Defense attorneys for five reputed organized crime figures from Greater Springfield will make arguments to free their clients on bail Friday in U.S. District Court.
SPRINGFIELD -- During a lengthy detention hearing in U.S. District Court on Thursday for five accused organized crime figures under indictment, a prosecutor covered lots of ground, including the region's mob roots, players and more recent alleged transgressions.
Fighting for pretrial release are Ralph Santaniello, 49, Giovanni "Johnny Cal" Calabrese, 53, and Gerald Daniele, 51, all of Longmeadow, along with Francesco "Frank" or "Sammy Shark" Depergola, 60, of Springfield, and Richard Valentini, 51, of East Longmeadow.
They were arrested Aug. 4 by Massachusetts State Police and FBI agents and charged with an array of offenses including conspiracy, interference with commerce by threats and violence and loan-sharking.
Santaniello and Depergola also have been charged with racketeering conspiracy in New York City in connection with a $30,000 extortionate loan they made to an undercover agent posing as a mob associate, according to testimony in court today.
The local prosecutions focus on a gambling debtor and a 2013 shakedown scheme of a local tow company operator whom prosecutors have only identified as Victim One in court records.
Prosecutors showed a federal magistrate judge a photo of the man's battered face, taken after he went to state police to report that Santaniello and Calabrese arrived at his property in Hampden to extort him in October of that year.
The alleged victim later agreed to video and audiotape several meetings with Santaniello, Calabrese, Depergola and Valentini over three months -- though the recordings showed Valentini as largely a hulking and silent figure.
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Marianne Shelvey, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, introduced the background of the case and snippets of the recordings with FBI Special Agent Robert Zanolli on the witness stand. Presiding over the hearing was U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson.
Over more than two hours, Shelvey drew information out of Zanolli painting the defendants as violent opportunists as more than a half-dozen defense lawyers listened along with a row of defendants who sat in identical tan prison drabs in the jury box.
The courtroom was jam-packed with family and supporters of the defendants, along with a heavy law enforcement presence. After the prosecutor put on her evidence, Robertson suspended the hearing until Friday morning, when defense attorneys will cross-examine Zanolli and can make arguments to free their clients on bail.
Thursday afternoon was not without its colorful moments.
Santaniello vs. slain mob boss Adolfo 'Big Al' Bruno, according to Victim One:
Zanolli testified that Victim One confirmed to investigators that he had paid Bruno a "street tax" before Bruno's murder in 2003. When Santaniello and Calabrese made an unannounced visit to Victim One's property 10 years later, the tow operator was taken aback and admitted he had no idea who the men were, according to court records.
That, and Victim One's resistance to pay $50,000 in "back taxes" and $2,000 per month going forward, earned him a slap in the face, a fat lip and a swollen cheek, evidence presented by the government indicated.
"Was that before or after Ralph Santaniello threatened to cut off his head and bury his body in his backyard?" Shelvey asked Zanolli, who said he could not recall.
During a recorded meeting days later with Calabrese as Santaniello's apparent proxy, Victim One expressed his dissatisfaction with Santaniello's business style.
"Bruno ... he used to bring me and my mother vermicelli all the time. Now I gotta meet this new guy and I get a smack?" Victim One asked on the recording.
"Well ... you offended him," Calabrese responds.
"Why? Because I told him I didn't know who he was?" Victim One asks.
That, Calabrese said, and the fact that Victim One refused to "give them a number," or a "street tax" figure he was willing to pay.
Surveillance hiccups can happen to law enforcement, despite the best-laid plans
Zanolli testified that Victim One was outfitted with several devices to record video and audio, and agents and state police were most often nearby recording each of about a half-dozen meetings with video and audio. In case one device failed, there were others on which to rely, the agent said.
Good thing.
In one instance, Santaniello paid a surprise visit to Victim One's property, where he was constructing a house, after Victim One gave Calabrese some push-back on paying the money, the agent testified and video showed.
"Who are they?" Santaniello barked at Victim One, pointing to a construction trailer nearby.
"They're my guys. They're workers. I told you I had workers here," Victim One responds.
Video shows Santaniello marching over to the trailer, while in the background, loud and frantic scraping and banging noises emerge. Zanolli testified that undercover investigators inside were hastily trying to hide their recording devices.
Santaniello barges in, and audio rolling on one of the alternate devices broadcasts two men speaking in Spanish, a short pause and then Santaniello's voice:
"Hey, it's pretty nice in here, huh?" he exclaims, before slamming the door and sauntering away in his track suit.
Investigators forgot to turn the audio back on after they scrambled to restore their equipment, Zanolli testified. But they still had video, which later shows Santaniello tearing open Victim One's shirt to test whether "he was wearing a wire."
Apparently, Santaniello looked no further. He missed it, according to the surveillance video.
Victim One ultimately paid the men $20,000 in government-supplied money over three months, Zanolli testified.
Victim Two: Friends arrested together stay together -- or not
Zanolli testified that Victim Two grew up with Daniele, who allegedly had a violent temper and facilitated Victim Two's offshore gambling habit as his bookie for years. Victim Two struggled with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions for years before cleaning up his act, the agent said.
But once he fell behind in $100 per week "juice," or interest, payments, Victim Two began fearing for his life, Zanolli said under questioning by Shelvey. He was afraid, in part, because he had seen Daniele's violent streak firsthand, he told investigators.
Zanolli said Victim Two traveled to California with Daniele in 2009 and ordered up two prostitutes from their hotel room. The women arrived, spotted a wad of Daniele's cash sitting on a nightstand, grabbed it and bolted from the room, the witness said.
He and Daniele spotted two men waiting to receive the women and tracked the men down. Daniele beat one man mercilessly even after recovering his money, Zanolli said.
"(Victim Two) said: '(Daniele) just snapped, like a flip of a switch. ... He just kept beating the man," the agent testified.
Victim Two told agents he often made payments at the Springfield YMCA and a local Bertucci's. When he fell behind in 2015, the witness told investigators Daniele burst into a locked drug rehabilitation facility where the witness was a counselor.
Victim Two informed Daniele that, if he ever showed up at his work again, he would call the police, Zanolli said.
The debtor ultimately made good on his promise, and investigators caught several cash hand-offs on audio recordings up until July of this year.
Proceedings will resume on Friday morning in U.S. District Court.
