Two Views of the ‘Mafia Cops’ Case
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The latest episode of the “Mafia Cops” saga provided another excellent illustration of why Louis Eppolito, a burly, larger than life extrovert who sported gold chains around his neck, and Stephen Caracappa, a slight, neat, fastidious dresser, have long been viewed as an odd couple.
Although the feds had upped the ante and hit the ex-detectives with a new murder charge, Mr.Eppolito was ecstatic last week. At the arraignment, the judge questioned the theory of the prosecution’s case – again – and Mr. Eppolito said he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family before going to trial on December 27 for crimes that could put him behind bars for life.
“This is great,” said Mr. Eppolito, who dubbed himself the “Mafia Cop” in a 1992 autobiography that disclosed his familial ties to mobsters and how he often used “street justice” as a much decorated NYPD detective. “I’ve been born again,” he said.
Mr. Eppolito’s lawyer, Bruce Cutler, and Mr. Caracappa’s attorney, Edward Hayes, were similarly elated, at least outwardly. “The ice is thin for the government, and considering this is summertime, it’s only going to get thinner,” Mr. Cutler chortled.
Only the stone-faced Mr. Caracappa – he declined to talk to reporters – appeared to have a firm grip on the truly onerous situation that faces them at their trial for charges including nine murders, bribery, and obstruction of justice as part of a racketeering conspiracy indictment.
Mr. Caracappa seemed to grasp that judges, even jurists far less independent and renowned than Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein, often tweak prosecutors about their cases before trial. Also, he probably took note that Judge Weinstein hadn’t questioned the feds’ evidence, only the way prosecutors were planning to get it before a jury.
A senior judge with a well-earned reputation as a maverick, Judge Weinstein, 83, has presided over many mob trials in his 38 years on the bench, including the 1997 racketeering trail of Genovese boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante, who cultivated a deranged public persona by walking through the streets of Greenwich Village in his nightclothes for 30 years.
Soon after he got the case, Judge Weinstein released the so-called “Oddfather” on bail. He also annoyed the feds with many other rulings before and during the trial. At the same time, the judge made Chin leave his bathrobe and slippers home and come to court “properly attired, shaved, and barbered.” With his efforts to portray himself as mentally deficient stifled, Gigante was convicted of labor racketeering and sentenced to 12 years.
Last week, Judge Weinstein suggested that prosecutors might be better served to charge the disgraced ex-detectives with nine counts of murder in aid of racketeering rather than racketeering conspiracy, saying that murders allegedly committed in the 1980s and early ’90s might be beyond the statute of limitations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Wenner said prosecutors had already researched and rejected that option, but would look again. Prosecutors seem pretty comfortable with the current indictment, which alleges that the ex-detectives were part of a racketeering conspiracy that began in 1983 and ended only when they were indicted last March. As well they should.
Racketeering conspiracy is the most powerful charge possible under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Under current 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals case law that governs federal prosecutions in New York, once defendants are implicated in two crimes or “predicate acts” in a racketeering conspiracy, the onus is on them to prove that they renounced the objectives of the enterprise – in this case, the Mafia – and withdrew from the conspiracy, no matter how long ago the crimes took place.
Through their status as Luchese family associates, according to the indictment, the defendants were associates of the Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra, a “nationwide criminal enterprise” that operated in New York, Nevada, and elsewhere for the “principal purpose” of earning money for its members and associates.
Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, the government does not have to prove that Messrs. Eppolito and Caracappa committed any crimes within the past five years, only that the racketeering conspiracy continued operating during that time frame and that the defendants had not withdrawn from it before then.
“A defendant pretty much has to call the cops and say, ‘You know those crimes I’ve been committing all those years, I’ve stopped,'” a former federal mob prosecutor said. That is pretty much what Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch said during a colloquy with Judge Weinstein last month when the judge first questioned whether prosecutors were relying on the “concept of a continuing conspiracy in which you are a member and you remain a member until you disassociate yourself.”
“That is correct,” said Mr. Henoch. “There is, in fact, affirmative evidence that these gentlemen did not disassociate themselves from the conspiracy. It’s the government’s position that this conspiracy never ended.”
Among other things, Mr. Henoch said, tape recordings establish that Mr. Eppolito – and, to a lesser degree, Mr. Caracappa – had dealings with Las Vegas associates of the Gambino and Bonanno families, who, like the Lucheses, are part of La Cosa Nostra, the racketeering enterprise alleged in the indictment.
In fact, Mr. Henoch told Judge Weinstein, two mob associates – not the government – introduced Mr. Eppolito to the accountant who ended up cooperating with the feds and wore a wire that caught the ex-detective boasting of his ties to John Gotti and other New York wiseguys.
On December 7, Mr. Eppolito said he wasn’t worried about the mob ties of one associate, John Frate, or his father, Michael, a driver for legendary Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno. They had given Mr. Eppolito $25,000 in a joint business venture, Mr. Henoch said, quoting Mr. Eppolito as saying, “It’s like I told Mike. I respect him. Mike and his son gave me 25 cash.”
The second mob associate identified in court by Mr. Henoch was Michael DiBari, 71, convicted of skimming $5,000 a week from a Las Vegas casino in 1987. DiBari, a transplanted New Yorker, forwarded cash tributes to Gotti, according to court records.
During the last two sessions,as well as at earlier pre-trial proceedings, both prosecutors seemed to bite their tongues rather than responding to Judge Weinstein’s queries about the theory of their prosecution.They prefer to wait until the defense had filed its pre-trial motions, an obvious strategy that did not escape notice by the veteran jurist.
Four times last week, Judge Weinstein indicated that answers to his questions were an option, not mandatory, with remarks such as,”You need not answer if you don’t want to” and “I am not going to press you for an answer.”At one point, Judge Weinstein noted that he would “deal with” the issue after a motion was made “by the defendants.”
When the judge specifically asked whether prosecutors believed that two “racketeering acts” involving alleged drug dealing by Mr. Eppolito in Las Vegas during the last two years were part of the same conspiracy as the murders that occurred in New York in the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Wenner fudged his answer.
“I think it is more complicated than simply whether the drug counts relate to the same conspiracy,” he said, declining to elaborate.
If, as Mr. Henoch said last month, the conspiracy never ended, the recent drug counts are merely window dressing, and Messrs. Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 63, would do well to enjoy the coming Christmas holidays with their families. If the feds have their way, they will be their last.
Messrs. Henoch and Wenner and co-prosecutor Mitra Hormozi, would not discuss the case.
Reached by Gang Land, Messrs. Hayes and Cutler said the defense would file court papers to contest the legal sufficiency of the indictment next month. Mr. Hayes, who has stated that his client may testify in his own defense, said he is still weighing that option. Mr. Cutler declined to discuss that possibility, but stressed that Mr.Eppolito maintains his innocence of all charges in the indictment. “He didn’t do it, any of it. He’s not guilty, period.”
This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.