From Gangland News
Mikey Nose Back Behind Bars
Mafia Boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso went back to prison yesterday with at least two things fresh in his mind: Number one, when he is released next August he has got to steer clear of a bunch of folks for three years — that is unless he wants to risk another return trip to the Big House. Number two, should he get careless and run into an old pal he's not supposed to meet, well, he's got an excellent lawyer to help him out.
Those were the last things Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis told the Bonanno crime family boss when he sentenced him to 11 months behind bars and three years of post-prison supervise release after finding him guilty of two charges of violating his prior restrictions following a 15-year stretch for a 2004 mob rubout.
To make sure there was no doubt about his finding, Garaufis cited numerous meetings the 68-year-old mob boss had with eight convicted organized crime figures. These included Bonanno crime family underboss, John (Johnny Joe) Spirito, with whom Mancuso was spotted between October 7, 2020, and September 8, 2021, encounters that were established by photos and the testimony of FBI agent Jarryd Butler.
In addition, Mancuso was seen consorting with two mob capos, one from his own crime family as well as a Colombo skipper.
The meetings he had with the eight gangsters, the judge stated, violated Mikey Nose's prohibition against meeting with any ex-cons and also with the ban against associating with any individual "with an affiliation to any organized crime groups."Prosecutor Michael Gibaldi noted that many of those meetings were with underlings that enabled Mancuso "to continue his affiliation and operation of the Bonanno crime family." Gibaldi argued that the maximum allowable sentence of two years was "appropriate" because of the repeated contacts Mikey Nose had with organized crime members.
In a bit of a surprise, the U.S. Probation Department, which had lodged the two VOSR charges against Mancuso, undercut Gibaldi's argument. When asked for its opinion, probation officer Ryan Lehr recommended a prison term only at the "upper end" of the listed sentencing guidelines for Mikey Nose's violations, namely five to 11 months.
In her initial request to Garaufis, lawyer Stacey Richman conceded that Mancuso had violated his conditions of supervised release. But she argued that most of his meetings were social affairs attended by wives and girlfriends. Richman pushed for a sentence of home confinement if the judge was "inclined to give any aspect of incarceration."
The attorney also stressed that while Mancuso "became complacent" with the prohibitions of his supervised release, during the entire year that the government was secretly watching and listening to her client, he committed "no crimes."
Richman argued that Mancuso "requires the Court's protection from the overreaches" of the government which pursued her client "during the time of the pandemic" when "the world was upside down" and could find "no criminality."
If Garaufis felt the need "to impose any incarceration," Richman insisted that a sentence at the "low end of the guidelines" was a long enough "wake-up call" for her client. She asked that Mancuso be allowed to self-surrender to whatever facility would be designated for him by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
She lost on the amount of time, but she prevailed on the request fo a self-surrender, which took place yesterday. The location of Mancuso's new home away from home is a closely guarded secret that will likely be disclosed today.
But wherever Mikey Nose ends up for the next 11 months, he knows because Judge Garaufis told him, that when he gets out, he's got a "very fine lawyer" who did "an excellent job" for him from the time he was charged with a VOSR back in March of last year, until the day he was told to report back to prison on September 6.
Mancuso now is in Allenwood Low.
