Victoria Bekiempis

<h1>NEW YORK — It was a novel defense for two men federal prosecutors had accused of being in control of one of New York’s oldest crime families: They claimed the Mafia had long ago been dismantled and they were being unfairly profiled as gangsters because of their Italian ethnicity.</h1>

But the strategy seemed to work. On Tuesday, a jury in federal court in Manhattan acquitted the men, Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John Zancocchio, of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion charges, after a colorful two-week trial.

Prosecutors had presented evidence that Cammarano and Zancocchio were the boss and consigliere, respectively, of the infamous Bonanno crime family, one of the five families that once controlled organized crime in New York.

Gina Castellano, the lead prosecutor, had said in her opening statement that Cammarano, 59, of Long Island, and Zancocchio, 61, of Staten Island, had “worked together and with other members of the mob to commit crime after crime — extortion, loan-sharking, drug dealing, assault and fraud.”

“These two men led a sophisticated criminal organization that took whatever they wanted from whoever they wanted through intimidation,” she said.

But defense lawyers had argued that the Mafia no longer existed and that their clients merely looked and sounded like Italian mobsters portrayed in film. “Looking like he stepped out of central casting in a mob movie doesn’t make you part of one of these groups,” said Jennifer Louis-Jeune, one of Cammarano’s lawyers, during her opening statement.

During the trial, the defense several times suggested that the police had stereotyped the defendants. John Meringolo, one of Zancocchio’s lawyers, for instance, pressed a New York Police Department detective on whether cultural differences in body language led to an incorrect analysis of a surveillance videotape.

“It wasn’t angry, but there was a lot of — there was some hand movements and physical touching,” Detective Anthony Votino had testified. “Not fighting. Just making sure that they got their point across.”

“And that’s because people like us, we talk with our hands, and he was talking with his hands, right?” Meringolo said during his cross-examination, prompting an objection from prosecutors. “And did they kiss each other when they departed?” Meringolo also asked, to which Votino responded “I don’t recall.”

The verdict was a setback for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which declined to comment on the verdict.

Prosecutors had presented evidence that Cammarano and Zancocchio profited from a mob-controlled dump on Staten Island, supervising underlings who strong-armed victims to exact payments and instill fear. One witness also said Zancocchio had beaten him at a strip club.

Aggressive prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s decimated the leadership of the Bonanno, Lucchese, Gambino, Genovese and Colombo families in New York. The Bonanno family was particularly hard hit by a rash of convictions and defections in the early 2000s. Even the family’s longtime boss, Joseph Massino, decided to cooperate with the authorities after his murder conviction in 2004. His successors — Vincent Basciano and Michael Mancuso — were also convicted.

But jurors rejected the prosecution’s contention that Cammarano, known to his friends as Joe C, was the current acting boss.

Elizabeth Macedonio, another of Cammarano’s lawyers, said “the verdict is apparently the result of the government bringing a case without any credible evidence.”

“We believe this is a just verdict and the jury was one of the most attentive juries that I’ve ever seen,” Meringolo said. “From the opening and to the summation, they took very diligent notes, and we’re just very satisfied.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="cb4fbed9-55f8-4923-aad2-ddeb1a78cee8" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/nyregion/bonanno-mafia-trial.html">The New York Times</a>.

Manhattan Jury Acquits Two Men Accused of Mob Ties

Prosecutors had presented evidence that Cammarano and Zancocchio were the boss and consigliere, respectively, of the infamous Bonanno crime family, one of the five families that once controlled organized crime in New York.

Manhattan jury acquits two men accused of mob ties

Lawyers for the two men have offered an alternative explanation and a novel defense: Their clients, known to their friends as Joe C and Porky, were profiled for their ethnicity — Italian.

“Looking like he stepped out of central casting in a mob movie doesn’t make you part of one of these groups,” said Jennifer Louis-Jeune, a lawyer defending Cammarano against racketeering and extortion charges.

And the Mafia? It’s the stuff of bad-old-days folklore, she said.

“Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was this thing called the Mafia and there were five families,” Louis-Jeune said.

“And they were known throughout the land for being Italian and for committing crimes together,” she said, adding: “Once upon a time. Not now.”

Yet the government maintains that the mob is very much alive and well. The men, prosecutors say, are the acting boss and consigliere of one of the city’s most storied crime families, the Bonannos. Their alleged racketeering activity spanned from about 2012-2018.

There was a time when the racketeering trial of a mob boss would have dominated headlines, just as the trial and conviction of John Gotti did in 1992.

But aggressive prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s decimated the leadership of the Bonanno, Lucchese, Gambino, Genovese and Colombo families in New York, leaving organized crime so depleted in influence that the testimony over the past weeks in U.S. District Court in Manhattan has seemed something of a throwback.

The Bonanno family was particularly hard hit by a rash of convictions and defections in the early 2000s. Even the family’s longtime boss, Joseph C. Massino, decided to cooperate with the authorities after his conviction in 2004 for seven murders, testifying against his former subordinates. His successors at the top of the family were also convicted and imprisoned: Vincent Basciano and Michael Mancuso.

Prosecutors have presented evidence in court that Cammarano, 59, now controls what is left of the family.

“These two men led a sophisticated criminal organization that took whatever they wanted from whoever they wanted through intimidation, through threats and through violence,” the assistant U.S. attorney, Gina Castellano, told jurors.

Cammarano, who lives in Long Island, is charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion. Zancocchio, 61, of Staten Island, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, attempted assault and conspiracy to commit extortion. If convicted, Cammarano faces 40 years in prison and Zancocchio faces 45.

Castellano said the men “worked together and with other members of the mob to commit crime after crime — extortion, loan-sharking, drug dealing, assault and fraud.”

One construction company owner, Steven Grzic, testified that two men showed up at his office unannounced several years ago, suggesting that he take a lowball settlement in a legal dispute with a Bonanno-linked company.

When the man said the issue needed to be discussed with lawyers, the visitors said “OK” — adding, “please say hello to your father.”

“My father was a victim of a violent crime, so I understood that as a means of intimidation,” Grzic said. He said he later hired a bodyguard out of fear.

Stephen Sabella, a former Bonanno associate, testified that one interaction with Zancocchio left him with a black eye, bloody nose and damaged tooth.

In 2014, Sabella said he went to a gentlemen’s club he co-owned with Zancocchio for a meeting. They greeted one another, but it felt strained. Zancocchio, seemingly incensed by a rumor, proceeded to beat him, Sabella testified.

“He punched me in the face.” Sabella said. “He continued to punch and kick me. I just tried to fend off the blows.”

Sabella was ousted from the strip club business and other Bonanno-linked enterprises, losing an estimated $2 million, he said.

As part of the racketeering scheme, associates of Cammarano and Zancocchio are accused of using a tract of land on Staten Island as an illegal dumping ground for mountains of contaminated material.

“Everyone involved in that dumpsite lost money — except the mobsters and those working with them,” Castellano said.

One of Zancocchio’s lawyers, John Meringolo, suggested that some elements of the investigation might have been influenced by a cultural misunderstanding about body language.

Meringolo pressed Detective Anthony Votino of the New York Police Department about his testimony that he had conducted surveillance of Zancocchio and another man as they held “an animated conversation.”

“It wasn’t angry, but there was a lot of — there was some hand movements and physical touching,” Votino said. “Not fighting. Just making sure that they got their point across.”

On cross-examination, Meringolo suggested that the men were victims of ethnic stereotyping.

“And that’s because people like us, we talk with our hands and he was talking with his hands, right?” Meringolo goaded, leading to an objection from prosecutors.

“And did they kiss each other when they departed?” Meringolo asked.

“I don’t recall,” Votino answered.

This article originally appeared in <a id="2b4e60d2-c281-4b59-a892-6d1cb3778075" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/nyregion/bonanno-mafia-trial.html">The New York Times</a>.

'Joe C' and 'Porky' are accused Bonanno mobsters, their defense? Ethnic profiling

NEW YORK — Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John Zancocchio were Mafia bosses who profited from a mob-controlled dump on Staten Island, overseeing underlings who strong-armed victims to exact payments and instill fear.

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Victoria Bekiempis

Articles written by the author

Manhattan jury acquits two men accused of mob ties

'Joe C' and 'Porky' are accused Bonanno mobsters, their defense? Ethnic profiling