By Anthony M. Destefano, Staff Writer
Newsday
A federal appeals court agreed that because the racketeering conviction of the “Mafia Cops” for eight gangland murders was thrown out in June, they have no basis now for challenging rulings made during the trial, according to defense and government attorneys.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Tuesday dismissed the appeals of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa that concerned rulings made by Judge Jack B. Weinstein during the April trial, said defense attorney Daniel Nobel, who is representing Caracappa.
Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted after a jury trial in April of playing roles in the murders performed by the Luchese crime family in the 1980s and early 1990s. They were also convicted of taking part in a narcotics conspiracy.
But in a ruling that stunned the legal community, Weinstein on June 30 said problems with the five-year statute of limitations required the racketeering case to be thrown out.
He also ordered a new trial on the drug charge.
According to Nobel, the appeals court essentially agreed that since the racketeering charge was dismissed it had no jurisdiction over complaints by the defendants that Weinstein ruled incorrectly on their complaints about the ineffectiveness of their trial counsel.
Government attorneys argued to the panel that the appeals court didn’t have jurisdiction on that issue after Weinstein’s ruling.
“There was no conviction to appeal,” said an official with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, who asked not to be identified.
Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, are being held in a federal detention center in Brooklyn while the government appeals Weinstein’s June ruling. Immediately after the trial in April, Weinstein denied a complaint by the defense that attorneys Bruce Cutler, who represented Eppolito, and Edward Hayes, who defended Caracappa, did a poor job.
No decision is expected on the government appeal until next year.
Nobel said that if the convictions are reinstated, Eppolito and Caracappa could reinstate their appeals about ineffective assistance of counsel and other issues.
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.