More trouble for wannabe mobster Galati?
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Friends describe Ronald Galati as infatuated with the gangster lifestyle. His garage in So. Phila. first attracted officials´ attention as a place where wiseguys could get jobs after prison.
Friends describe Ronald Galati as infatuated with the gangster lifestyle. His garage in So. Phila. first attracted officials' attention as a place where wiseguys could get jobs after prison. David Swanson/Staff/American Collision photo
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WILLIAM BENDER, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER BENDERW@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-5255
POSTED: Friday, September 12, 2014, 3:01 AM
A KINGSESSING man involved with mob associate Ron Galati's alleged insurance-fraud and murder-for-hire schemes quietly pleaded guilty yesterday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
Jerome "Rome" Johnson, 45, pleaded guilty to two counts each of attempted murder, witness intimidation, conspiracy and related charges connected to the case against Galati, a South Philly auto-body-shop operator with ties to reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi and his nephew George Borgesi.
The case is under court-ordered seal, but yesterday's development could signal more trouble for Galati if Johnson agrees to testify against him in Philadelphia.
Galati, 63, a "GoodFellas"-quoting wannabe mobster, has been charged in three separate cases and could spend the rest of his life in jail. He allegedly hired Johnson and two bush-league hit men to kill his daughter's boyfriend in Atlantic City, as well as a body-shop operator in Philly who he believed had testified against him, and the operator's son.
Galati's trial on the New Jersey charges is set to start next week in federal court in Camden. His daughter's boyfriend was shot last year, but survived; the other two hits weren't carried out. Johnson and two alleged gunmen are expected to testify against Galati in Jersey.
"I would say there's a 99.9 percent chance he will be star witness No. 1, 2 or 3," Galati's lawyer, Anthony Voci, said of Johnson.
In May, Galati and dozens of associates were busted for an alleged insurance-fraud scam. Prosecutors say they perpetrated a "staggering amount" of fraud at American Collision & Auto Center, the shop at 20th and McKean streets that Galati had operated.
Galati's shop earned about $1.8 million through a city contract it landed in 2011 to fix cop cars and other vehicles. The city stopped sending cars there in December after the Daily News reported on the contract and the latest criminal allegations.
- Staff writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report.
Read more at
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201409...xy23fgMovvYC.99
