Share Tweet Reddit Email 76 COMMENTS Joey Merlino arrives at federal court this morning to answer government allegations that he violated his probation. ( YONG KIM / Staff Photographer ) Joey Merlino arrives at federal court this morning to answer government allegations that he violated his probation. ( YONG KIM / Staff Photographer )
JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Friday, October 10, 2014, 1:28 PM POSTED: Friday, October 10, 2014, 9:34 AM
Former mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino cut a colorful figure as he strode into the Philadelphia federal courthouse Friday for his first appearance before a judge here in more than a decade.
Dressed in a floral tie and dapper suit, he threw a few needling jabs at the FBI agents who have tracked him for years, joked with gathered reporters and easily slipped back into the mouthy, media-friendly persona he'd cultivated as the head of the city's crime family.
"Can't wait to go to the parade," he quipped to the cameras on his way in to court.
As for the case that brought him back to town - a hearing on whether the 52-year-old ex-don violated the terms of his federal probation just weeks before it was set to end? It offered little of the same excitement and no clear decisions.
For more than two hours, prosecutors and lawyers argued legal technicalities, studied dates on the calendar and argued about office procedure as U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick weighed whether federal authorities had missed their deadline to try to put Merlino back in prison.
The judge did not issue a ruling Friday, and said he would put off hearing evidence on any alleged probation violations until he reached a decision on the timing issue.
Last month, Merlino's probation officer moved to revoke his release, saying he had violated its terms on two occasions - first, when he allegedly refused to answer questions about his finances in May and then again in June with a purported night on the town with three ex-felons at a Boca Raton, Fla., cigar bar.
But in court Friday, defense lawyer Edwin Jacobs Jr. argued that prosecutors failed to issue a summons for his client to appear in court on the charges by the Sept. 6 end date of his probation.
Prosecutors say Jacobs caused the delay himself by asking court staff to wait more than a week before scheduling a hearing while he juggled his own heavy case load and a pending surgery.
Either way, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Troyer, by filing a motion Sept. 2 that signaled their intentions, probation officers gave Merlino all the notice he needed.
"It's ridiculous," Troyer said. "Everybody in this case did exactly what they were supposed to. I don't think anyone has ever had the chutzpah to ask for a delay of a hearing and them complain about the delay."
For his part, Merlino sat quietly at the defense table throughout. Asked afterward what he made of the last-minute attempt to put him back in prison, he said: "They're mental."
Merlino was last seen at the courthouse in 2001, when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his conviction in a racketeering conspiracy case.
He also stood charged at the time with more than half a dozen shootings, including those of a video-poker operator who refused to pay street tax, a rival mob leader and the brother of a witness in an earlier mob trial.
Merlino denied the allegations, and jurors acquitted him of those counts.
Since his release from prison three years ago, he has moved to Florida, insisted he has left his mob days behind him and talked about opening a restaurant in his new home of Boca Raton.
Still, federal investigators have kept a close eye on his activities ever since - even sending a wired mob turncoat to meet with him in 2011 in hopes they could catch Merlino discussing continued mob involvement.
Jacobs said Friday that now that his client's probation was over the prolonged scrutiny of his client should also come to an end.
"All of the federal resources spent on Joey Merlino over the years might be better served fighting ISIS or the spread of Ebola," he said. "Enough is enough."
