http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201302..._acquitted.html

Mistrial for Ligambi in Philly mob trial, three men convicted, one acquitted


John P. Martin, Inquirer Staff Writer
February 6, 2013



Joseph "Scoops" Licata (left) with his lawyer, Christopher Warren, after Licata was acquitted of the lone mob conspiracy charge against him and freed.


A federal judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the trial of reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Ligambi after jurors acquitted him on five counts but said they were hopelessly deadlocked on four others, including the key charge of racketeering conspiracy.

Three codefendants, including alleged underboss Joseph "Mousie" Massimino, were convicted on the conspiracy charge and face years in prison.

But jurors found them and the others not guilty of 45 counts of bookmaking, extortion, loan-sharking, and other crimes.

One defendant, Joseph "Scoops" Licata, was acquitted of the lone charge against him and freed.

The verdicts came on the 21st day of deliberations and after a trial showcasing what prosecutors contended was the latest generation of La Cosa Nostra to run local gambling, extortion, and crime rackets, led by the understated 73-year-old boss known as "Uncle Joe."

Ligambi's lawyer hailed the verdicts as "a victory" and repudiation of a case that FBI agents built over more than a decade.

"It's a failure for the government," said Edwin Jacobs Jr. "It was an enormous waste of precious taxpayer funds."

Prosecutors noted that they won major convictions against three of seven defendants and said they would consider retrying 11 charges jurors could not resolve, including the allegation that all conspired as members of a criminal enterprise - the mob.

"It was an important case, and it needed to be brought," said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Fritchey, who heads the office's organized crime unit.

But the results were clearly mixed, and in some corners as confusing as some of the 42 notes jurors had sent to U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno since they began weighing the evidence Jan. 8.

For the second time in four days, the anonymous panel of eight men and four women reported it was at an impasse Tuesday. This note was more forceful than the first on Saturday, declaring the jurors had verdicts on some counts but not all, and were "of unanimous opinion that no future headway can be made to resolve these charges."

Robreno gave them the option of delivering a partial verdict or continuing to deliberate on all the charges. At first they chose to keep talking, then changed course barely 30 minutes later.

About 100 prosecutors, agents, reporters, and supporters of the defendants crammed into Robreno's 15th-floor courtroom for the verdict just after 3:30 p.m., with others crowding outside. As the jury foreman began reading decisions in the 61 charges, relatives of Ligambi and the others gasped or cried, trying to untangle what the verdicts meant.

Authorities argued that Ligambi and his cohorts might not have racked up a body count like their predecessors, but that they used threats of violence to maintain the same grip over gambling, loan-sharking, and crime rackets.

Ligambi, they said, strong-armed control of the local video-poker market, and stole money and benefits through a no-show job for a local waste disposal company. And they said the boss got a cut of the proceeds in illegal sports betting.

But jurors rejected five of the underlying crimes charged against Ligambi and declared themselves undecided on four others, including the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charge that could have effectively sent him to prison for life.

They also deadlocked on the conspiracy charge against Ligambi's 49-year-old nephew, reputed captain George "Georgie" Borgesi, and cleared Borgesi of 13 other counts related to loan sharking and extortion of debtors.

Borgesi's lawyer said the verdicts were vindication and proof that testimony of a star prosecution witness, turncoat Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello, fell flat.

"The jury rejected his testimony," Paul Hetznecker said. "They did not believe it."

Hetznecker and Jacobs asked the judge to immediately release their clients on bail, arguing that the jury had rejected the claims prosecutors used to hold Borgesi and Ligambi without bail since May 2011. Robreno said he would consider the request during a hearing Wednesday morning.

Massimino, 62; reputed mob soldier Damion "Dame" Canalichio, 44; and alleged associate Gary Battaglini, 51, were convicted of the larger mob conspiracy, but not any charges related to specific extortion or loan-sharking crimes, all built on testimony and secret recordings from informants, debtors, and turncoats.

"It struck me as illogical," Lawrence O'Connor, lawyer for Battaglini, said after the verdict. "We're obviously disappointed."

Margaret Grasso, Canalichio's attorney, said the jury "got it right on the bookmaking and video poker machines. I think they were confused on the RICO."

Like Massimino, both men have criminal records and could face years in prison. Robreno scheduled their sentencings for May 21.

The only other guilty verdicts were returned in two counts against alleged captain Anthony "Ant" Staino, 55, in connection with a loan to an undercover FBI agent.

Staino's attorney, Gregory Pagano, said jurors may have been swayed by tapes of a bathroom conversation in which Staino told the agent, "Don't make me hurt you."

Pagano argued that Staino was obviously drunk at the time. Jurors acquitted Staino on 27 other counts, and deadlocked on the racketeering conspiracy.

"I'm surprised," Pagano said. "I would think that the RICO was all for one and one for all."

Staino and Battaglini were the only two defendants to be free on bail during the trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney John S. Han asked the judge to revoke bail for both men; the judge deferred a decision until Wednesday.

The one clear victor in the case was Licata, a 71-year-old alleged captain who authorities say is part of the family's North Jersey faction.

Licata was a focus in the trial's opening days, as jurors heard a recording of a May 2010 lunch meeting he helped organize at a New Jersey restaurant for mob members from New York and Philadelphia. Licata introduced Ligambi as "acting boss" but spent most of the gathering waxing nostalgic about former friends, associates, and adventures.

Prosecutors contended that he was part of the mob conspiracy but did not charge him with any underlying crimes.

"The lack of evidence against my client was shameless," his lawyer, Christopher Warren, said after the verdict. "There was zero evidence my client was doing anything but sitting around, talking and drinking."

For the first time in nearly a year, Licata got to do the same thing again Tuesday night. About an hour after the verdict, Licata was sipping a Ketel One vodka and soda with his lawyer at DiNardo's Famous Crabs as he waited for his family to arrive from New Jersey.

"His grandchildren can't wait to see him," Warren said.

Four other codefendants pleaded guilty before the trial and three more are awaiting a separate trial. If or how the verdicts might affect those prosecutions is unclear.

Theres no reason a team of fbi agents should take more than a decade for 4 guilty verdicts. These shows, these investigations are short enough to be concluded in a 30 min show. Im not saying the gov should just forget about these guys, but for the amount of time and money wasted..... Did you see any stacks of bricks from this bust? Or were these guys guilty of cutting childrens heads off? Anyone who thinks a 30 min show about a cartel and a 11 year long investigation into a few old criminals have anything in common, needs their head examined.

.....

Don't know what your talking about Skinny,my head is fine.I am just saying that these other criminal investigations are going on 7 days a week also,you act like everybody stopped what they were doing just for this investigation.Thats not the case at all.they are not letting these other organizations run free.Why do you think the prisons are overcrowded.

Just got Philadelphia Magazine Today in the mail that have a collage of the Phila Mob on there..

The Phila LCN created a position for him as a " Doorman." I bet that phone scoops is on is already tapped

Don't worry, there is always next time

Any way coul

Could you scan and post the collage? Thanks,

35 Years Inside the Philly Mob With George Anastasia
Sneak Peek: For more than 30 years, crime reporter George Anastasia covered the Philly Mob and lived to see the city's mafiosos take the hit.


Frankie the Fixer is trying to have it both ways. Which probably comes as no surprise to the people of south philadelphia who used to deal with Frankie the Fixer.

It’s last November, and the Fixer, a licensed plumber and legendary con man named Frank DiGiacomo, is on the witness stand, testifying for the prosecution in the racketeering trial of Mob boss Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi and six co-defendants. The government is using DiGiacomo to back up allegations that Ligambi was the boss of the Philly Mob, and had engaged in gambling and loan-sharking. Frankie says as much, but with a smile. He’s careful to explain that Ligambi and the others, guys like co-defendants Joseph “M­ousie” Massimino and Anthony Staino, are “great guys.” Fun to be around, he adds. He’s hung with them, eating, drinking and partying at bars and restaurants downtown. He loved it, he says. And the women? Madonne!

Frankie isn’t a great plumber. “The drains are still clogged,” Massimino quips during a break in the proceedings, referring to work DiGiacomo did for him at Lou’s Crab Bar, a neighborhood joint Mousie ran when he was on the streets. Whether DiGiacomo, 48, is a great witness is another question. That one, the jury will decide.

Sitting in the courtroom for this three-month-long trial, I find myself thinking about something else: the fact that it doesn’t matter whether Ligambi and the others are found guilty.

Because the glory days of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra are over.

Defense attorneys don’t deny the existence of the Mafia. What they do argue is that the Ligambi organization wasn’t cut from the same cloth as the violent, blood-soaked crime families headed by Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo and John Stanfa.

I’d argue something else. And that is that the Philadelphia branch of the American Mafia­—an institution that from the 1950s through the 1980s functioned as a shadow government, impacting politics, commerce, organized labor and the justice system—is today little more than a street gang. The days of Mob hits and omertà, of bribed judges and rigged multimillion-dollar construction contracts, of power and influence and “men of honor”—they’re history. The long-running soap opera that played out against the backdrop of Passyunk Avenue, 9th Street, the Produce Center and the Atlantic City Boardwalk has been canceled.

I’ve spent the past 30 years reporting on the Philly Mob. My career at the Inquirer was, in large part, defined by that.

As I sit listening to testimony and e­vidence—I now cover the proceedings for bigtrial.net, a website about major Philly trials funded by the Beasley law firm—it occurs to me that the Mob, like the newspaper business, has lost its way. The game has passed the Ligambi organization by. Today, the real players in the Philadelphia underworld are black, Asian, Russian. They carry big guns and use them. They have wads of cash and kilos of cocaine. So it really doesn’t matter what the jury decides in the Ligambi case.

For the Mob, it’s all over.

I just scanned scanned it to a jpeg and posted a link below its the cover of the Philadephia Magazine for this month funny that it just came in the mail today

https://plus.google.com/photos/103760117...CP2AysCdm6_h-AE

I have no idea what you're talking about. I never once speculated about them being "guilty across the board," but PLENTY of the Philly fan boys speculated that they'd be "not guilty across the board." That's a fact. Go back and look it all up if you want to. They were the ones who were dead wrong. Most of the long term members here picked split verdicts, myself included. Although I'm more than willing to admit that I thought that Joe and Staino would be found guilty, and that Damion would have walked. And I'm more than man enough to admit that.

And as far as your saying, "I think not my friends!!!", you really ought to try telling that to Damion's family, being that the guy is going to do up to twenty years and come out with the best years of his life behind him. Or maybe try telling that to Mousie's family, being that at his age he may die in jail now.

Welcome to the board anyway, Nicky. And I just want to add one thing: Making an objective guess about these guys being found guilty doesn't mean that's what a person is rooting for. Not in my case, anyway. I grew up around this shit all my life, and I ain't no kid. So do your homework before you call a guy out. That's all I'm saying.

Can anyone see the link I posted does it work???

The link shows the cover page, but the slide show pictures are of other subjects than the Philly Mob. Thanks for trying, I appreciate.

.......

Looks like they revoked Staino and Battaglini's bail.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130206_Judge_jails_two__awaits_Ligambi_bail_bid.html


Judge jails two, awaits Ligambi bail bid

John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
February 6, 2013

Joseph Ligambi's lawyer was expected to petition a judge as soon as today to free him on bail, a day after jurors acquitted the reputed Philadelphia mob boss of extortion and loan-sharking but deadlocked on the more serious charge of racketeering conspiracy.

A similar request for bail was pending from Ligambi's nephew, George "Georgie" Borgesi, a reputed captain and onetime consigliere in the crime family.

Passing them on the way in could be Anthony "Ant" Staino and Gary Battaglini, two of their five codefendants in the first major Philadelphia mob trial in a decade.

U.S. District Eduardo Robreno today jailed the men who had been free on bail, ruling that both were a danger to the community after guilty verdicts against them. The jurors convicted Battaglini, an alleged mob associate, of the racketeering conspiracy, and found Staino, described as high-ranking captain, guilty of two counts of loan-sharking.

Staino's lawyer, Gregory Pagano, had asked for his client to remain free until his sentencing on May 21.

Staino's convictions stemmed from a five-figure loan to an undercover FBI agent in 2004. Jurors heard tapes from a secretly recorded bathroom conversation about late payments in which Staino tells the agent, "I don't want to have to hurt you."

Pagano said the crime "was not your typical extortion," but rather a sting-like offense that followed "an all-out effort" by the FBI to get Pagano to lend the undercover money.

"It was not a crime of violence," he argued.

But Robreno disagreed. He also rejected a bid by Staino to remain free under electronic monitoring for 30 days, and ordered him led away. Staino removed his belt, kissed his wife and was led through a rear courtroom door to a holding cell.

Prosecutors made the same successful argument to jail Battaglini before his sentencing.

"Racketeering conspiracy is a crime of violence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Han told the judge. "That's exactly the scenario in this case."

Later today, Robreno will consider a bail request for Borgesi, who has been jailed for 13 years. A hearing for Ligambi was not yet planned.

After 21 days of deliberations, jurors delivered a split verdict. Convicted of the racketeering conspiracy were reputed mob underboss Joseph "Mousie" Massimino, soldier Damion "Dame" Canalichio and Battaglini.
One defendant, alleged captain Joseph "Scoops" Licata, was acquitted.

The panel of eight men and four women delivered not-guilty verdicts on 44 other counts, and were hung on 11, including racketeering and other charges against Ligambi and Staino.

Prosecutors said they will review the case before deciding on a retrial.

thanks for this

I think this will be Staino's first real taste of being locked up. He's really not a south philly guy, he grew up in Merchantville NJ and lives in the Washington Township / Sewell area in south jersey. First real pinch he's taken, but he should be ok.

Without the racketeering charge he should be out within 5 years i would think with his clean record.
Sound right for a first time offender?

i thought not guilty across board...i was wrong...i am surprised that gary and damion got convicted...said i was wrong a few pages back

much respect to you PB

dicknose how can i buy that magazine?

Here's the cover from the mags website.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/1302CoverUPC1.jpg

Is that Al Daidone behind Scarfo? Looks like him to me.

you can get philly mag right now for the year for like $9.95

and then phillymag.com and search

Why can't ligambi just walk out and how long do the feds have to refile on him? Or is it basically they can hold borgesi and ligambi on teh RICO charges until there is a verdict?

Wait I'm still confused why Borgesi is presumably about to be a free man. Wasn't he locked up prior to these additional charges?!?! Or is it that his original sentence was up somewhere before Ligambi trial ended?

Borgesi was finishing up a sentence before he got re indicted. Since the jury was hung on some of his charges he's not out of the woods yet

Borgesi was supposed to get out July 3 2012 that means he would have been eligible to go to the halfway house 6 months prior to release which would have been about Jan 3 2012.He will probably be let go this afternoon or sometime this week.

Even if they recharge him with the racketeering bullshit, i would think he'll at least now get bail set.

He was found not guilty on 13 out of the 14 charges and i have a feeling they're not going to retry him on that charge. Bent Lou was a disaster and the feds know it. I think George will soon be released.

thanks Merlino

Yeah the article is a lot of the same information just rehashed..

dude go fuck yourself .. seriously who do you think you are saying that about my father ????? you dont know anything and yous all need to get a fucking life you have nothing better to do then make shit up on here ??

no actually he wouldnt "flip" asshole !! shut the fuck up