Judge Gives Ailing Capo Sympathy, Little Else

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The New York Sun

An imprisoned and cancer-ridden Gambino capo who was a reputed gunman in the Paul Castellano hit recently got a heap of sympathy but little else from a tough federal judge.

Not only did a Manhattan judge, Lewis Kaplan, not let ailing mobster Salvatore Scala out of the can, he also allowed the feds to try to force the mobster’s lawyer to provide evidence against his client on the eve of trial.

During an emotion-packed proceeding three weeks ago, Judge Kaplan allowed Scala – who was too ill to travel to New York and took part in the proceedings through a closed circuit feed from a prison hospital – to rail on about poor medical care by prison doctors who first failed to detect his cancer, and then delayed in treating it for more than one year.

Scala, who was incarcerated in 2002 for extortion, was scheduled for trial next Monday for allegedly shaking down a high-end Manhattan strip club for an eye-popping $2.5 million over a 10-year period. At the May 19 session, held after prosecutors subpoenaed his lawyer’s records to boost their chances, Scala complained about those tactics – but focused more on the bigger picture.

“If I have cancer and it is not operable, I am a dead man,” Scala who also suffers from heart disease and diabetes, said. “My life is at jeopardy. I’m still in pain. I’m not getting treatment for pain. All I want to do is come home and see doctors, see what has to be done, and get things done. I’m not looking to come home and go socializing.”

Clearly moved by Scala’s plight, Judge Kaplan ordered federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Prisons to “promptly and properly” deal with Scala’s deteriorating “medical situation,” and then added a personal note.

“I want you to know that, on the subject of somebody dealing with the problems that you are dealing with physically, as one human being to another, you have enormous sympathy from me,” Judge Kaplan said. “I don’t know what you did or didn’t do in the rest of your life, but I have been through this in my family, and I understand.”

Scala, 63, was one of four shooters John Gotti used in the spectacular assassinations of Big Paul Castellano and his top aide in 1985, according to court records. He rose in stature and built up riches during and after the reign of the late Dapper Don.

As his prison stay neared an end, Scala, who was never charged in the Castellano slaying, was hit a year ago with more crimes – a common modern-day law enforcement tactic. In the last two years, for instance, the feds have used this strategy against John “Junior” Gotti, Liborio “Barney” Bellomo, and Alphonse “Allie” Persico, reputed acting bosses of the Gambino, Genovese, and Colombo families, respectively.

As Scala’s case moved closer to trial, assistant U.S. attorneys Eric Snyder and Jonathan Kolodner threw a monkey wrench into the trial schedule by subpoenaing lawyer Bruce Barket’s records of his fees relating to his representation of Scala at his 2002 trial.

The subpoena was triggered by a curious $750 check that Messrs. Snyder and Kolodner – who took over the case two months ago when one prosecutor resigned and another was reassigned – found among documents belonging to an extortion victim. The check was made out to “cash” and endorsed by Mr. Barket. The words “legal fees” were written on the front of the check.

This, Messrs. Snyder and Kolodner said in court papers, caused them to reinterview the victim, who reported that he also made cash payments to Mr. Barket. A second witness, they wrote, stated that Scala increased his extortion demands to help pay his legal fees in 2001.

Mr. Barket’s records, the prosecutors argued, might be evidence of extortion and tax evasion, and should be turned over since the records related only to fees, and were not protected by the lawyer-client privilege.

Last week, Judge Kaplan ordered the lawyer to turn them over to the prosecutors. But Mr. Barket, who showed up with his own attorney, Daniel Arshack, brought along a monkey wrench of his own – the Fifth Amendment. According to Mr. Arshack, his client has a perfect right to do so, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court has stated that “one of the basic functions of the privilege is to protect innocent men.”

As the opposing lawyers and prosecutors, and another attorney Judge Kaplan assigned to represent Scala’s interests, prepare court papers addressing a myriad of issues, Scala is at the Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, awaiting tests and possible cancer surgery, and, if he’s lucky, a trial somewhere down the line for extortion and tax evasion.

Last week, Judge Kaplan, again citing a cancer-related personal family tragedy, warned the prosecutors to make certain that Scala receives first-rate medical treatment as their last minute efforts to strengthen their case slow down the wheels of justice.

“We are talking about a man’s life,” Judge Kaplan said. “He is accused of some serious crimes here, but the last time I looked, the maximum penalty was five years, not death. This is a no-kidding-around situation.”

* * *

A veteran FBI agent, Gerald Conrad, has a proven way with words. His attention to detail may be suspect, however.

Mr. Conrad, who has toiled for the FBI’s Gambino squad for seven years, authored affidavits that the feds used to convince an Albany judge to allow the FBI to bug Junior Gotti’s jailhouse discussions with his cohorts beginning in March 2003.

As Gang Land disclosed last week, jurors will hear many of these tape recordings at the Junior Don’s third trial stemming from the 1992 shooting of Curtis Sliwa. In an initial 41-page affidavit, Mr. Conrad referred to insights he gleaned from four confidential sources, prison logs, and other intelligence data to accurately forecast prison visits by Junior’s cohorts and discussions about the Gambino family.

But Mr. Conrad appeared to use a little creative writing to alter the meaning of words Junior uttered about turncoat capo Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo in an affidavit that Gang Land cited last week. In it, the agent wrote that Gotti had whined that if Mikey Scars was “telling the truth, the Gottis are ‘finished,'” suggesting that Junior was worried that DiLeonardo’s testimony would help convict him of more crimes and keep him in prison.

A transcript provided by Gotti’s lawyer, Charles Carnesi, however, indicates that Junior voiced the exact opposite opinion on February 1, 2004, when he expressed confidence he would be released on bail. At the time, Gotti said that after five years of incarceration, he was a “nobody” and that DiLeonardo would back up that position if he told the truth.

“If Michael is telling the truth right now, he’s saying that the guys that are out there right now are feuding with John, and John’s nothing, he’s just minding his own business,” Junior said, adding: “Michael’s telling them the Gotti’s are finished. There’s other people out here. He’s said that, I didn’t say it. He’s telling them that too. [And] they [the feds] must feel that. My guess is I have a very good shot for bail come September 7.”

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment about the matter. Judge Shira Scheindlin, in a ruling before Gotti’s first trial, stated that Conrad misrepresented Gotti’s remarks, but declined to find that his misrepresentations were “deliberate or reckless.”

This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.


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