CRIME FAMILY SOLDIER SENTENCED TO PRISON
Jeff Shields Staff writer
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
John Mamone, a soldier in Florida's Trafficante crime family, was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison Tuesday despite his cooperation with federal authorities.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz sentenced Mamone, formerly of Coral Springs, to nine years and seven months in prison, after his admission that he ran a loan-sharking, bookmaking and money-laundering ring for the Tampa-based Trafficante crime family.
He was one of 18 people rounded up as part of an October 2000 indictment. His boss, alleged Trafficante capo Steve Raffa of Pembroke Pines, committed suicide less than a month after his arrest.

Mamone was facing up to 19 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, but his attorneys were seeking a much lighter sentence based on his cooperation and the difficulty it has caused for him in prison and for his family on the outside.
"The defendant and his family have suffered problems that go beyond the scope of what ordinarily occurs to cooperating government witnesses," attorneys David Rothman and Neil Schuster argued in a motion to Seitz.

The attorneys said Mamone's wife and children had to flee their home when Mamone's cooperation was revealed in a March 21 article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"While Mamone's cooperation proved valuable to the government, the result to the defendant and the lives of his family are far more cataclysmic," the attorneys argued.

The solitary confinement required for protected witnesses in prison has caused "extraordinary psychological damage," they wrote.

"He paced his jail cell in prison-issue shoes without soles, scarring and callusing the bottom of his feet while he paced his tiny cell in claustrophobic terror," they said.

Schuster declined to comment Tuesday after the three-hour hearing, parts of which were closed to the public.

Mamone was sentenced to 97 months for his underlying offense and another 18 months for continuing his loan-sharking business while out on bail in this case. He also must put in 700 hours of community service.

There are signs Mamone's cooperation will affect another major indictment against New York's Bonanno crime family. Court documents indicate Mamone has provided information regarding South Florida "boiler-room" stock-fraud operations as part of that case.

The government estimates Mamone is liable for about $4.5 million in restitution. That issue will be decided at a hearing in November.