An old police report cropped up that raised an alternative theory about an attempted murder charged in the case.
SPRINGFIELD - A boasting Albanian has derailed a long-awaited Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno murder trial in New York for another week, according to recent filings in U.S. District Court there.
The trial was scheduled to begin with jury selection Tuesday, but an old police report cropped up that raised an alternative theory about an attempted murder charged in the case. Consequently, a federal judge rescheduled the trial to begin on March 14 to give defense attorneys a few extra days to probe the details.
In addition to the 2003 murder-for-hire of Bruno and the fatal shooting of low-level mob associate Gary D. Westerman, two local defendants in the case also are accused of shooting New York union official Frank Dadabo on May 19, 2003.
Reputed mob enforcers Fotios “Freddy” Geas and his younger brother, Ty Geas, are charged in a sweeping racketeering and murder indictment out of federal court in Manhattan along with alleged one-time Genovese crime boss Arthur “Artie” Nigro.
According to federal prosecutors, the Geases and other codefendants, who struck plea deals with prosecutors to avert going to trial, killed Bruno amid a shift in power, shot and buried Westerman over a grudge, and pumped Dadabo full of bullets through his car window on Nigro’s orders.
Dadabo, 69, gave a union contract to the wrong man and angered Nigro, court records state. Bruno’s successor, Anthony J. Arillotta, of Springfield, turned informant after his arrest in 2010 and pleaded guilty to the Bruno and Westerman murders, plus the attempt on Dadabo’s life and other crimes.
However, a New York City police report says a confidential informant there told investigators three days after the shooting that an “Albanian individual named Simon” told the informant he had shot “a union guy on Webster Avenue in the Bronx,” where Dadabo was, in fact, ambushed.
The report also states that police showed Dadabo a photo line-up of potential suspects including the mysterious “Simon” and Dadabo didn’t recognize any of the men.
Arillotta is expected to testify that he committed the shooting along with the Geases at Nigro’s behest, according to prosecutors.
“His account is strongly corroborated by toll records, hotel records and the testimony of Dadabo himself,” the assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in a memo to the judge.
Prosecutors are nonetheless obligated to allow defense lawyers to look into the matter as an alternative to present to jurors.