Witness's apparent perjury clears DeVecchio

State prosecutors dropped their murder case against retired FBI supervisor Roy Lindley DeVecchio today and began looking into the alleged perjury of witness Linda Schiro (right), according to stories by Scott Shifrel and Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News and Michael Brick of the New York Times.

Schiro, 62, the prosecution's star witness, was a longtime girlfriend of Colombo Crime Family bigshot Gregory Scarpa. She testified that DeVecchio provided information to Scarpa about a fellow gangster who was secretly cooperating in a federal investigation and aided Scarpa in setting up four mob killings. After hearing of Schiro's testimony, reporters Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci came forward with 10-year-old audiotapes of conversations they had with Schiro to research a book. In those conversations, Schiro reportedly contradicted her sworn testimony in the DeVecchio case.

The reporters had promised Schiro confidentiality. Robbins said he felt he had to come forward after noting the contradictions in her testimony. Robbins described the contradictions in an article for the Oct. 30 Village Voice. In the taped interviews, Schiro did not link DeVecchio (left) with three of the four murders. She said nothing of DeVecchio's alleged involvement in the murder of Mary Bari and expressly excluded him from involvement in the murders of Joseph DeDomenico and Lorenzo Lampasi.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione asked Justice Gustin Reichbach to dismiss the case against the 67-year-old DeVecchio. Vecchione said the case would not have gone to trial "had we been provided these tapes much earlier in the process."

As Capeci noted in his online Gangland column today, the dismissal of the charges in such a high profile case is a public relations nightmare for Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes (right). There was no announcement related to the case on the prosecutor's website today. Hynes reportedly told the press, "There's no way we would have brought a prosecution if we had that kind of information."

During the investigation for the case, Hynes publicly blasted federal agencies for their slow response to Kings County requests for information. Federal prosecutors had investigated the charges against DeVecchio earlier but decided not to prosecute. Current and former FBI agents came out in support of DeVecchio.

In the 2005 election, Hynes had to defeat primary election challengers from within his own Democratic party in order to run for reelection.

FBI's DeVecchio comes to trial

Roy Lindley DeVecchio, an ex-FBI supervisor accused of cooperating with brutal Mafia bigshot, was in Brooklyn State Supreme Court yesterday for the opening of his trial, according to a story by Michael Brick of the New York Times.

DeVecchio, 67 (right), has been a well respected law enforcement professional and retains the support of many of his FBI peers. He made a significant contribution to the landmark Mafia Commission Case in the 1980s, which put the nation's top crime bosses behind bars.

Prosecutors charge that he lost his way between 1980 and 1993 and began trading information with a Colombo Crime Family capo, the late Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa Sr., who also served as an FBI informant. They say that he accepted cash and other compensation for cooperating with Scarpa in his efforts to eliminate Mafia rivals and other suspected informants. DeVecchio is accused of causing four murders and of failing to stop several others.

The prosecution witness list includes Linda Schiro, Scarpa's common law wife.

DeVecchio defense attorney Douglas Grover insists that Schiro has engineered her testimony in order to sell books. He argued that the working relationship between his client and Scarpa was not inappropriate. "Gregory Scarpa, as ugly and miserable a human being as he was - a made member of the Colombo Crime Family - was a top echelon FBI source," Grover said.

DeVecchio waived his right to trial by jury. His fate will be decided by Judge Gustin L. Reichbach. DeVecchio's attorneys tried a number of maneuvers to avoid state trial, including arguing for the case to be heard as a federal matter.

Gregory Scarpa Sr. (left), who is believed to have played a role in extracting information from Ku Klux Klansmen about the murders of civil rights workers in the 1960s, died in prison in 1994 at the age of 66.

His son, Gregory Scarpa Jr., followed him into an organized crime career. The younger Scarpa, now in prison on a racketeering conviction, is also expected to testify in the DeVecchio trial. Prosecutors say the two Scarpa's teamed up for the Sept. 24, 1984, murder of Mary Bari in the Occasions Bar in Bensonhurst, according to a story by Alex Ginsberg of the New York Post. Scarpa Jr. allegedly held Bari in a bear hug as Scarpa Sr. put three bullets into her head. Prosecutors say the Scarpas learned from DeVecchio that Bari was about to lead federal investigators to her fugitive boyfriend, reputed Colombo Crime Family bigshot Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico.

Scarpa Jr. links DeVecchio to 1984 murder

Gregory Scarpa Jr., now imprisoned after a career as a mob gunman, told investigators that information from then-FBI Agent Lindley DeVecchio prompted the September 1984 murder of Mary Bari, 31, according to a story by Nancie L. Katz of the New York Daily News.

DeVecchio (left) reportedly told Scarpa's father that Bari was turning informant, a particularly worrisome accusation as Bari's boyfriend at the time was Colombo Crime Family boss Alphonse Persico. Investigators believe Scarpa and his father then shot the woman to death at a Brooklyn social club.

The Bari murder is one of four that prosecutors have linked to DeVecchio's alleged cooperation with members of the Colombo Family. DeVecchio is asking now for the case against him to be thrown out because prosecutors have made use of earlier testimony he provided while under immunity.