambino Top Boss Deported to Italy

Italian authorities took into custody on Saturday a top boss from the Gambino Mafia clan who was deported from the United States after spending more than two decades in jail for drug trafficking.

The 67-year-old Rosario Gambino arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Miami. Wearing a gray jumpsuit and looking frail he sat in a wheelchair as he was escorted out by police officers.

Gambino, an Italian-born New Jersey resident, was considered a top mobster in the New York-based crime family led by his late cousin Carlo Gambino.

In 1984 he was convicted in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to sell heroin in southern New Jersey and sentenced to 45 years in jail.

Gambino was linked to the "Pizza Connection" probe, which broke a $1.6 billion heroin and cocaine smuggling operation that used pizzerias as fronts from 1975 to 1984.

He was released in 2007 and transferred to an immigrant detention center in California to await expulsion, Italian police said in a statement. It was not immediately clear why the sentence had been reduced.

Gambino has been wanted in Italy since 1980 on separate drug and Mafia-connected charges, and he is expected to face trial. Calls to a lawyer representing him in Italy were not answered Saturday afternoon.

Before being transferred to a Rome jail, Gambino was served the original 1980 arrest warrant signed by Giovanni Falcone, one of Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutors.

Falcone was killed by the Sicilian mob in a 1992 bomb attack, and Gambino's return coincided with the anniversary of the murder, which was being commemorated across Italy. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, then the Mafia's boss of bosses, was arrested in 1993 and later convicted with others of plotting the hit.

Thanks to AP

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11 Palm Beach and Broward County Residents Indicted on Organized Crime Charges with Reputed Connections to the Bonanno Crime Family

Eleven Palm Beach and Broward County residents were indicted Thursday after federal prosecutors outlined their alleged roles in an organized crime ring specializing in fraud, narcotics, gambling and mob-style shakedowns.

The crew operated out of South Florida, but regularly reported and paid tribute to the Bonanno family, a New York City-based mafia unit, according to the indictment from the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

Boynton Beach resident Thomas Fiore, 46, is an associate of the Bonanno family and leads its South Florida operation, prosecutors said.

Each of the 11 were indicted on federal charges of Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, after a two-year undercover investigation.

The other defendants include Billie Robertson, 34, and Lee Klein, 39, both of Boynton Beach; Daniel Young, 57, and Guy Alessi, 81, both of Delray Beach; Kenneth Dunn, 44, and Nicholas Fiore, 49, both of Boca Raton; and Frank D'Amato, 48, of West Palm Beach.

The indictment also included Coral Springs residents Pasquale Rubbo, 43, Joseph Rubbo, 45, and Marc Broder, 42.

None of the defendants are ''made'' members of the Bonanno family.

According to prosecutors, an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt businessman infiltrated Thomas Fiore's group as part of a scam to convert fraudulent checks to cash.

With the agent in its midst, Fiore's crew laundered fake checks, acquired and planned to distribute illegal drugs and sold and purchased contraband cigarettes, stolen plasma televisions and identification documents to later be used in other scams, the indictment states. From September to January, authorities audiotaped conversations about alleged criminal activity using wiretaps on Fiore's and Pasquale Rubbo's phones.

Prosecutors also say Fiore set fire to his Royal Palm Beach gym to cash in on the insurance proceeds, then lied under oath about the fire and solicited the murder of someone to facilitate the fraud.

Prosecutors allege that members of the operation also:

• Submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicare program using illegally obtained patient records;

• Organized illegal high-stakes poker games for wealthy gamblers, although no players were named in the indictment;

• Manufactured fake checks using the names, addresses and account numbers of legitimate businesses and then cashed them at convenience stores or through foreign bank accounts and;

• Conspired to threaten business owners to extort illegal payments.

Other crimes include mail fraud, obstruction of justice and transporting stolen property across state lines, the indictment states.

Thomas and Nicholas Fiore and Pasquale and Joseph Rubbo were on either supervised release or probation after pleading guilty in recent years to engaging in criminal activities with leaders and associates of the Bonanno crime family.

At a hearing Thursday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer set bail at $250,000 for Robertson, Joseph Rubbo and Young.

Seltzer allowed Robertson, who pleaded not guilty, to continue working at the medical offices in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton where she is employed. He ordered Jospeh Rubbo to live at a halfway house in Dania Beach and Young to live in home confinement in Delray Beach with electronic monitoring.

Fiore and the remaining defendants were being held in the Broward County Main Jail awaiting their bond hearings. The defendants could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey N. Kaplan and Paul F. Schwartz are prosecuting the case.

Thanks to Don Jordan

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Ed Burke's Palace: Powerful Chicago alderman gets zoning break, special parking

Ald. Edward M. Burke has ruled the 14th Ward for 40 years. He has used his clout to build himself a palace — right alongside the CTA’s Orange Line near Pulaski.

The house is part of a $4.6 million development that Burke and his partners built on a parking lot over the objections of Mayor Daley’s zoning administrators.

Daley’s zoning staff thought the development — one massive, three story house along with 13 town homes — wasn’t “compatible” with the Archer Heights neighborhood, where it would tower over the surrounding bungalows. But Burke, the city’s most powerful alderman, won permission from his colleagues on the City Council for the project anyway.

Then he got the city Zoning Board of Appeals’ OK to build the 4,400-square-foot house without having to leave space — as required by city ordinance — for a yard in the front or back.

The house does have an enormous rooftop deck, though, giving Burke and his wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke, a bird’s-eye view of the L trains that rush by all day between the Loop and Midway Airport.

They moved in nearly four years ago.

Burke declined to discuss the project, which couldn’t have been built without City Council approval. Instead, he gave the Chicago SunTimes a copy of a June 24, 2004, letter that he sent to the Chicago Board of Ethics, assuring the city agency that he would abstain from voting on any matters involving the construction of his home and the rest of the project. And he promised he wouldn’t talk to any city officials about the development, either.

According to records obtained by the Sun-Times, Burke teamed with two of his campaign contributors — Anthony DeGrazia, a housing developer, and Eric Gonzales, a contractor whose company has worked on several projects for City Hall. They became equal partners in a new company — 51st Street Townhomes LLC — that paid $300,000 in late June 2004 to buy a little-used parking lot in the 3900 block of West 51st St. They bought it from someone who’d been a client of Burke’s law firm.

The triangular lot, about two- thirds of an acre, was zoned for businesses. Burke and his partners hired a lobbyist — Marcus Nunes, a law partner of Mayor Daley’s former chief of staff, Gery Chico — to get City Hall’s permission to build.

The city’s Zoning Department deemed the project “not recommended.” But the City Council went ahead and approved the project on Sept. 1, 2004 — with Burke abstaining.

On Sept. 10, 2004, Burke and his partners got a $480,000 construction loan from Cole Taylor Bank. They were free to begin building the town homes. But they still couldn’t build Burke’s new home unless the Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to drastically reduce the required size of the front and back yards. If the board wouldn’t agree, there wouldn’t have been enough room to build the house.

“Due to the unique shape of the property, it is impossible to place a home on it and meet the requirements for front, side and rear yard minimums,” according to documents Burke’s group gave the appeals board. “In the absence of such a variation, the property is likely to remain vacant or underutilized.’’

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2004, the appeals board gave Burke what he wanted: His house could be set back just three feet from the lot line, rather than the normal nine feet. And his backyard had to be just three feet deep, rather than the usual 30 feet.

Today, Burke’s home and three car attached garage fills the property. He has no backyard, just a paved driveway around his house. There’s no lawn, just a few flower beds.

Burke and his partners sold the home for $900,000 to the Anne M. Burke Trust on Oct. 10, 2005. The tax bills are mailed to the alderman, who paid $8,551.98 in property taxes last year.

After selling the house to his wife’s trust, Burke and his partners sold the 13 town homes for a total of $3.7 million. One of the biggest went for $280,000 to state Rep. Daniel Burke, the alderman’s brother.

Ald. Burke’s block is one-way, with a traffic barricade. And no one can park on the street without a parking permit. But there are two different permits required — one for the people who live across the street from Burke, another to park on the alderman’s side of the street.

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