United States v. Bellomo, 176 F.3d 580 (2d Cir. 1999)

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Docket Nos. 97-1332, 97-1542, 97-1563, 97-1588 and 97-1599. Argued December 1, 1998, decided April 30, 1999, before Van Graafeiland, Cabranes, and Noonan, Circuit Judges; the opinion is by Judge Noonan, sitting by designation. James Ida and Nicholas Frustaci appealed convictions entered after a jury trial in the Southern District of New York (Lewis A. Kaplan, Judge).

The opinion states that the indictment charged “the Genovese Family of La Cosa Nostra” as the RICO enterprise and that “These allegations in the indictment were proven at trial by the government’s witnesses.” It refers to Ida as “only later consigliere but then a capo in the Genovese family.” The charges reviewed include murder, conspiracy to murder, illegal gambling, extortion, and mail fraud connected with permits for the Feast of Saint Gennaro on Mulberry Street.

On gambling, the court wrote: “Ida was convicted of conducting two illegal bookmaking operations, one at the converted Tazza di Caffe at 171 Mulberry Street from January 1991 to January 1995,” and the other at an apartment on East 53rd Street. It held that the jury could connect Ida to both through Thomas Cestaro, “a member of Ida’s crew.”

The court affirmed the forfeiture of Ida’s property and Frustaci’s conviction. Its judgment reads: “The judgment against Ida is AFFIRMED in part and is REVERSED with respect to the conspiracy to murder Desimone; the judgment against Frustaci is AFFIRMED.”