If they were smart they grabbed kc @ at least +1 probably +1.5-2.5

Also I'm sure the "public" in SP was all over the birds

Mob-trial prosecutors seek to bar defense claims

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Reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joe Ligambi, left, and his nephew, George Borgesi, right, are charged with bookmaking and illegal video gambling. (File photos)


JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Sunday, January 5, 2014, 2:01 AM


PHILADELPHIA Two of Philadelphia's top reputed mob dons have done their best during the last two months to paint the federal case against them as nothing more than the "cobbled together" result of 13 years of squandered investigatory resources.

But if prosecutors have anything to say about it, they won't have a chance to make that argument again.

As both sides prepare to make their final pitch to jurors Monday, government lawyers are seeking to bar defense attorneys for Joseph Ligambi and George Borgesi from repeating what they describe as inaccurate and improper claims.

In disparaging the government's case against their clients, the defense team has all but asked jurors to "ignore the evidence" and "base [their] verdict on an emotional response" to the plight of the made men, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Labor and John Han said in court filings Thursday. They described the defense claims as an "unabashed and highly improper appeal to juror sympathy."

"Despite 11,000 intercepts, 40 search warrants, and countless hours of visual surveillance over the course of more than a decade, the government has failed to develop a case," defense lawyer Michael F. Myers wrote in court filings Friday. "The point is lack of evidence."

The eleventh-hour spat comes amid what has become a frequent defense theme throughout Ligambi's retrial on racketeering conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors allege that Ligambi, 74, oversaw the mob's wide-ranging illegal gambling and loan-sharking rackets across the Philadelphia area and that Borgesi, his nephew and purported consigliere, stood by his side. If convicted, both men face potential life sentences.

Defense lawyer Edwin Jacobs Jr. has repeatedly depicted Ligambi as the victim of an FBI witch-hunt and derided the charges against him as picayune when compared with the violence-filled cases that brought down the city's previous mob dons.

"Why are these charges here at all?" he asked during his opening statement to jurors Nov. 7. "The federal government had to charge something to justify the enormous allocation of government time and resources and money."

He added: "This case is a misuse of 13 years of investigation [of Ligambi], which cleared us of wrongdoing."

For his part, Borgesi, 50, has centered his defense on his prior conviction on racketeering charges. He was sentenced to federal prison in 2000 and has remained behind bars ever since.

The government contends he continued to run illegal rackets from prison. But his lawyer, Christopher Warren, has maintained that Borgesi learned his lesson the first time and is no longer criminally involved with his mob brothers.

"You don't keep getting to lock somebody up again and again for the same thing," he said in November. "He has been trying to get out and back to his family - that's family with a lowercase F."

In filings Thursday, prosecutors insisted that, Warren's portrayal of his client notwithstanding, he is guilty of the charges against him.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Myers responded on Borgesi's behalf. "Instead, defense counsel merely explained why a so-called career criminal like Borgesi would 'hang up the towel.' "

U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno is expected to issue a ruling before the trial resumes Monday on whether the defense can reprise those arguments.




Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201401...FKO0VY5MYtEd.99

I don't think these guys are gonna walk this time. That was a bad witness for both of them...

yea game over. who knows they might get lucky.

Just a very bizarre witness for the defense to call. But, it's not like the prosecution did any better. This whole trial is very weak and has been given very little local publicity, aside from the standard newspaper articles. Years ago, this stuff was plastered all over the TV. It goes to show what kind of joke it's become.

To say that these jurors have no preconceived notions about the defendants, or prior knowledge of the mob is just plain silly. And that's what it's gonna come down to... What these 10 ladies and 2 guys thhought about Ligambi and Borgesi before the trial started.

All Sonny cares about is the Nacho's and the dip he don't care about the game

he will care if he loses money lol

Here's some more Philly news.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mobster-stand-trial-white-collar-case-article-1.1566906

I would think that the street in south philly took the birds in big numbers too ... I don't know too many philly fans who would go against the eagles especially yesterday's game.. The capos probably did well all weekend with the visitors winning three of 4 games.. Closing arguments starting tomorrow .. Won't be long now

Marine you ever check out that AA Class I recommended too you?

Marine why do you come on here?

Reading on twitter borgesi attorney called the case against his client "bovine excrement" in other words bullshit. Trickling out but expect a bigtrial post in the next couple hours - Philly.com usually posts sooner.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Closing Arguments Offer Diffrerent Stories In Ligambi Trial


By George Anastasia
For Bigtrial.net

The federal government is still fighting a war it won more than a decade ago, the lawyer for mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi told a jury this afternoon while asking the panel to reject the prosecution's case against his client and co-defendant George Borgesi.

"There was a sea change in 1999," Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. told the jury. La Cosa Nostra in Philadelphia, he said, "is a shell" (of what it once was). "It's every man for himself...The FBI won the war."

And the result, said Christopher Warren, Borgesi's attorney, is a case built around "a theater of the absurd."

Those were two of the high points of more than two hours of spirited closing argument by the defense in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of Ligambi, 74, and Borgesi, 50.

The prosecution, to no one's great surprise, presented the anonymously chosen jury panel with a decidedly different take, painting the two defendants are leaders of an organized crime family that engaged in gambling, loansharking and extortion and that used its reputation for violence to further the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the case.

"La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours, Our Thing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han. "It was Joe Ligambi's thing. It was George Borgesi's thing."

As is often the case with closing arguments, the two sides took the same set of facts and evidence and spun them in different directions. The ultimate decision rests with the jury which is expected to begin deliberations either late tomorrow or the first thing Wednesday morning.

Neither Ligambi nor Borgesi showed much emotion during the five hours of closing arguments today, although Borgesi occasionally shook his head in disagreement over some of Han's comments.

In a methodical and detailed presentation, the federal prosecutor spent nearly 30 minutes of his two and one-half hour closing explaining the racketeering conspiracy charge that is at the heart of the case. The government, he said, does not have to prove that either defendant committed a crime, but merely that they conspired with others to commit crimes in furtherance of the organized crime family.

In fact, there was little, if any, direct evidence tying Ligambi or Borgesi to specific criminal acts. But Han argued that both defendants "embraced" the crime family's reputation for violence and "exploited it to their benefit."

While acknowledging that several key government witnesses were themselves mobsters or mob associates with checkered criminal pasts, Han said, "the government didn't choose them, the defendants did."

Pointing to witnesses like Peter "Pete the Crumb" Caprio, Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello and Anthony Aponick, Han pointed to the defense table and said, "they were their associates, their partners-in crime."

"It's all about the money," Han said several times while outlining a government case that alleges that Ligambi and Borgesi received a piece of the mob's gambling and loansharking proceeds from 1999 through 2011 when the indictment was handed up in the current case.

Even though Borgesi was in prison for most of that time -- he was jailed in 2000 in an unrelated racketeering case -- Han said he still benefitted from the mob money-making gambits he had left in place and that Monacello ran for him.

The defense countered with an attack on both the truthfulness and reliability of the key government witnesses.

Monacello was described as a convicted racketeer and perjury who was using his association with Borgesi as a get out of jail free card. And Aponick was potrayed as a liar and con man who, even after he began cooperating with the FBI in 2003, committed a series of bank robberies.

He is "the poster child for why you need to shut this bad production down," Warren said of Aponick and the government's case. Even though Aponick deceived federal authorities, "they want you to believe him," Warren said incredulously.

"It's the theater of the absurd."

Both defense attorneys argued that the prosecution used rhetoric and hyperbole in place of facts to build the conspiracy charge.

At one point Warren referred to the case as "bovine excrement" while Jacobs called the racketeering conspiracy charge a "wastebasket."

Jacobs argued that the mob as a viable underworld operation in Philadelphia was dismantled in a 1999 case and that what is left is disorganized organized crime. While Ligambi and Borgesi may be membes -- "It's not a crime to be a member of La Cosa Nostra," he said -- neither were the beneficiaries of the actions of other mobsters who ran gambling and loansharking operations during the period covered in the independent.

It was, instead, "a group of independent oeprators," he said.

"This is not a mob," he told the jury. "This is not even a shell of a mob anymore. We are not what they say we are."

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/closing-arguments-offer-diffrerent.html

Wonder if they are in trial tomorrow ?

To me as shaky as the witness's are and they are very hard to believe but like the prosecution keeps saying if they [defendants] benefitted in any way they are guilty.It's right on tape isn't it when these guys are collecting they are saying whose money it is.that Sounds like to me they are benefitting from it.I could see both verdicts either guilty or not guilty and I probably wouldn't be real surprised.

I was in court but only for a few days and the defense successfully put doubt in jurors minds about the entire case - no hard evidence - would you believe low life liars to send two men away for a long time ? I wouldn't but that's me and I'm not trying to be a homer

It's a shame it may come down to someone on tape saying "that's uncle joe"s money". I don't see any reason why Borgesi doesn't walk here though

I think they walk. The NY mob lawyers been crushing it lately that aponick guy is something else the lawyer was smart with his lines.

I said about a month ago and I still say guilty for both of them. While I think the current charges are bullshit, and Lou is very easy to dislike, those tapes and rats are going to hurt them. Many people said the jury hung last time because they didn't understand the conspiracy charge. Han didn't make that mistake this time. The Feds bat 95%. These guys got lucky to hang once. I think best case they hang again, worst case they each get 15 years.

Current odds:
ligambi conspiracy charge guilty -180 not guilty +165 hung -140
Georgie guilty -190 not guilty +175 hung -150

I like the way you capped that. What's the over/under on how long the jury deliberates?

If the jury gets it Wednesday morning then Friday morning.

Fucking Classic. Both of ya. I love it.

Yeah Jmack you make sense about not understanding the conspiracy charge the first time.Those lawyers are damn good I know that but the only thing they say that I don't think anybody believes is that ''its every man for himself''.Everybody and their mother knows that the money is always kicked up to the upper echelon.

Thats why I think they are both in trouble. They have people on tape saying its Joe's money. They also have him on tape introduced as the acting boss and Caprio testifying as such. Georgie has 2 rats pointing the finger at him, one was locked up with him. Even if you don't believe them all the way, Frankie didn't do them any favors. The only reason Georgie beat the 12 charges last time was Frankie undermining the prosecution when it came to him. He completely discredited Lou. That didn't happen this time. That gives Lou more credibility. I just think there is too much for them not too convict. We should know Friday or Monday.

I was in court when they played those tapes about joes money. Although maybe a long shot defense brought up other joes in south Philly ... Joe Malone being one , Stevie's father in law and old owner of malones restaurant

LONG SHOT..... What about the tape where he is introduced as acting boss? No explaining your way out of that one.

Two different views of Phila. mob at closing arguments


Mike Newall, Inquirer Staff Writer
January 6, 2014

It was, it seemed, the tale of two mobs.

During closing arguments Monday at the racketeering retrial of reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi and his purported consigliere, George Borgesi, a federal prosecutor described a thriving Philadelphia chapter of La Cosa Nostra that rules gambling and loan-sharking rackets through fear and force.

"The evidence in this case shows not only how the mob makes money," argued Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han, "but also how the money flows upward to the leadership."

But to listen to defense attorneys, the violent and structured Philadelphia mob of old was dismantled in crushing federal indictments of the late 1990s.

"There is not even a shell of the mob in Philadelphia anymore," said Ligambi's attorney, Edwin Jacobs Jr. "Anyone blackmailing or loan-sharking is doing it on their own."

The mob's ranks, he said, have been replaced by "private contractors," who do not answer or pay tribute to Ligambi but instead drop his name on the street to cash in on the 74-year-old's reputation.

After 12 years of investigation, 14,000 wiretap recordings, and 40 search warrants, the government has no proof that Ligambi "received a single dollar or was overseeing or orchestrating criminal activities," Jacobs told the jury.

Borgesi's attorney, Christopher Warren, described the prosecution's case as "the theater of the absurd" and "a bunch of androgynous bovine excrement."

Indeed, the two-month racketeering conspiracy trial, which came after a jury last year deadlocked on the most serious counts against Ligambi and Borgesi, contained few descriptions of the violence that for so long defined the Philly mob.

Rather, the case centers on the testimony of a string of mob informants and undercover police who said that Ligambi and Borgesi, as acting boss and second-in-charge after former boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino went to prison in 1999, profited from their underlings' collections of street loans, bookmaking, extortion, and illegal video gambling.

The modern mobsters, Han said, were "beneficiaries" of their predecessors' reputations for killing.

"They did not disavow it," Han said. "They embraced it and exploited it."

To prove conspiracy against the two alleged mob bosses, prosecutors do not have to show that Ligambi and Borgesi committed crimes, Han said, only that the two were aware that others would "carry out the mob business" for them.

Han laid out what he described as a decade of evidence, including jailhouse tapes of Ligambi visiting Borgesi, 49, while he was serving a 14-year federal sentence in West Virginia, taped recordings of Ligambi discussing business, photographs of Ligambi and his cohorts at a 2010 wedding, and testimony of mob turncoats who described Ligambi and Borgesi as the bosses.

Han stressed the importance of a 2010 meeting in a New Jersey restaurant between Ligambi and members of the New York Gambino crime family.

"They weren't there to meet impostors," Han said of the New York mobsters.

Closing arguments will continue Tuesday morning.


http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201401..._arguments.html

It seems to me borgesi wife should be bought up on charges for collecting in the money, do u guys think the government will go after her?

They would have done that already by now as leverage to get Georgie to flip but they didn't.