CASELLA’S RESTAURANT
One of the organized crime bars highlighted in the Commission’s 1992 public hearing and report was Casella’s Restaurant in Hoboken (Hudson County). Martin “Motts” Casella held a 90% interest in the liquor license from August 1962 to October 1990. Despite Casella’s close association with Genovese Family consigliere Louis “Bobby” Manna, who used the estab- lishment as his headquarters, Casella’s 1988 indictment on federal RICO charges, his subsequent 1989 convic- tion, and his incarceration on an 80-year sentence, the municipality continued to renew the liquor license every year. Leonetti became acquainted with Casella while they were both incarcerated in federal prison:
Leonetti was in federal prison at Ottisville, N.Y., from November of 1988 until May of 1989. During that
time, Martin Casella was in the same prison. Between January and approximately March of 1989, Leonetti was housed in the same unit at Ottisville as Bobby Manna, Marty Casella and Bocci DeSciscio. Manna was the consigliere of the Genovese Family and Casella and DeSciscio were associates of the Genovese Family who were very close with Manna. Joe Massino, who was the boss of the Bonanno Family of La Cosa Nostra, was also in the same unit. Manna, Casella and DeSciscio left Ottisville in approximately March of 1989 to go on trial for a RICO case that the federal government had against the Genovese Family. While Casella and Leonetti were in prison, they conversed regularly and Casella told Leonetti that he owned a restau- rant in northern New Jersey. Casella said that the FBI had bugged the res- taurant and that some of the record- ings that were made from the bug were going to be used as evidence in the RICO case.