BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
Newsday Staff Writer
July 4, 2006
The federal judge in the “Mafia Cop” case has ordered that he – and only he – be the one to rule on any bail applications that ex-NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa make in a bid to get out of jail.

Along with his momentous ruling, Friday which overturned the conviction of both men for racketeering conspiracy, Brooklyn federal judge Jack B. Weinstein also issued a terse order that any requests for bail be made to him as “presiding” justice in the case.

That means that any attempt by Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, to win release from the federal detention center in Brooklyn won’t be decided until Weinstein returns from a vacation cruise later this month.

However, defense attorneys may file bail requests as early as this week for both men, whose $5 million bail packages were revoked after their April 6 convictions.

Weinstein startled the city Friday when he dismissed the racketeering conspiracy conviction of the defendants on the grounds that the five-year federal statute of limitations had expired. That legal issue had been a problem with the prosecution since its beginning in March 2005. The murders involved in the racketeering case had all taken place between 1986 and 1991, more than five years earlier than the date of the March 9, 2005 indictment.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors hoped to cure that problem by charging Eppolito and Caracappa with a drug offense in 2004 and 2005. But Weinstein said the drug charge was unrelated to the earlier racketeering conspiracy, even though he believed there was overwhelming evidence both defendants were involved in murders and other racketeering crimes. He did say prosecutors could retry both men on the drug conspiracy case.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn intend to appeal Weinstein’s decision, a process that is likely to run well into 2007, said Gerald Shargel, a Manhattan defense attorney and law professor not involved in the case.

Eppolito’s wife Frances was cheerful and guardedly optimistic about the chances of seeing her husband back again at their Las Vegas home. Louis Eppolito has not been home since his arrest in March 2005.

“I would be lying to say I wasn’t ecstatic,” Frances Eppolito said Sunday from her Nevada home.

“I am trying to stay as positive as possible, she stated. “This isn’t over yet.”
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc..