How the Govt Softens Up Informants

Thought you guys might find this interesting. I'll title it How the Government Softens Up the Crimes of Informants". This is part of a presentencing letter the government wrote to the Court on behalf of David Evangelista, the informant who testified at Crea/Madonna/Londonio/Caldwell trial for the murder of Michael Meldish.

Remember that this guy's testimony was the only "evidence" the govt had linking Crea to the murder and this was based on the alleged "confession" Londonio made to him - whom Londonio only knew for less than a month before he apparently bared his soul. Evangelista also was the guy who told authorities about Londonio's alleged plan to escape - a charge for which Londonio was acquitted.

Also there was some blatant lies told by the government in this letter which directly conflict with Evangelista's testimony at trial. I'll be writing about that shortly.

So Crea got convicted solely on some third party information? (Evangelista testified that Londonio told him that Crea OK'd the hit), So that means two guys could potentially be lying and one of them (Evangelista) has a obvious motivation to lie - he needed something big to reduce his sentence.

How did Crea not get off with a good lawyer?

He had and has excellent lawyers It was all based on what the judge allowed during pretrial hearings. Evangelista told prosecutors when Londonio allegedly confessed that he said "Stevie Wonder and son" ordered the hit (and that it was handed down from Crea/Madonna) and the judge right before the trial wasn't going to allow that statement into testimony but after "expert" John Carillo testified on the first day, judge changed her mind and allowed him to testify that that's what Londonio supposedly said. There was a lot of that kind of thing that happened in pretrial even with Madonna during trial...allowing only half recordings to be played (not whole recording for context), allowing witnesses like Robert Spinelli to "interpret" statements he made while he was making recordings (this in relation to other charges). But the murder charge for Crea was based entirely on that "Stevie Wonder and son' statement.

Plus, at the end of the trial the judge gave the jury a charge called Pinkerton rule where even if the jury didn't believe he had anything to do with the murder, if they could find he was a member of an enterprise or a club, they could find him guilty of the murder. It would have been a "foreseeable" event on his part. But there's so much more. So Crea's lawyers fought everything but they were overruled or denied on every motion and objection.

Even the original indictment when they were indicted on the information given to them by Frank Pasqua III who lied because his original information was that he had gone with his father to kill Meldish and that his father had done it, somehow he changed his story that it was Crea. But he was never called to testify because he lied about so many things and when Crea's lawyers asked for the Grand Jury minutes which is what got all of them indicted...the judge refused and ordered the government to get new "trial indictment". So no one will ever know what was in that original GJ indictment which probably would have had information that would have forced the whole thing to be dismissed.

Also interesting is that the entire case (discovery material and so forth) was put under a protective order by request of government almost immediately so there's no disclosure or transparency -- only what the govt presented during pretrial hearings/trial that wasn't sealed and was presented to jury.

All of it should be available to the public. If the government has nothing to hide, why put it under protective order?

Also towards the end of trial, Londonio and Crea had requested severance so that Londonio could testify on his behalf to refute what Evangelista claimed he said and the judge denied the motion.

Crea really got a raw deal from that judge.

May be he can appeal and get a different judge?

That’s funny because In one of the news story I read is that Londonio tried to separate himself and Crea and all the other defendants weren’t going to be happy about it, So Londonio didn’t do it...

That had to do with an alleged "global deal" which was a false story.

The appeal is done before three judges in the court of appeals so yeah, it won't be the same judge.

Was it a "conspiracy" trial? It's always easier for the gov't to convict a defendant because they don't have to prove that he actually committed the crime, only that he was "conspiring with others" to commit the crime. Also, the judge will allow "uncorroborated testimony from unindicted co-conspirators"--meaning that if you're on trial and the gov't thinks I conspired with you, they'll haul me in, tell me I'm a co-conspirator, then will withhold indicting me in return for my cooperation with them in your trial. The can coerce me into testifying against you. And when I do, the prosecution won't have to produce "corroborating witnesses" who will testify that I told the truth because they witnessed what I saw, which would be required in a standard felony trial.