Veteran organized crime crime reporter George Anastasia offers a piece at PhillyVoice.com on the bail hearing for alleged Philadelphia organized crime boss Joseph Merlino.
It looks like a tale of the tapes in the feds’ latest battle with mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.
Federal authorities, in arguing that Merlino should not be released on bail, have pointed to “explicit recordings in which Merlino discussed the crimes he was committing and exhibited his role as a leader” of the mob family.
A bail hearing for Merlino, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been moved to Friday after Merlino’s Florida attorney David L. Roth asked for an extension.
Edwin Jacobs Jr., who is Merlino’s principal attorney and is working with Roth, said from his Atlantic City office this afternoon that they wanted more time to prepare their argument that Merlino should be granted bail.
Jacobs said it was “difficult to assess” the case against his client because the racketeering indictment unsealed last week “is not fact-specific.”
“All the allegations are broad and general in nature,” he said, adding that Merlino is charged with gambling and health care fraud but is not linked to any acts of violence.
Those arguments are expected to be part of a bail motion that Jacobs and Roth plan to file before Friday’s hearing. Merlino, 54, has been held in the Palm Beach county jail since his arrest Thursday morning.
He was one of 46 mob members and associates arrested Thursday after authorities in New York unsealed a four-count, 32-page racketeering indictment.
Merlino is charged with being one of the leaders of what authorities are calling an “East Coast LCN (La Cosa Nostra) Enterprise.” Members of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Bonanno crime families were also named.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:http://www.phillyvoice.com/feds-fight-bail-joey-merlino-allege-tapes-show-he-was-leader-mob-family/
No comments:
Post a Comment