Reputed Trenton mob figure catches a break with jail term

By George Anastasia INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: August 18, 2006
Reputed Trenton mob figure Anthony "Tony Gags" Gagliardi caught a big break yesterday when a federal judge in Philadelphia ignored sentencing guidelines that could have had Gagliardi spending the rest of his life in prison.

Instead, Judge John R. Padova imposed a 15-year sentence on Gagliardi, 54, who was convicted last year in a cocaine-trafficking case.

"You have been a career criminal in the real sense of the word," said Padova, noting that Gagliardi had been convicted 34 times for charges ranging from petty theft and robbery to aggravated assault during a lifetime of crime.



But Padova said Gagliardi's medical and psychiatric problems and a need to balance fairness with deterrence had led him to conclude that a guideline recommendation of 30 years to life was excessive.

Gagliardi suffers from several disorders of his central nervous system, has a heart condition, is bipolar, and has a "character pathology" that probably cannot be treated properly in prison, a psychiatrist testified during a two-hour hearing Wednesday.

Padova urged Gagliardi to take advantage of medical and psychiatric treatment in the federal prison system and said it might be his only hope for leaving prison alive.

Gagliardi, who has already served about two years, would be eligible for release in about 10 years. Since the abolition of parole, federal prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

Padova said he was convinced that a 15-year sentence would prevent Gagliardi from returning to crime, telling the defendant: "You're either not going to be around, or you'll be too old and too sickly to participate in any criminal activity."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Gross, one of the prosecutors in the case, had argued for a 30-year sentence, describing Gagliardi as "the poster boy for career offenders."

"At some point society has to say, 'Enough is enough,' " Gross argued at Wednesday's hearing.

But Padova was apparently swayed by testimony about Gagliardi's health. The judge also pointed out that Gagliardi's main accuser, drug dealer-turned-cooperating witness Steven Carnivale, had been sentenced to 90 months in prison, and that two major drug traffickers convicted as a result of Carnivale's cooperation had been sentenced to 10 and 20 years.

Gagliardi was convicted in May 2005 of two counts of drug dealing after a weeklong trial in which he represented himself. He was assisted by lawyer Donald Manno.

After yesterday's sentencing, Manno said Padova had exercised "the kind of discretion" the U.S. Supreme Court had in mind when it overturned strict sentencing guidelines and again allowed "judges to be judges."

The case against Gagliardi grew out of a drug investigation into Carnivale launched in 2002 by the Organized Crime Section of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

The case was transferred to federal court, where Gross and Erik L. Olsen, the chief deputy attorney general in the organized-crime section, served as co-prosecutors.