An 87-year-old wheelchair-bound mob leader was sentenced to five years in prison Friday despite his lawyer's pleas that the octogenarian had not eaten in 11 days and was deteriorating from illnesses.
Lawyer Joseph Mure also argued that Ciro Perrone deserved leniency for a lifetime of civic deeds, including dashing into a building to warn residents there was a fire, contributing to the Catholic church and arranging a funeral for a destitute couple whose newborn twins had died.
But U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said the good deeds were not enough to forgive what prosecutors said was a lifetime of crime on behalf of the Genovese crime family.
Patterson said he considered the good things Perrone has done in his life but could not grant his request to be freed or sentenced to as little as a year in prison because "the other conduct is so bad."
Perrone sometimes shook his head as Patterson lectured him. The judge said the only way to stop mob extortion and the accompanying violence was "to give a serious enough sentence that people realize they can't engage in this conduct."
A jury had convicted Perrone of participating in an illegal gambling business and a loansharking conspiracy as a Genovese captain. The government said Perrone used threats of violence to maintain his control over gamblers who could not repay debts.
Mure portrayed his client as someone who was deteriorating steadily in a prison where he had spent the last eight months.
He said Perrone had stopped eating because of the flu, was showering only once a week and was sleeping poorly because he had to go to the bathroom as many as a dozen times each night.
He said Perrone's blood pressure was always high, his arteries were up to 80 percent clogged, vertigo was frequent and he could sleep only up to three hours a night. He also said his arthritis prevented him from feeling his arms or legs and he's so cold all the time that he keeps three blankets wrapped around him.
The judge said he could not consider the medical condition because the lawyer had not included any documentation to back up the claims.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig called Perrone an intelligent, able man who was raised in a middle-class family but "chose this life and he lived it for a long, long time."
"This notion of him as a noble human being or hero is absolutely delusional," Honig said.
"Mr. Perrone never accepted responsibility for anything he's done. No remorse," he said.
Before he was sentenced, Perrone declined to address the court.
"I don't want to say anything. I have nothing to say," he said.
