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The single most shocking moment, for me, in the history of the television shows that I have watched took place on an episode of Breaking Bad.

The scene I am referring to, I believe, happened before Hank took that famous trip to the bathroom and, while moving his bowels, appropriately enough. finally solved the riddle of Heisenberg's identity (thanks to Walt's ego, the deep flaw in his personality).

The scene is one of conflict: Walt and Jesse are arguing. Jesse, Walt's little sidekick, wants out of the meth-making partnership because it caused the murder of a child. Neither Walt nor Jesse killed the little boy, but the death was a direct result of a crime they had committed.

Anyway, Walt is trying to make a case regarding why Jesse should stay in business, and Jesse was having none of it. His mind was made up. Walt cut to the chase (I am paraphrasing here):

"Look, if there is a hell, we're most definitely going there, so what's the big deal? We're already damned anyway," he argued.

I fear hell on a primal level even though, strictly intellectually speaking, I am not certain if there is such a place. It's like I may doubt it, but the subconscious bedrock of my mind, forged through a dozen years of Roman-Catholic schooling, knows that I am just whistling past the graveyard...

If there is a hell, most mobsters likely will end up there. Perhaps not all of them. But most definitely some of them.

At the same time, I can say with assuredness that most pedophiles will end up there.

Pedophiles, adults who "experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children," according to one source, is among the worst class of criminals. Even in our prisons, where many celebrate their wicked crimes, those who hurt children tend to die pretty quickly.

Yet the federal government is using an informant pedophile to indict a crew of garbage gangsters in New Jersey. I refer here to the Papa Smurf case, in January of 2013, when 32 people in New York and New Jersey were charged in an FBI-run takedown that included members of several crime families, US Attorney for the Southern District of NY, Preet Bharara said in a press release.

The FBI used this guy, Charles Hughes, as its undercover operative in the three year probe into the mob's involvement in the waste hauling industry.

Hughes, 44, agreed to cooperate with the feds after he was arrested in 2008 on charges of soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old. He pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in 2009, and was slated to testify at trial in January. He was spared that embarrassing appearance, however, when the two remaining defendants pleaded guilty. The rest of the indicted got "sweetheart deals," as they are called.

However, the latest news is that the original sex charges against the guy remain sealed. We don't know how old this girl was; we don't know what the hell he did to her. We do know that whatever he was guilty of, it would have gotten him 10 years in prison.

According to Jerry Capeci today: "What's also known is that usually when the government gets its hands on such sex offenders it tries to get the maximum penalty. Just this week, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced a similar sex-solicitation arrest of another defendant and asked citizens for any other info they may have about the suspect. But Bharara, as well as the FBI, have declined repeated requests to explain why the charges against Hughes are still sealed, or to release any other info about Hughes, including whether he is behind bars, or free on bail."

On top of that, new details have arisen "regarding alleged double dealing by Hughes during his undercover work, and the FBI's failure to keep tabs on him. They were cited in court papers filed by Raymond Perini, an attorney for Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini. Bazzini, who pleaded guilty to threatening Hughes in two phone calls, is set for sentencing next week."

"Federal prosecutors, who said last month that Hughes had funneled payments from 18 of 20 New Jersey customers to Galaxy of Long Island, a carting company linked to Bazzini, now concede that Hughes supplied only three customers, wrote Perini, asserting that his information comes from tape recordings, FBI documents or other records he received from the government."

Who's worse, here? Or, if you have a daughter, for example, Who would you rather live next door to?

I don't like this. I don't like a lot of crap the feds have pulled, especially this testify-down" strategy we've been seeing in New York. As I noted on my blog, we saw a shining example of this in the recent James Donovan murder trial, in which Hector "Junior"
Pagan testified.

Testifying down happens when the government uses cooperating witnesses who admitted to more serious crimes than the charges faced by the people they were testifying against. This is, generally speaking, the opposite of how cooperating witnesses work.

Usually, legal experts said, the goal is to get those witnesses to admit to wrongdoing, cooperate with the government and to walk the investigation up the ladder, obtaining evidence against leaders or those potentially engaged in more serious crimes. 

Then there's this thing they do where they hold you in jail for a year before your trial (you are still innocent; you are only charged with a crime until the jury serves up its verdict), then decide to drop your trial.

I wrote about this, too. Gambino associate Daniel Fama suddenly discovered he was no longer facing charges for allegedly driving the getaway car for the 1990 gangland hit of Edward "Eddie the Chink" Garofalo ordered by then Gambino boss John Gotti.

But he'd already spent eight months in jail. It's a bit complicated, you may want to read the original article.

Manhattan Federal Judge John Keenan, a former homicide prosecutor who's been on the bench for 30 years, was not happy with how federal prosecutors handled the case, Capeci noted in his recent GangLandNews.com column:

Keenan clearly didn't like what he read. For one thing, based on the government's assertions, he had kept Daniel Fama behind bars for eight months as the ex-con awaited trial on what now was being tossed aside as a faulty indictment.
And the judge let prosecutor Jason Masimore know it. Without raising his voice, but in no uncertain terms, Keenan indicated that he believed that Fama lawyer Charles Carnesi had been more honest with him about the failed murder case than the government
Keenan prefaced his angry words by stating that he would approve the dismissal. But he went out of his way to remind the prosecutor that, from the get-go, he had questioned the efficacy and strategy of the prosecution, as well as the government's request to detain the 49-year-old Gambino associate without bail.
He had held Fama, he said, only at the government's urging.
The judge also didn't appear impressed with the excuses offered. The government's brief statement that it was "in the interests of justice" to dimiss the case of the murder of a suspected informer 24 years ago "leaves a lot to be desired from the point of view of the Court," said Keenan.
The feds were not nearly as bashful when they announced Fama's indictment.
"Any attack against someone working with, or suspected of working with law enforcement will be strongly answered, and no matter how long it takes we will bring alleged criminals to justice," Bharara said at the time.


Soon, on my blog, you will see a story about another judge who had his fill of the feds and their occasional bullshit tactics.

As I noted, I am not pro-Mafia by nature. But that doesn't mean the feds and prosecutors are in the right all the time. And I, for one, will never tire of pointing this out.

One last note, as for Michael Franzese, the webcast has degenerated into a "conference call." I am not crazy about that. I will say this: the ball is in his court. But don't worry...

I got some other gangsters we can do a webcast with if the Franzese one doesn't happen. Fugettaboutit!

Carmine, Franco, also known as the
gangster called "Papa Smurf."

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