From today's Toronto Sun:

"Mobster Seeks New Digs

Jailed Con Wants To Be Moved To Minimum-Security

Pete Fisher
Special to The Sun

Coburg - The former head of a Hamilton based crime family is hoping a Superior Court judge will overrule two prison wardens and move him to a minimum security facility.

Behind bars since his November 1998 arrest for conspiracy to commit murder Pasquale "Pat" Musitano applied for a transfer to Gravenhurst's Beaver Creek Insititution in 2003.

Despite support from his case management team at Warkworth Instititution, two different wardens at the medium-security facility have denied his application.

The 38-year-old man and his brother, Angelo Musitano, pleaded guilty in February 2000 to conspiring to kill Carmen Barillaro, the crime lieutenant of late crime boss Johnny "Pops" Papalia. They were both handeed 10 year prison sentences.

Since then Musitano has spent time in many of Ontario's federal prisons, including Millhaven, Kingston Penitentiary and Collins Bay. He landed at Warkworth in 2002.

But Musitano's lawyer Anik Morrow, told the court yesterday that his most recent requests were turned down because Correctional Service Canada feared adverse media attention.

'The decision process was unlawful,' Morrow said, noting the information the wardens used to make the decision wasn't recent or credible.

But federal Crown James Gray said that CSC has information to designate Musitano a traditional organized crime member. Intelligence from a joint forces project states that Musitano became the head of the Musitano criminal organization after his father's sudden death in 1995.

While he can apply to have his designation changed Gray said he hasn't.

Yet even with that designation, Morrow said the case management team, which 'had the authority to make the decision, found him suitable to be transferred.'

Gray argued that the warden is the only one who decides security ratings and transfers.

While Musitano was recommended, Gray said he was never given a minimum security rating.

'You don't go to a minimum security instititution if you have a medium security rating,' he said.

Justice Peter Howden reserved his decision for a later date."