United States v. Casamento, 887 F.2d 1141 (2d Cir. 1989)

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; argued January 26, 1989, decided October 11, 1989. Before Newman, Pierce and Mahoney, Circuit Judges; the opinion is by Pierce. It opens: “These appeals stem from the convictions of various persons alleged to have been members of an international narcotics ring. This prosecution came to be known popularly as "The Pizza Connection Case."“

“Indictment SS 84 Cr. 236 was filed on February 19, 1985. Following pleas of not guilty, trial began on September 30, 1985 and continued for more than seventeen months, until March 2, 1987, when the jury returned guilty verdicts against eighteen of the named defendants.” The indictment charged thirty-five defendants; count one charged a narcotics conspiracy and count sixteen a RICO conspiracy. The trial judge was Judge Leval. Gaetano Badalamenti also appealed a conviction on a separate indictment, 86 Cr. 1128, for criminal contempt, to which he had conditionally pleaded guilty.

The opinion states the government’s theory, and each step is framed as the government’s contention: members of the Sicilian Mafia shipped narcotics from Sicily and South America; “According to the government, the source of narcotics from South America was appellant Gaetano Badalamenti, a fugitive living in Brazil who was allegedly the deposed head of the Sicilian Mafia and who, in connection with this prosecution, later was extradited from Spain”; and a New York group “comprised of members of the American Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra,” received heroin shipments. These are allegations the court summarizes, not findings of its own about any organization.

The court reversed Frank Castronovo’s conviction on count ten and Giuseppe Trupiano’s on counts one and sixteen, vacated the restitution ordered against eight appellants, and otherwise affirmed. It held that Badalamenti’s sentence, forty-five years with release ordered after thirty, did not breach the Spanish extradition order’s thirty-year maximum. It also records that the government’s opening statement referred to “the 1979 murder of the alleged Mafia figure Carmine Galante”; the trial judge called the reference prejudicial and instructed the jury that the murder was not part of the trial, and the appeals court found no denial of due process.