United States v. Castellano, 610 F. Supp. 1359 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)

Judge Sofaer's pretrial ruling of June 6, 1985 in the 78-count indictment of Paul Castellano and others, which charged a "crew" engaged in car theft, murder and other crimes as a RICO enterprise.

Date: 1985-06-06
Kind: court-opinion
Source: CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Docket: SSS 84 Cr. 63 (ADS)
Rights: Opinion of a United States court. Works of the federal judiciary are in the public domain in the United States. The text was read on CourtListener.

United States District Court, Southern District of New York, No. SSS 84 Cr. 63 (ADS), opinion and order of June 6, 1985 by District Judge Sofaer. Rudolph W. Giuliani, U.S. Attorney, appeared for the government.

The opinion opens: “The seventy-eight count indictment in this case names twenty-four defendants, twenty-one of whom are before the court and scheduled for trial.” Count 1 alleges that all of them took part in a racketeering enterprise under RICO. The enterprise the indictment charges is a “crew” engaged in car theft, murder and other crimes. These are the indictment’s allegations, ruled on before trial.

Castellano was killed on December 16, 1985, while this case was on trial; the court’s ruling on the mistrial motion that followed is United States v. Gaggi, 632 F. Supp. 1019.

itemUnited States v. Gaggi, 632 F. Supp. 1019 (S.D.N.Y. 1986)District Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy's March 10, 1986 opinion explaining why he denied mistrial motions after Paul Castellano, a defendant in the trial before him, was shot and killed with Thomas Bilotti outside Sparks Steak House on December 16, 1985.itemUnited States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989)Second Circuit opinion on the appeal from the Southern District of New York trial of Anthony Salerno and seven other defendants, decided January 31, 1989.