Just saw this article in the post. Got me thinking. This kid and his crew has pretty much been on the streets since the nineties with no major indictments. Meanwhile the other team gets caught up in something major every few years or so.

The guy is kind of a local legend.



BRIDGEPORT -- Since opening last year in a prime Broad Street location across from the City Hall Annex, the Barnum Publick House has become a downtown destination for food and drink.

Now restaurateur Steven Montello plans to expand the franchise by opening Bistro B three doors down.

But those plans could be on hold. Montello has been dragged into a battle between city zoning officials and associates of convicted felon and alleged mob figure Gus Curcio.

Robin Cummings and Curcio's wife, Julia Kish, are involved in Cummings Enterprises Inc., which is suing to overturn a Zoning Board of Appeals' decision granting Bistro B a variance to serve liquor and provide outdoor seating.

They allege the zoning board abused its power, but the question is why Cummings or Kish even care.

They are not neighbors of Montello's downtown restaurants. Cummings Enterprises filed its claim as an "aggrieved taxpayer," but their property is three miles away from Bistro B, at 63 Hastings St.

"It baffles me," said Montello. "(I'm) a new business owner coming into town, spending a quarter-million (dollars) building the new location, and it's becoming not very business friendly ... Why me?"

Montello needn't feel singled out. The lawsuit over Bistro B is only the latest volley in a growing pattern of legal appeals targeting liquor variances issued by the zoning board.

Barnum Publick House is the most high-profile target; the popular restaurant is right across from Mayor Bill Finch's office, but approvals for a handful of sports bars and cafes have been challenged this year.

Some city officials say Curcio's fingerprints are all over the ZBA lawsuits, even if his name is not.

Curcio served time in prison after being convicted of federal charges of loan sharking and interfering with interstate commerce after smashing a rival vending machine company's video game in a Bridgeport bar.

He was also a suspect in the 1981 murder of Frank Piccolo, the reputed Connecticut boss of the Carlo Gambino crime family. But two separate state court grand juries refused to indict Curcio.

Since his release from prison in the 1990s, Curcio has had a variety of business concerns in Bridgeport with a handful of trusted confidants like Cummings, Kish, Joseph Regensburger and Richard Urban.

"It's generally known in underground circles that this is going on," said Paul Timpanelli, president of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council. "I think it's a question of attempting to eliminate competition or at least engage in the profitability of that competition."

Timpanelli added, "It's preposterous, uncalled for, unfair and destructive to the city's best interests ... It just helps to set back the city's efforts to make this a place people want to invest in and enjoy themselves in."

But Jonathan Klein, the attorney representing Cummings Enterprises and other Curcio allies in these disputes, said the blame falls on the zoning board, not his clients, for making poor decisions.

"I don't ask what their motivations are," Klein said. "If they want to appeal, I satisfy myself first that there's legal grounds for an appeal. The ZBA doesn't do their job right, shame on them."

Klein said generally liquor variances are vulnerable to appeals because the zoning board must find there is an unusual hardship, which is very difficult to prove.

Klein said the ZBA is subjective -- if members like a project, they approve it, otherwise it's rejected.

"They don't get terribly bogged down in the legal niceties they need to deal with," he said.

City Attorney Edmund Schmidt dismissed Klein's assertions.

"They call them based on the facts of each individual case," Schmidt said. "You can't generalize this."

Klein earlier this year prevailed in two similar lawsuits Cummings Enterprises brought against ZBA liquor variances for a sports bar at 2288 Fairfield Ave. and a cafe at 1854 East Main St.

Presiding Judge Dale Radcliffe in his decision on the latter wrote, "The court is not permitted to turn a blind eye (to) the actions of a municipal land use body which ignores the requirements of law."

Klein is also representing Urban's 606 Center Street LLC and Kish's Main Street Business Management Inc. in similar liquor variance appeals.

Klein acknowledged the similarities in the cases.

"They're all appeals of the same types of variances ... You listed the names involved and they're all kind of interconnected," he said. "If you want to call that a pattern, I guess it's a pattern."

Team Curcio has proven it knows how to use the legal system to its advantage. When zoning officials denied Regensburger's application to open a new strip club at 500 North Ave., they filed a lawsuit in federal court, then submitted zoning applications for other sites. When those were denied, the group swamped the city with appeals.

Last month the sides reached a settlement. Curcio and crew dropped their legal challenges and the city will allow the 500 North Ave. gentlemen's club, tentatively named Rapture, to open.

Montello said he has spoken with city redevelopment officials about changing the liquor permit rules to avoid a ZBA hearing, at least for downtown eateries.

"If that happens, zoning enforcement will be able to issue these permits over the counter," Montello said.

I remember the Piccolo hit very well. He and his brother Fat Franny were the major suspects. Never liked that Castellano screwed Piccolo. He was a well respected old school guy.