Cerasani v. Sony Corp., 991 F. Supp. 343 (S.D.N.Y. 1998)

United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 97 Civ. 2372 (DC), decided January 15, 1998. John Cerasani, a defendant acquitted in the 1982 trial, sued the producers of the 1997 film for defamation. The court held him “libel-proof” as a matter of law and dismissed the claim. This archive uses the opinion only for what it says about the federal record. The film, the book behind it and the newspaper articles the court cites are not sources here.

The court opens: “In 1976, FBI Agent Joseph D. Pistone assumed the identity of Donnie Brasco, a jewel thief and burglar, and infiltrated the Bonanno Crime Family. Remarkably, he remained undercover for some six years.” It adds: “Pistone told his story from the witness stand in a series of organized crime cases, beginning with the 1982 trial of United States v. Napolitano here in the Southern District of New York.”

Taking judicial notice of that record, the court quotes Pistone’s testimony at the trial (No. 81 Cr. 803, transcript page 1294) about “Bonanno Family soldier ‘Lefty’ Ruggiero’s admissions” concerning the killings of “the three mafia captains who opposed the leadership of ‘Sonny Black’ Napolitano.” It states that Cerasani “was not charged with the homicides,” that the evidence was admitted against him “with an appropriate limiting instruction,” and that “Cerasani was ultimately acquitted of all charges against him.” It records that on October 26, 1985, in a federal court in Florida, he pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy. The court summarizes that Florida indictment as charging that he conspired with “Bonanno Family Captain Dominick ‘Sonny Black’ Napolitano and Bonanno Family Soldier Benjamin ‘Lefty’ Ruggiero.” That is the indictment’s wording, as the court summarized it.

Testimony about what Ruggiero reportedly said is not a finding of who took part in the killings, and this archive does not treat it as one.