Posted By: Don Cardi
Genovese Captain Feard Dead - 10/13/05 03:11 PM
MOB SUSPECT FEARED DEAD
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The feds believe that a reputed Genovese crime captain on trial in Brooklyn could have a very good excuse for missing court: He might have been whacked, sources said yesterday.
Lawrence Ricci, 60, was AWOL from federal court yesterday for the second day in a row, and his lawyer strongly suggested that foul play was involved.
"I do not consider my client's absence to be a voluntary one," defense lawyer Martin Schmukler told the judge outside the presence of the jury.
Ricci, a reputed key player for the crime family on the New Jersey waterfront, is on trial along with two high-ranking officials of the International Longshoremen's Association, Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey.
He was last seen Friday night in Carteret, N.J., borrowing his girlfriend's car, then switching wheels again with a relative.
If Ricci was being followed, it wasn't the feds who were tailing him, sources said.
"It looks like he's not with us anymore," said an investigative source.
The car he was last seen driving has not been found.
Ricci, a dapper dresser who purported to be a dairy salesman, allegedly reported to Tino Fiumara, the reputed head of the Genovese faction in New Jersey.
Rubbing him out would require approval at the highest levels of the crime family.
Ricci, accused of steering an ILA contract to a mobbed-up pharmaceutical company, had been free on a $500,000 bond signed by his sister, who is employed at an ILA local in New Jersey, and his son.
He had faced five years in prison if convicted.
Federal Judge Leo Glasser warned the jury not to draw any "negative inference" from Ricci's absence.
The judge rejected a request from another defense lawyer to adjourn the trial - now in its third week - until Monday on the chance that Ricci turned up in a hospital somewhere.
Originally published on October 13, 2005
Don Cardi
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The feds believe that a reputed Genovese crime captain on trial in Brooklyn could have a very good excuse for missing court: He might have been whacked, sources said yesterday.
Lawrence Ricci, 60, was AWOL from federal court yesterday for the second day in a row, and his lawyer strongly suggested that foul play was involved.
"I do not consider my client's absence to be a voluntary one," defense lawyer Martin Schmukler told the judge outside the presence of the jury.
Ricci, a reputed key player for the crime family on the New Jersey waterfront, is on trial along with two high-ranking officials of the International Longshoremen's Association, Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey.
He was last seen Friday night in Carteret, N.J., borrowing his girlfriend's car, then switching wheels again with a relative.
If Ricci was being followed, it wasn't the feds who were tailing him, sources said.
"It looks like he's not with us anymore," said an investigative source.
The car he was last seen driving has not been found.
Ricci, a dapper dresser who purported to be a dairy salesman, allegedly reported to Tino Fiumara, the reputed head of the Genovese faction in New Jersey.
Rubbing him out would require approval at the highest levels of the crime family.
Ricci, accused of steering an ILA contract to a mobbed-up pharmaceutical company, had been free on a $500,000 bond signed by his sister, who is employed at an ILA local in New Jersey, and his son.
He had faced five years in prison if convicted.
Federal Judge Leo Glasser warned the jury not to draw any "negative inference" from Ricci's absence.
The judge rejected a request from another defense lawyer to adjourn the trial - now in its third week - until Monday on the chance that Ricci turned up in a hospital somewhere.
Originally published on October 13, 2005
Don Cardi