In the legal arena of the Southern District of NY, the following decisions of Judge Castel are nothing short of amazing. Judge Castel, a notoriously rough jurist... Rules in favor of defense up and down the line. Looks like the FBI and prosecutors hung their hats a little too high on such a lowlife, scumbag, pedophile like this Charlie Hughes.

Taken from Gangland

By Jerry Capeci

Garbage Gangsters Get Super Sweet Plea Deals; Keeps Sex Pervert Witness Off The Stand

A week after federal prosecutors disclosed that their key witness in the huge mob waste hauling case had preyed on 15-year-old girls, they gave super sweet plea bargains to the last two holdout defendants. The plea deals will keep many sordid details about the FBI's undercover operative — and how he was handled — under wraps.

The gangsters got offers they couldn't refuse: low-end guidelines of 15 months for one, a year for the other. The deals were cut last week, right after a Manhattan federal judge indicated he would give the defense some leeway in questioning witness Charles Hughes about his 2008 arrest for soliciting sex from a girl he believed to be 15-years-old.

The guilty pleas close out the first of three trials that were scheduled in the 29-defendant case alleging mob control over the private sanitation industry in five counties in New York and New Jersey. So far, 19 defendants from three crime families, including geezer gangster Carmine "Papa Smurf" Franco, a Genovese associate, have copped plea deals.

The final pre-trial conference in which Judge P. Kevin Castel said he'd allow at least some of the underage sex allegations to surface if the witness took the stand resulted in a fast, Macy's bargain-basement-style sale of guilty pleas: Prosecutors suddenly reduced prison-term plea deals offered two Gambino family defendants by two-thirds.

The original plea offer of 37-to-46 months for wiseguy Anthony Bazzini, had already been reduced to 30-to-37 months by the last pre-trial session. After Castel left the bench, prosecutors chopped it to 12-to-18 months. The numbers for associate Scott Fappiano, who has more convictions of his rap sheet, began at 41-to-51 months. They ended up at 15-to-21 months, according to court records in the case. Bazzini, 54, and Fappiano, 52, are slated to be sentenced in May.

Castel never made a definitive ruling on exactly how much leeway he would give the defense, but he clearly rejected the contention of lead prosecutor Brian Blais that any cross-examination of Hughes about lies he told the "15-year-old," and other lies he told a court-appointed shrink were "out of bounds."

After grilling Bazzini's lawyer Raymond Perini about the questions he would ask Hughes and his reasons, Castel said he would "think about it" before pointedly cutting off discussion. "If the government has anything further they want to say on the subject, they can write me a letter, and I will take a look at it," said Castel.

Prosecutors said little in court about their key witness. But the limited colloquy on the subject between Perini and Judge Castel indicated serious flaws in his character and credibility, the kind of thing that many jurors might view as worse than the bid-rigging and illegal payoffs he was alleging against the defendants.

Castel, who is not viewed as a pro-defense jurist, began questioning Perini by asking the attorney if he wanted to "go through the transcript" of a taped conversation Hughes had with the "girl" and ask whether he lied when he said he was "tall, dark and handsome."

"I didn't say that Judge," Perini replied quickly, before beginning his detailed explanation of what he believed he had a right to ask the witness.

"There is another lie he tells," said Perini, referring to an early August of 2008 conversation, three weeks before the witness was arrested in front of a Westchester motel with a supply of condoms and a motel key and charged with soliciting sex from a 15 year old girl. That day, said Perini, Hughes, who had not shown for an earlier rendezvous, told the "girl" he was now ready for action.

"He comes up with this story that my wife caught me with condoms and she wouldn't let me come, but now I'm living in a motel room, and now I really want to get together with you again," said Perini. "Lie. Pure lie. I want to explore his lying to a supposed 15 year old to have sex with her. That's what I'd like to do."

Asked what the lie was, the lawyer said the excuse he gave the girl was a lie. "Just two weeks ago," Hughes admitted telling the feds that was a lie, said Perini.

Numerous times during their back and forth, Perini stressed that he would focus on the lies Hughes told the "15-year-old girl" as a way of undermining his believability to jurors who would have to decide whether to credit his allegations against Bazzini.

"That's a lie that goes to his credibility in this relationship with the 15 year old," the lawyer said. "And I think it's something the jury should know about him, because if he is willing to lie about that, what would he do when he is looking at ten to life?" said Perini, referring to the minimum prison time Hughes would have faced for soliciting sex from a minor — if he hadn't gotten a cooperation deal from the feds.

At no point during the proceeding, did Blais, or co-prosecutors Natalie Lamarque or Patrick Egan, contradict anything that Perini told the judge about their witness.

Castel withheld a final ruling on what alleged lies to a court appointed psychiatrist that Perini could cross-examine Hughes about, but he made several positive defense findings.

The judge ruled that a taped talk in which Bazzini mentioned that he saw former Gambino boss Peter Gotti in prison, and information that Hughes was severely beaten during the undercover probe were both prejudicial and could not be used at the trial.

Not addressed during the session, or in the government's court papers, were several assertions of bad judgment or possible wrongdoing by the prosecutors and FBI agents that Perini and co-counsel Lee Ginsberg noted in their court papers — points they would most likely have raised at the trial.

Among other things, prosecutors allowed Hughes's release on bail to cooperate before he pleaded guilty to the sex charges. They also relaxed "highly restrictive bail conditions meant to protect children from pedophiles like the cooperating witness … at the behest of the FBI" which then gave Hughes "a salaried sort of position" for the next five years, wrote Perini.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI declined to discuss the case