I remember when his son got stabbed.

Mafia-Tinged Dispute, but Fought in Court

By Sarah Kershaw
Feb. 6, 2002

On the surface, it appeared to be a brawl over a girl, a beef between neighborhood boys from opposite sides of the tracks that turned violent.

But there was a certain coincidental element to the stabbings outside a Queens nightclub on an evening in August 2000 that made it something more.

It so happened that among the boys from Whitestone and the crew from Howard Beach were two teenagers with some intriguing family connections: Anthony Federici, the son of Anthony Federici, who is known as Tough Tony, a reputed captain in the Genovese crime family, and Nicholas Gambino, who investigators say is a nephew of Giovanni Gambino, a reputed foot soldier in the Gambino crime family.

The two young men, now 20, were on opposing sides outside the nightclub, the Metropolis, that night, but prosecutors said that they had never met before the brawl and that the fighting had nothing to do with organized crime or family feuds.


Yesterday, Mr. Federici, who was stabbed in the abdomen during the brawl, testified against Mr. Gambino, who is on trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, facing charges of attempted murder in the stabbing of Mr. Federici and two others.

So it was that a tale of boyish bluster became something of a treatise on the Mafia in the 21st century. Since when do mobsters -- or, in this case, their relatives -- settle their disputes in court? Thus, a Queens courtroom looked yesterday like a casting call for ''West Side Story'' meets ''The Sopranos'' meets ''My Cousin Vinny,'' with a disorganized defense lawyer, a grouchy judge, mysterious observers and lots of reporters eager to witness a standoff between two Mafia families.

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As the reporters glanced around the room searching for notorious Mafia figures, stone-faced relatives and friends, some of them dressed in black leather jackets and whispering to one another, watched as Mr. Federici politely gave the jurors a matter-of-fact account of the brawl and his recovery from the stabbing wound.

On cross-examination, the defense lawyer, Rafael Scotto, who often fumbled through his papers, was repeatedly berated by the judge for asking irrelevant questions.

In truth, there was little courtroom drama yesterday, the sixth day of Mr. Gambino's trial, a proceeding that might have gone unnoticed if it were not for the apparent family ties. Mr. Gambino, who is free on $1 million bail, has denied being related to Giovanni Gambino, who investigators say is part of a Brooklyn-based Sicilian faction of the Gambino crime family.