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Bookie mum at mob trial, jailed for contempt
By MIKE ROBINSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Published July 2, 2007, 7:09 PM CDT
CHICAGO -- A convicted bookie was abruptly jailed Monday at the trial of five reputed Chicago mobsters after refusing to say whether he ever paid extortion money known as "street tax" to one of the defendants.
"I respectfully refuse to testify," Joel Glickman, 71, of Highland Park said repeatedly despite federal Judge James B. Zagel's warnings that he had received immunity and his continued silence could land him behind bars.
When Glickman proved stubborn, Zagel made good on his promise -- holding him in civil contempt of court and ordering him jailed.
"I'm going to order Mr. Glickman to be taken into custody forthwith," Zagel said. Husky federal marshals then escorted Glickman to the lockup.
Attorneys said he could be held there for the duration of the trial expected to last all summer and into the fall.
Behind the scenes Monday morning, Zagel had given Glickman immunity from prosecution for anything he might say on the witness stand.
Specifically, Glickman was asked if he had ever paid "street tax" to convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., one of the five reputed mob bosses and followers now on trial on racketeering conspiracy charges.
Prosecutors have told jurors that mobsters extort money, or "street tax," from adult bookstores, bookies and other shady business operations.
One former pornography shop proprietor, who unknown to the mob was an FBI informant for decades, testified he feared he had to pay or be killed.
Glickman was convicted of bookmaking in 1976 and sent to prison for two years. Glickman lawyer Loraine Ray refused to comment on his jailing.
Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez told reporters his client and Glickman have not had a relationship since the 1960s or early 1970s at the latest.
"The man made a decision," Lopez said. "Why he made the decision I don't know. But it's his decision. Maybe we'll find out more tomorrow."
Before sending him off to spend the night behind bars, Zagel told Glickman: "You can end your confinement simply by notifying authorities that you are willing to testify."
With that, Glickman was led away.
The five men on trial are charged with a racketeering conspiracy that includes 18 murders, illegal gambling, extortion and loan sharking.
Much of Monday's testimony focused on the Sept. 27, 1974, murder of businessman Daniel Seifert, 29, who had promised federal prosecutors that he would testify against reputed mob boss Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo in a fraud case. He was shot to death before he could get to the stand.
Seifert's widow and brother already have told the current trial that Lombardo, now 78 and one of the defendants, had threatened the youthful businessman.
Prosecutors concentrated Monday on what they believe were two getaway cars used in the shotgun killing outside Seifert's Bensenville office.
Police, responding to a radio flash about the fleeing killers, closed in on two suspected getaway cars in an Elmhurst parking lot. One of the cars, a Ford LTD, was abandoned. The other, a Dodge Challenger, got away.
Two FBI experts testified that a print from the little finger on Lombardo's left hand was discovered on the LTD's vehicle registration application filed with the secretary of state's office in Springfield.
The car was registered to a security service at an address where friends of Lombardo's ran a dry cleaning store, federal prosecutors said.
Three witnesses said they believed Lombardo bought a police radio scanner found in the abandoned car from a store where they were employed.
Another witness, Francis A. Mack, testified that the Challenger had come from his brother's Dodge dealership. He said the car vanished from the lot overnight but that, pressed by authorities, he was able to find papers showing that it had been sold to a Henry Corona with a Chicago address.
Former FBI agent Michael Byrne said he went to the address days after the killing and found no Henry Corona living there.
But the retired operator of another dry cleaning store, Frank Mendoza, said he owned the apartment building at the address and was a boyhood friend of Frank Schweihs, a Lombardo associate charged in the indictment.
Schweihs, alleged to be an extortionist who shook down adult bookstores and strip clubs as a member of Lombardo's Grand Avenue street crew, has serious medical problems and is not being tried at this time.
Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press
