By Shamus Toomey
The Chicago Sun-Times
MELROSE PARK, Ill. — The feds Thursday called it “an illegal racketeering enterprise.”
In Melrose Park, it was known as the police department.
A federal grand jury Thursday indicted the west suburb’s former police chief and six current and former cops and village employees, accusing them of shaking down local businesses from at least 1996 until 2006.
Vito R. Scavo, who retired last year after 30 years on the force, including 12 as the police chief, was accused of forcing local businesses to hire a private security company he owned and then using village officers, squad cars and offices for his own benefit.
Scavo, who has been under investigation for years and whose home was searched in 2005, was hit with charges of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, obstruction of justice, tax fraud and more as part of the alleged scheme involving his DOD Security Consultants and a local branch of IFPC Worldwide Inc., where he was a subcontractor.
“Whatever you’re telling me is news to me,” Scavo, 59, told a reporter Thursday night before hanging up. His lawyer, Tom Breen, declined to comment.
Scavo, who now runs a Melrose Park deli, and the six others were named in the 28-count indictment. Prosecutors are seeking to recover millions of dollars from the accused.
Scavo “preyed upon the businesses’ fears that if they did not hire security through Scavo, he would use his official position to cause the businesses to suffer negative consequences,” the indictment said.
Some of the businesses that were defrauded or extorted, according to the indictment, were: Cinemark, Navistar, Jewel Food Stores, Allied Waste Service and Lincoln Technical Institute.
Navistar was allegedly tricked into letting a Scavo commercial parking business use a Navistar parking lot for patrons attending a haunted house attraction. Scavo led Navistar to believe the parking lot was to be used for the village’s benefit, prosecutors said.
Some officers Scavo used were on the clock for the village when they worked private security and did chores for him, according to the indictment. It also alleged Scavo and three co-defendants gave the private security work priority over legitimate village police work.
All of the defendants received benefits from the fraud scheme, and several got favored status with Scavo, according to the indictment.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the police department was supposed to serve and protect the public, but several of the defendants were “serving themselves first.”
“They abused their powers and violated the public’s trust by shaking down local businesses and encouraging victims and witnesses to lie to federal agents and a grand jury,” Fitzgerald said.
Also charged were Gary Montino, 51, the current deputy police chief; Guy Ric Cervone, 56, a current police commander; Mickey Caliendo, 64, a former supervisor of part-time officers; James Caputo, 63, a former deputy chief; Michael Wynn, 53, a part-time officer, and German Cepeda, 40, a village code enforcement officer.
Montino and Cervone were put on paid administrative leave, a village spokesman said.
Montino and Caliendo are charged with racketeering conspiracy and mail fraud. Caputo is charged with fraud. Cervone is charged with mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Wynn is charged with mail fraud. And Cepeda, an alleged bagman, is charged with extortion.
When Scavo retired from his $110,000-a-year chief’s job amid the investigation last year, Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico praised him in a statement that noted crime had gone down under Scavo’s leadership.
On Thursday, a village spokesman said Serpico was “distraught” and “obviously very saddened” by the news.
“If there was any wrongdoing that gets proven in court, the mayor has indicated the village will pursue any and all means of recovery,” the spokesman said.
Copyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times