Veteran organized crime
reporter and author George Anastasia offers a piece on Joseph Merlino’s racketeering
trial in New York for PhillyVoice.com.
Different venue.
Philadelphia’s only celebrity
gangster, Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, goes on trial this week in federal court in Manhattan for racketeering and
conspiracy charges that could land him in jail for a good part of the rest of
his life.
He’s been there before.
But this time the stakes seem
even higher.
Merlino is 55 and has spent
about a third of his adult life in jail or on supervised release. He has two
daughters in college who have grown up for the most part without him. And he
was recently treated for a heart condition – “two significant blockages,”
according to a court document – that belie his devil-may-care attitude.
Yet Merlino has rejected plea
deals that could have resulted in a prison sentence of two to three years.
“He’s not pleading guilty,”
said a close associate. “He says he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
What’s more, that associate
and others familiar with Merlino’s thinking say the flamboyant South Philly
mobster who now makes his home in Boca Raton, Florida, sees the trial as a
chance to hold federal law enforcement accountable for actions that border on
criminal.
“If I had done what they did,
I’d be indicted,” Merlino has reportedly told friends while explaining why he
refused to take a plea deal.
Jury selection begins Monday
morning in the federal courthouse on Pearl Street in Manhattan. The trial is
expected to last about a month.
You can read the rest of the
piece via the below link:
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