U.s. Dealing To Oust Chiefs Of Casino Union
By George Anastasia, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: April 02, 1991
Federal authorities are trying to negotiate the removal of the leaders of the largest and most powerful labor union in Atlantic
City without a lengthy hearing into allegations that the local is mob-controlled.
If settlements could be worked out, several law enforcement sources said yesterday, officials with Local 54 of the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees International Union would give up their posts. That would avert testimony in a potentially damaging civil court hearing that had been set for today in U.S. District Court in Trenton.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, N.J., declined to comment on the case yesterday. He said, however, that prosecutors would request that the hearing be delayed until Friday.
Officials with Local 54 could not be reached for comment. A rally in support of the union officials, planned for yesterday on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, was canceled late last week, apparently as negotiations intensified.
In a civil racketeering suit filed in December, federal authorities asked for the ouster of every union officer, charging that Local 54 has been controlled by organized crime for 20 years.
Defendants included union president Roy Silbert, vice president Felix Bocchicchio Jr., secretary-treasurer Thelma Hilferty and union executive board members Daniel Daidone, Anthony Staino Jr. and Karlos LaSane. Several other former union officials, including former president Frank Gerace, and a number of mob figures, including imprisoned Philadelphia-South Jersey mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and his son, Nicodemo S. Scarfo, are also defendants.
Local 54 represents about 22,000 hotel, bar and restaurant workers throughout South Jersey, including about 14,000 casino-hotel workers. The union collected more than $3 million in dues last year, and Local 54 employers paid about $20 million into the international union's health, welfare and benefit funds.
Federal authorities have charged that both Scarfo and his predecessor, the late Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno, exercised hidden control of the union and siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from its treasury. Union officials have denied the charges.
Witnesses who were expected to testify about the mob's involvement in Local 54 included Philip Leonetti, the underboss of the Scarfo crime family, Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino, a former capo, or captain, of the Scarfo organization, and confessed mob hitmen Willard Moran Jr. and Charles Allen, all of whom are now cooperating with federal authorities.
Sources familiar with the case said yesterday that negotiations between attorneys for the union officials and the U.S. Attorney's Office have been going on for several weeks. Those sources, who asked not to be identified, said it would be premature to discuss details or potential settlements.
The government wants the court to force union officials named in the suit to give up their posts and agree to never again seek union office. Federal authorities were also seeking a court-appointed monitor to temporarily oversee the union's operations.
Two defendants in the case, former union officials Frank Lentino and Frank Materio, have signed consent decrees, according to federal authorities. Both have been identified as Scarfo associates.
Lentino, 80, recently was released from prison after serving seven years for trying to bribe former Atlantic City Mayor Michael J. Matthews in a mob- controlled political-corruption scheme.
Materio, 69, was a Local 54 business agent and a member of the union's executive board in the mid-1980s.
Both he and Gerace, the former president, were forced to step down by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which ruled that both men had close ties to Scarfo. Materio and Gerace later were permitted to work for the union in matters not related to casinos. Materio retired in the late 1980s. Gerace is now an administrative assistant to Edward Hanley, president of the Cincinnati- based Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees International Union. Hanley also has been named as a defendant in the civil suit
