Judicial Show Business

Judicial Show Business

The theatrics in Brooklyn state court by DA Hynes was an arrogant display
of how courts can be used for show business. (MATT NESTEL and ALEX GINSBERG,
"D.A. PLAYED 'DUMB D-DUM DUMB,'" and "DANCING WITH THE DEVIL," Editorial, New
York Post, November 3, 2007) DeVecchio was accused in New York of what Special
Agent John Connolly did in Boston. James Bulger the FBI-informant head of
organized crime in Eastern Massachusetts is a fugitive from charges of 19
homicides. Connolly is in prison.
Unlike New York the US Attorney General brought in a Special Prosecutor to
avoid the coziness among local law enforcement agencies with the FBI and
organized crime. In New York, a state court judge used an audio tape made for
journalists by Linda Schiro to negate sworn testimony in a court. The judge and
the prosecutor make a mockery of the judicial system by dismissing the charges
against DeVecchio. How does a discussion with a journalist equal sworn
testimony?
This is not a unique problem. FBI informants corrupted FBI field offices
creating serious threats to public safety. No politician speaks about the need
to scrutinize the FBI.
Yet they wonder why young people refuse to cooperate with police regarding
crimes in schools and on the streets. If FBI informants murder adults when FBI
agents reveal their cooperation, why should any rational person jeopardize his
life?
The FBI is a creature of statute which is undermining Constitutional
protections guaranteed to citizens. It is time to review the mission of this
renegade US agency.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

D.A. PLAYED 'DUMB D-DUM DUMB'
By MATT NESTEL and ALEX GINSBERG
New York Post

November 3, 2007 -- More than two months before the murder indictment of former
FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio, the Brooklyn DA's Office knew its key witness had
spoken with the very reporters who ultimately derailed the case, The Post has
learned.

EDITORIAL: Dancing With The Devil

"It all made me remember and find two book proposals by different writers, one
by Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins and the other by I think John Connolly, both of
whom worked with Linda Schiro on the proposals, as I did," writer Sandra Harmon
e-mailed DA Charles Hynes' office.

"This comes straight from Linda [Schiro] to all of us. She gave me the two other
book proposals years ago and told me they were accurate," Harmon says in the
Jan. 12, 2006 e-mail.

DeVecchio was indicted on March 24, 2006.

Capeci and Robbins said yesterday no one from the DA's office contacted them to
ask about their conversations with Schiro, who now faces a possible perjury rap.

The mob moll's testimony about information DeVecchio was alleged to have passed
to his own mob informant, Colombo killer Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa, was
key to the case against the former G-man.

"The answer is no," said Capeci. "At no time did the DA's office ever call me,
contact me, or ask me at any point in any way, shape or form if I had any
information about what she told me."

Robbins said, "If someone had asked me to give [Hynes' prosecutors] a reality
check, I would have done that."

Astonishingly, a spokesman for the DA's Office said yesterday their
investigators were aware of Schiro's conversations, but didn't contact the
reporters because the expectation was they wouldn't share the information.

"We knew from the early stages of the investigation that she'd spoken to Tom
Robbins and Jerry Capeci," said the spokesman.

It was tape recordings of the interviews Capeci and Robbins conducted with
Schiro in 1997 - which contradicted her testimony linking DeVecchio to three of
four murders - that killed the case this week.

Hynes said on Thursday that had his office had any knowledge of the tapes'
existence, there would never have been a prosecution.

"It's astounding in a case built around Linda Schiro . . . that they would not
completely vet her credibility in a thorough manner," DeVecchio lawyer Mark
Bederow said. "To indict a man for four counts of homicide on the singular
testimony of Linda Schiro is disgraceful."

DeVecchio and his wife, who celebrated at Sparks Steak House after the charges
were dropped, will return home to Florida today.

alex.ginsberg@nypost.com

* * * * *

DANCING WITH THE DEVIL

November 3, 2007 -- You don't have to watch the movie "Donnie Brasco," the
true-crime story in which Johnny Depp plays an undercover FBI agent who cozies
up to the wiseguys, to know that nailing the mob can be a dirty business.

And though former G-man Lindley DeVecchio now stands cleared of involvement in
four gangland murders - thanks to the sudden collapse of Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes'
case - Judge Gustin Reichbach made clear that both the FBI and its onetime agent
went way over the line.

Basically, said Reichbach in a scorching four-page opinion, the FBI gave
DeVecchio's key informant - mob thug Greg Scarpa Sr. - a free pass to kill.

Though he may not have joined Scarpa in his crimes, as the DA's office initially
charged, DeVecchio was willing "to bend the rules" in order to protect his
snitch, the judge said - adding that this constituted a "deal with the Devil."

Indeed, he said, "They gave Scarpa virtual criminal immunity for close to 15
years in return for the information, true and false, he willingly supplied."

Thus Scarpa came to believe "that the agency would protect him for the
consequences of his own criminality - which the record suggests is what they
did."

Which raises the question: Is it OK for the government to employ criminality in
order to fight crime?

Said Judge Reichbach: Unacceptable.

Granted, he said, this is not an easy issue to deal with. Given the nature of
the underworld, a "delicate balancing act [is] required in the waltz that must
be danced between informant and handler" involving "a relationship of trust."

But how far is too far?

Should the FBI allow itself to be placed in the position of having to protect
"its" bad guys so as to bring others to justice?

Not according to Gustin Reichbach. And it's difficult to argue with him.

Thanks to Hynes' star witness, Scarpa's longtime girlfriend Linda Schiro - and
the 10-year-old tapes that showed she'd changed her story about DeVecchio's
involvement in mob hits - the former agent has walked free.

But neither he nor the FBI should take much solace in that outcome. As Judge
Reichbach made clear, when it came to that "delicate balancing act," both
completely lost their footing.