By STEFANIE COHEN
October 18, 2007 — Lawyers for “Mafia cops” Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa will each get 10 minutes today to prove a judge was right to toss convictions against the pair, who allegedly kidnapped and killed at the behest of a psychotic mob boss.
Brooklyn federal court Judge Jack Weinstein overthrew guilty verdicts against the ex-NYPD detectives in June 2006 after a jury convicted them of facilitating at least eight murders on behalf of Luchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso.
Weinstein ruled that the five-year federal statute of limitations had run out on the murders, which occurred between 1986 and 1990.
The highly decorated detectives dragged their badges through the mud for Casso – kidnapping and delivering victims to him – and even, in one case, carrying out a hit, in exchange for wads of cash, a jury found.
Neither Eppolito nor Caracappa will appear at today’s hearing at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eppolito is jailed in Las Vegas, awaiting trial on tax-fraud charges, and Caracappa in solitary at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
They will face a federal retrial on charges they sold methamphetamine in Vegas and will likely be retried on the murder charges in state court, where there is no statute of limitations for murder..
