{"id":417,"date":"2008-09-27T02:07:46","date_gmt":"2008-09-27T02:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.israelgreenwald.com\/?p=417"},"modified":"2015-03-13T02:07:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:07:58","slug":"second-ciruit-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/?p=417","title":{"rendered":"SECOND CIRUIT BLOG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, September 27, 2008
\nEnterprise Rent-A-Cop<\/strong>
\nUnited States v. Eppolito, No. 06-3280-cr (2d Cir. September 17, 2008) (Kearse, Sack, Hall, CJJ)<\/p>\n

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were NYPD detectives who, for many years, also worked for the Lucchese organized crime family – and occasionally other Mafia families – on the side. They were were convicted of RICO conspiracy and other offenses after a jury trial. Judge Weinstein granted the defendants\u2019 post-verdict Rule 29 motion on the RICO conspiracy, finding that the prosecution was time-barred by the applicable statute of limitations. He also granted a conditional new trial on the remaining counts, in the event the dismissal of the RICO conspiracy was not overturned on appeal.<\/p>\n

On the government\u2019s appeal, the circuit reversed and remanded the case for sentencing.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

The trial evidence revealed that, in the early 1980’s, while working for the NYPD, the defendants gave law enforcement information and other assistance to the Lucchese family. Sometimes the detectives passed on information that permitted family members to evade arrest; other information led to the murder of Lucchese enemies or informants. Often, the defendants themselves participated in the murders. The defendants were paid for their work, and were even, for a time, on retainer.<\/p>\n

Eventually the officers retired from the NYPD, but continued to provide assistance to the family until 1996, when they moved to Las Vegas. There, they got out of the murder business, but, until 2005, continued to have contact with organized crime in other ways, including: borrowing drug money to build a house, soliciting mob money to fund a movie project, and supplying methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

The District Court\u2019s Ruling<\/p>\n

In dismissing the RICO conspiracy count, the district court held that once the defendants retired and moved to Las Vegas the conspiracy that began in New York in the 1980’s came to a \u201cdefinite close.\u201d The court distinguished the defendants\u2019 Las Vegas-based activities as sporadic and unconnected to the original racketeering enterprise. They were, \u201cat best,\u201d acts that furthered a \u201cnew enterprise, unconnected to the original one and conducted through an entirely different type of activity.\u201d Thus, in the court\u2019s view, the government failed to prove that any activity connected to the charged RICO conspiracy occurred with the five-year statute of limitations.<\/p>\n

The Circuit\u2019s Ruling<\/p>\n

The circuit reversed primarily because it disagreed with the district court\u2019s characterization of the nature of the racketeering enterprise. \u201cOur principal difficulty with the district court\u2019s statute-of-limitations-based acquittal … is that the court\u2019s view of the enterprise, its purposes, its location, and its duration were more restricted than what was alleged in the Indictment and than what the jury could infer from the evidence at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, the court noted that the Indictment defined the enterprise and its participants very broadly, and that the defendants\u2019 association in providing services to members of organized crime did not cease to exist, as a matter of law, before March 9, 2000, the limitations cutoff date. Here, there was \u201cample evidence\u201d that would permit a jury to find otherwise.<\/p>\n

In addition, the court noted that the goal of the enterprise, as charged, was quite general – \u201cto generate money for its members and associates\u201d – and was not, as the district court had found, limited to the defendants\u2019 using law enforcement information and acting \u201cunder color of law.\u201d The jury was not required to find that the enterprise alleged in the indictment was dependent on the defendants\u2019 access to confidential law enforcement information or that it ended when they retired from the NYPD.<\/p>\n

Finally, the court took issue with the district court\u2019s conclusion that the defendants\u2019 relocation to Las Vegas marked the end of the enterprise through which they sought to earn money by providing services to organized crime figures. Rather, the jury was entitled to find that the defendants\u2019 activities in Las Vegas were a continuation of this same type of activity.<\/p>\n

Labels: statute of limitations<\/p>\n

posted by Steve Statsinger at 3:30 PM<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, September 27, 2008 Enterprise Rent-A-Cop United States v. Eppolito, No. 06-3280-cr (2d Cir. September 17, 2008) (Kearse, Sack, Hall, CJJ) Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were NYPD detectives who, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-from-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}