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The defense attorney for reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi repeatedly asserted Monday that his client is not a mobster and that prosecutors had used a parade of corrupt witnesses – including murderers – to build its case.
“Their case is no better than their witnesses,” Ligambi attorney Edwin Jacobs said during his closing arguments in the federal racketeering trial against Ligambi and six of his alleged South Philly mob associates.
Though Jacobs told the jury that it is not a crime to be a member of an unsavory organization such as the Mafia, he insisted that Ligambi was not guilty of all the charges before him, which span back to 1999.
The jury will wade through three months of testimony and evidence when it begins deliberating Tuesday.
Most of the charges against the defendants are associated with sports betting, loan-sharking and operating illegal video-poker machines. Ligambi, 73, also was allegedly being paid for a no-show union job.
“We’re not what they say we are. In 10 years, they can’t trace a dollar of this money up the hierarchy because there is no hierarchy. It’s nonsense,” said Jacobs, who insisted the government was attributing mob violence of past decades to a group of nonviolent associates.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han hammered at Jacob’s defense of Ligambi with a hit parade of sorts of secretly taped conversations in which the defendants and their associates were heard talking about getting violent with those who were late repaying illegal mob loans.
Some of the attorneys representing Ligambi’s six co-defendants said during their closing arguments last week that their clients were not seriously talking about hurting anyone
Han bristled at that Monday, and told the jurors that such a defense was insulting.
“They insult the intelligence of people who live in South Philadelphia . . . who don’t act like them,” he snapped. “They insult Italian Americans who are not involved in organized crime.”
Han said the defendants’ words constitute “the hall of truth. They can’t get over it, they can’t get around it, they can’t dig under it,” he said.
As for the defense attorneys’ complaint that the government used shady witnesses against their clients, Han suggested to the jury that it takes criminals to help catch criminals.
“They [the defendants] associate with people who are like minded, who have the same outlook on life,” the prosecutor explained.
Also standing trial are alleged mob underboss Joseph “Mousie” Massimino, alleged mob consigliere George Borgesi, Anthony “Ant” Staino Jr., Joseph “Scoops” Licata, Damion Canalichio and Gary Battaglini.
Source: philly.com
