United States v. Riggi, 541 F.3d 94 (2d Cir. 2008)

Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, decided September 4, 2008; Chief Judge Jacobs wrote for a panel with Judges Calabresi and Sack. The appellants were Stefano Vitabile, Philip Abramo and Giuseppe Schifilliti, convicted after “a three-week jury trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York” on “charges arising out of their involvement in the Decavalcante organized crime family.” The prosecutions followed “the October 2000 arrests of more than twenty persons.”

The government conceded that admitting eight plea allocutions of co-conspirators who did not testify was error under Crawford v. Washington. The court held the error plain and prejudicial: “we vacate the judgments and remand the case for further proceedings.”

In setting out the trial evidence, the court summarizes testimony of four cooperating witnesses, listed “in descending order of rank in mob hierarchy,” beginning with Vincent Palermo, “a long-time captain who was a member of the family’s ruling panel and became an acting boss at one point.” It recounts testimony that “The Decavalcante family controlled the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 394, and the Asbestos Union, Local 1030,” and used that control to extort contractors, and in describing one murder plan it refers to “then-boss John Riggi.” These are the court’s summaries of witnesses’ testimony, offered against defendants whose convictions were then vacated; they are not findings about John Riggi, who was not a party to this appeal. The opinion notes that the separate appeal of Girolamo Palermo “is also decided today”; that opinion was not located. Several people named here may be living, and this page names them only as the court does.