By ZACH HABERMAN
July 26, 2006 — The federal judge who said he was forced to let two former NYPD detectives off the hook for being murderous Mafia moles refused to let them walk free yesterday.
Mob cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa have been on 23-hour-a-day lockdown in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center since a jury convicted them in April of being hit men for the Luchese crime family.
And even though Brooklyn federal court Judge Jack Weinstein tossed out that conviction last month, the duo will have to stay behind bars, at least for the time being, Weinstein ruled at their bail hearing yesterday.
“The weight of evidence showing guilt of these crimes is not insubstantial,” said Weinstein, who tossed the pair’s conviction for committing eight gangland murders and kidnapping between 1986 and 1990 because the statute of limitations had run out.
The judge said the duo – considered two of the dirtiest cops in the city’s history after their conviction, which also included more recent drug-dealing charges in Las Vegas – aren’t going anywhere.
They “have a high incentive to flee, given that they have been publicly shamed – and as a result will be ostracized – after a trial at which they were proven guilty of heinous criminal acts,” he said of the ex-cops.
Eppolito and Caracappa sat emotionless as Weinstein announced, “Bail is denied.”
Prosecutors from the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office said the evidence against the pair requires they stay behind bars.
“The defendants are murderers who sold their badges for money,” said Prosecutor Daniel Wenner, adding that the pair might try to tamper with witnesses if let loose.
The two former detectives will continue to sit in prison while an appellate court decides whether to uphold Weinstein’s decision and until they face a retrial on charges they took part in a methamphetamine deal in Las Vegas.
“Obviously, we’re very disappointed,” said Caracappa’s lawyer, Daniel Nobel, who tried unsuccessfully to have his client moved out of the same cramped cell as his partner-in-crime and into a general population unit at another lockup.
Asked if the close quarters affected their relationship, Nobel replied, “I dare say most marriages would flounder under similar conditions.”
Beth Citron, one of Eppolito’s lawyers, said he whispered to her, “I don’t want to go into general population.”
“I’m sure every single inmate would like a go at a cop convicted of committing crimes using his badge,” Citron added.
No relatives of the disgraced detectives’ victims were in the courtroom, but they said afterward they were satisfied with the decision.
“I’m very relieved that my father’s proven killers are still in jail,” said Michal Weinstein, whose dad, Israel Greenwald, was kidnapped by the cops in 1986 before being murdered and buried in a concrete grave until being unearthed last year.
Additional reporting by Alex Ginsberg
