Sunday, December 03, 2006

One of nine men indicted for running a gambling ring that took bets on
football and basketball games pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court
afternoon.
And Joesph Saladino's plea may be the first of several guilty pleas from men
whom prosecutors allege were connected to a conspiracy that runs as far back
as the 1980s. "There's a total of five" guilty pleas in the works, including
Saladino, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully as he left Judge Philip
Reinhard's courtroom. The other possible guilty pleas are John P. "Tiger"
Frisella, Joseph F. "Pep" Fiorenza, and Joesph's two sons, Nicholas and
Rick. Wednesday, Reinhard set Friday afternoon hearing dates for the four.
Their trial was initially scheduled to start Dec. 11.It's still not clear
what will happen with the other men who were indicted in the case. They are
Charles A. Purin, Frank C. Giardono, Nick Provenzano and John F. Salamone. A
tentative trial date for them has been set for Feb. 12.All of the men,
except Saladino, were indicted and arrested in early February, just days
before the Super Bowl, on gambling charges.Federal prosecutors have been
characteristically tight-lipped about details of the alleged conspiracy, but
court papers filed this week list some of the evidence the Justice
Department plans to present if the case goes to trial.The documents say that
Frisella and Saladino had, at least by 2001, set up a "wireroom" in a
Rockford apartment building at 1912 17th Ave. where they would take
bookmaking calls from bettors over two telephones that were listed under the
name of a woman known to Saladino. The feds also obtained phone records that
show hundreds of calls made from the men to 800 and 888 numbers. A
government wiretap that was placed on one of the phones in the wireroom was
activated Nov. 26, 2001, according to court documents.

"It was immediately apparent that Joseph Saladino was involved in a sports
betting business and there were ultimately several thousand conversations
intercepted on this phone," the documents read. "Some of the calls were with
the defendants and other conspirators, but the majority were with bettors."

The Justice Department is also apparently prepared to present witnesses that
placed bets with the members of the alleged ring or could identify some
members as people who picked up or delivered gambling payments.

Among these witnesses is a person identified only as "a family member of
Charles Purin" who would testify that they helped drum up business for the
bookmaking operation run by Saladino and Frisella.

Saladino, who did not file an official plea deal with the court, faces up to
five years in prison and the government is seeking to seize $500,000 in
assets.