United States v. Ruggiero, 754 F.2d 927 (11th Cir. 1985)

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, No. 83-3750, decided March 5, 1985. “In late 1982, appellants Benjamin Ruggiero and John Cerasani were prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.” The court records the result: “Ruggiero was convicted of conspiring to violate RICO, but was acquitted of the substantive RICO count. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Cerasani was acquitted on both counts.” Ruggiero’s conviction was affirmed in United States v. Ruggiero, 726 F.2d 913 (2d Cir. 1984).

The court summarizes the New York indictment of July 7, 1982 (the scanned text spells the family “Bonnano” and the surname “Indelicate”). Among the acts it alleged were “the murders of Alphonse Indelicate, Philip Giaccone, and Dominick Trinchera, three ‘captains’ of the Bonnano Family who were seeking to wrest control of the family away from two other ‘captains,’ Dominick Napolitano and Joseph Messina,” and “a conspiracy to murder Anthony ‘Bruno’ Indelicate, Alphonse’s son.” It also alleged the theft of a truckload of tuna fish, the attempted robbery of an apartment belonging to the sister of the Shah of Iran, and conspiracies to rob the Pan Am Credit Union in Rockleigh, New Jersey and a bank in St. Petersburg, Florida. These are the indictment’s allegations as the court summarizes them.

Of the trial evidence the court says: “The evidence at trial revealed that Ruggiero was a member of the ‘crew’ captained by Napolitano. Neither Napolitano nor Messina appeared for trial, and Napolitano later was found murdered.”

The Florida indictment, returned in the Middle District of Florida on March 31, 1983, charged an enterprise of members of the “Trafficante Family,” the “Ludiese Family” (as the scan prints it), the “Gambino Family,” the “Chicago Outfit” and the “Bonnano Family,” with acts from March 1979 to November 1981. Among them was “the operation of an illegal gambling business at the Kings Court Club in Holiday, Florida,” which the indictment charged Ruggiero with conspiring to operate and taking part in. The court held the Florida charges distinct from the New York ones and affirmed the denial of the motion to dismiss. This record does not report the outcome of the Florida trial.