Philly Mob On Trial: Words And Meanings Argued At Mob Trial

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal organized trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

What was said in a taped telephone conversation or written in the letter or Christmas card was not in dispute.

But what the words meant was the focus of nearly four hours of cross-examination today as mob informant Anthony Aponick, 43, spent a second day on the witness stand in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of George Borgesi and his uncle, mob boss Joseph Ligambi.

Aponick, a New York mob associate who was Borgesi's cellmate in a federal prison in Virginia for parts of 2002 and 2003, clashed repeatedly with Christopher Warren, Borgesi's defense attorney.

Warren, trying to underscore in the jury's mind that much of what Aponick has testified to is uncorroborated, came back again and again to a simple query.

"We just have to take your word?" the lawyer asked.

"It's the truth," Aponick responded.

The verbal tap dance went on for most of the day and will likely continued tomorrow when Warren concludes his questioning and Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr., takes his turn at discrediting the second key prosecution witness to testify in the case.

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