BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, October 14th 2011, 4:00 AM
A former top NYPD official is refusing to spill all he knows about how Mafia Cop Louis Eppolito was cleared of corruption charges 10 months before committing his first murder for the mob.
Hugh Mo, former deputy commissioner of trials, argues that he was entitled to the same privilege as a judge when lawyers for the families of two victims killed by Eppolito and his detective partner Stephen Caracappa attempted to grill him in a civil deposition for a wrongful death suit.
The lawyers want to know how Mo found in 1985 that the charges were not proven despite a mountain of evidence that Eppolito had taken a confidential police file and passed it to a mobster.
FBI agents found the file in the mobster’s home, and Eppolito’s fingerprints were on it.
Backed by city lawyers, Mo insists it would be improper to force him to reexamine his decision, according to court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
“It is un-American, as far as I’m concerned, for any adjudicating officer to go back and do a Monday morning quarterback,” Mo stated at the deposition.
But lawyer Nick Brustin says Mo was not a judge, but was merely presiding over the disciplinary hearing.
Mo also discussed the hearing with Daily News reporter Greg Smith for the book “Mafia Cops,” Brustin pointed out.
Brustin represents the families of Israel Greenwald and Anthony Di Lapi, who were later killed by the mobbed-up detectives on the payroll of the Luchese crime family.
“I really have nothing to hide,” Mo told The News yesterday. “We can all speculate whether Eppolito gamed the system.”
“But for [the lawyers] to delve into my mental processes is completely out of line,” he said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/10/14/2011-10-14_exnypd_honcho_wont_discuss_ruling_code_of_silence_over_mafia_cop.html#ixzz1axPSX7gc.
