Judge: Can't Link Crimes: Verdict Tossed In 'Mafia Cops' Case

Judge: Can't Link Crimes
Verdict Tossed In 'Mafia Cops' Case

In a shocking decision, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein June 30 dismissed charges against the two "Mafia Cops" convicted of moonlighting as hitmen for the Luchese crime family because prosecutors failed to connect a 2005 crime to a racketeering conspiracy that ended more than a decade ago.

LOUIS J. EPPOLITO: Wins limited new trial. On April 6, a jury found ex-Detectives Louis J. Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa guilty of what Judge Weinstein called the "most heinous series of crimes ever tried in the [Brooklyn Federal] courthouse."

Hands in 8 Murders

The disgraced officers were convicted of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy that included eight murders - many of which they directly participated in - for which they were paid roughly $375,000 by Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, who was then the boss of the Luchese family.

But in a 102-page order, Judge Weinstein reversed the conviction. The evidence at the trial, he noted, established that the men had participated in a large number of brutal crimes, including the eight murders. "Nevertheless, an extended trial, evidentiary hearings, briefings and argument establishes that the five-year statute of limitations mandates granting the defendants a judgment of acquittal on the key charge against them - racketeering conspiracy," his decision stated.

He ordered a new trial for the men on money laundering and drug charges.

Prosecutors argued that a 2005 drug charge against the men legally connected them to their gangland murders in the 1980's and 1990's. The men were tried for facilitating the sale of $900 worth of methamphetamine last year in Las Vegas, where they moved after retiring from the force.

At the outset, Judge Weinstein questioned that contention. "The Detectives were no longer in contact with their old associates in the Luchese crime family," Judge Weinstein ruled last week.

At a bail hearing last July, he warned prosecutors that their argument was "thin." But he allowed the case to progress despite those misgivings.

On June 5, Judge Weinstein had said that he intended to sentence the men to life in prison.

Compelling Evidence

At the trial, prime witness Burton Kaplan testified that he served as a go-between for the cops and Mr. Casso. The relationship began, Mr. Kaplan said, after he enlisted the officers to murder a jeweler, Israel Greenwald, who he feared prosecutors were using to build a case against him.

Mr. Kaplan testified in precise detail about the murders carried out, where the bodies were disposed, and his communications with the two Detectives and Mr. Casso.

In addition, Mr. Kaplan's former defense attorney, Judd Burstein, testified that his client told him in 1994 that cops had taken part in a murder of a mobster on behalf of Mr. Casso.