Lombardo taking stand
Reputed mob boss to testify, judge told
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 9, 2007
Joey "the Clown" Lombardo quietly watched Wednesday as the government all but wrapped up its case against him and four other defendants in the Family Secrets trial, but he won't be silent for much longer.
His attorney, Rick Halprin, ended speculation about whether jurors will hear from the reputed mobster who is known for his sense of humor.
"It's no secret that Mr. Lombardo is going to testify," Halprin told U.S. District Judge James Zagel as attorneys were handling motions at the end of the day and the jury had been allowed to leave.
The testimony would be Lombardo's first under oath in a criminal case and would come as he tries to portray himself as a mob-connected businessman -- not an Outfit leader as alleged by prosecutors.
Halprin's announcement came after the judge told jurors to return to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Monday. Prosecutors have told the judge they've finished calling witness and only expect to submit a few more documents before the defense case starts.
None of the other defense lawyers formally notified the judge Wednesday that their client would take the stand, though some have signaled they are considering it.
"Important decisions have to be made over the weekend," Marc Martin, an attorney for defendant and reputed mob boss James Marcello, said to the judge.
After the government rests, Zagel told defense lawyers that the first thing jurors will hear Monday from the defense is the opening statement from Halprin on behalf of Lombardo. The lawyer had made the rare decision to withhold his opening statement at the start of the case in late June until the defense began.
Zagel warned Halprin that his statement should cover only what he believes the evidence in his case will show, and that he is not to begin arguing evidence already presented by the government. Halprin said he is well aware of the limits.
"I'm just reminding you," Zagel said.
Halprin's statement will mark the first efforts by the defense to counteract the gripping testimony last month of Nicholas Calabrese, who testified against his brother and others in the conspiracy case against the Outfit. Before he left the stand last month, Calabrese was asked whether a weight had been lifted off his chest.
"No, it's still there, because I gotta live with it," Calabrese said of his own admitted involvement in some 14 gangland killings in the 1970s and 1980s.
His testimony remains the spine of the milestone trial that has played out all summer at the downtown courthouse. Calabrese said he watched men kill and be killed, and in some cases, he cut a throat or pulled the trigger himself.
Prosecutors started presenting evidence with overview testimony from a mob expert and continued through a long list of former mob-associated thugs, safecrackers, bookies and porn merchants. They even called Marcello's mistress to talk about getting cash from him.
Family members of many of those slain also have testified, sometimes crying as they remembered learning about deaths that still haunt them.
The government has described the Outfit as "the charged business" in a broad conspiracy that controlled Chicago's underworld and alleged that the men on trial were key parts of it.
The decades-old criminal enterprise -- subject to anti-racketeering laws -- made money through illegal gambling, loan-sharking and the collection of street tax, prosecutors have said. They allege the organization protected itself through violence and murder when necessary, and jurors have heard details about 18 killings and one attempted murder.
When it came time for the mob to collect what it thought it was owed, the threat of violence was always present, witnesses have said. Messages could be sent with a word, a slap, a puppy's head or a bomb tucked under a car seat.
Four of the men on trial, Marcello, Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro, have been described as longtime organization members. The fifth defendant, former Chicago cop Anthony Doyle, is charged in the conspiracy for allegedly passing information to Outfit higher-ups about the investigation that centered on Nicholas Calabrese.
In order to find each defendant guilty of the racketeering conspiracy, lawyers in the case have said, jurors would have to believe each was guilty of two or more of the underlying offenses in the case. Those include any of the 18 homicides, as well as extortion and fraud, running an illegal gambling business or obstruction of justice.
In his testimony, Nicholas Calabrese named Marcello as taking part in three murders, including the infamous slayings of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro. The jury has also heard evidence that Marcello met with top mob bosses and had control over a business that distributed video-poker machines to bars.
Calabrese blamed his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., for more than a dozen murders, telling jurors that Frank Calabrese had a penchant for ending the lives of enemies with a rope around their neck. Other witnesses, including Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Calabrese Jr., have said Frank Sr. made money through loan-sharking and collecting street tax.
Lombardo allegedly is tied to the murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert through a fingerprint left on the title application for a car that fled the shooting scene. Other witnesses have described Lombardo as a ranking Outfit member. And he was once convicted of skimming millions from a Las Vegas casino. .
Schiro has been described as a mobster based in Phoenix who Nicholas Calabrese said was part of a hit team that killed witness Emil Vaci in 1986.
Defense lawyers don't argue that the Outfit exists, just that those on trial ran it. They have promised to attack Nicholas Calabrese as the real mob killer in the case.
--------
jcoen@tribune.com
