Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia is covering crime trials for bigtrial.net
They want a do over.
And if they're granted a new trial, they don't want any mention of the mob.
That's the essence of a 72-page motion filed by lawyers for Salvatore Pelullo and joined by lawyers for Nicodemo Scarfo and brothers John and William Maxwell asking Judge Robert Kugler to overturn their convictions and order a retrial in the FirstPlus financial fraud case.
A hearing on the motion and the government's response is set for Monday. Sentencings, which were originally scheduled for Oct. 21, 22 and 23, have been moved to January for all four defendants.
The defense motion is built around the argument that organized crime involvement was improperly and inaccurately introduced into the fraud case and created undue prejudice for the defendants. Lawyers for the Maxwell brothers have also filed separate motions raising issues specific to their clients. John Maxwell, for example, argued again that he was only following the advice of professionals hired by the company and had no direct knowledge of the scam.
Kugler rejected similar arguments that were filed by the defense both before and during the lengthy six-month trial.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/10/scarfo-pelullo-maxwell-brothers-seek.html#more
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