Reputed Bonanno crime family captain and former underboss Nicholas “Nicky Cigars” Santora is suing the City of New York after suffering potentially fatal falls in prison.
According to the lawsuit, the 74-year-old mobster is now in a Nassau County hospital in critical condition after being denied a wheelchair or proper treatment for head injuries by Department of Corrections officials. Santora’s lawyer Michael Talassazan said they are unsure if the elder Cosa Nostra mobster will even make it out of the hospital although the exact extent of his injuries is unknown. The suit claims that Santora “was denied proper medical care and services and caused to sustain traumatic and permanent head injuries.” Corrections officers neglected to give the aging mobster a wheelchair even though they were aware that he was an imminent fall risk the suit claims.
“Nicholas Santora”
Photo credit: Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News
Court papers state that Santora needed stitches and staples in his head after falls on at least five different occasions during his prison stay. Santora has been behind bars since 2013 finally being released on bail last month but was hospitalized the next day. The suit claims “His condition was weakened and disorientated, and he fell to the ground, striking his head and face on the floor.” The suit also claims the DA “maliciously downgraded the severity of Mr. Santora’s serious health concerns on numerous occasions during bail applications, solely to keep Mr. Santora in jail.” Even though the elder New York mafia capo has been charged with illegal gambling, loan sharking, corruption, and drug dealing he complained in court papers about being detained on an excessive $1 million dollar bond for what he called nonviolent white-collar offenses.
Santora claims in his suit that “The Department of Correction has humiliated him, caused him to be permanently injured and deprived him of constitutional, civil and human rights.” The city’s Law Department will review the allegations and complaint according to a statement from a spokesman. The case against Nicky Cigars and his fellow Bonanno family wiseguys ended in a mistrial last year although the Manhattan DA is persuing a retrial. A hearing for the ongoing criminal case is scheduled for April 10.
Damn another case of poor prison healthcare from an elder mobster. It seems like old Nicky Cigars may actually have an outside shot here at least from the claims made and lack of any real rebuttal so far from prison officials. He got lucky and beat the case last year and maybe he can really make a nice score here and walk away with some of that fed money.
lol. This is rich. Now we just need the other three families to to ad suit. Five families vs us government ????
say what you want but nickys old school a real gangster the way he has been treated is a disgrace
look what did to sally KO Larca he nearly died recently he is a westside soldier 47 years old and he is suing so its not just the Bonnanos and the Colombos you have a highly respected Genovese soldier suing aswell. Sally was bleeding everyone thought he was going to die and they treated him like an animal. Sally was the guy who got busted with the basancio kids back in 2013 big player before he went away doing 9 years zoccarelio wore a wire on him.
Old school? Can’t envision Carlo, profaci etc suing government. Draws too much attention
Its not even comparable those guys controlled prisons back In the day there was no reason to sue plus it was a different era a lot of people dident believe the mafia existed when Carlo and Profaci were around. Also you had guys like Joe Colombo back then leading rallys that’s hardly keeping a low profile
Today everyone knows the mafia exists why bother pretending after the commission trial it was common knowledge there was no denying it the familys who realized this first were the smartest the chin realized quickly all the westside guys took pleas john gotti dident gotti wouldent let anyone make a plea deal because it would admit being a member of the mafia so many guys got screwed Gene could have got 15 instead he got 50 because john forced him to trial Locasico was offered ten years before gravano flipped and now he in for life for what being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no secret society these guys know it they are adapting to times and making money watch this become more common.
And Nicky is old school real street guy part of a dying breed he has seen it all
colombo was an idiot, his attention got him clipped. Definitely good points, however I still think it’s silly. It still draws unneeded attention. More people know who he is now, bad move. Plus it’s like kicking a hornets nest, the government will come after him even more. I’m sure he’s a mans man, but I don’t agree with the play.
the Colombos and Bonnanos are really teaming up to sue the shit out of the government. LOL. i hope they have good public defenders. what a joke
there is guys in the Genovese family also suing like Sally Larca and there is more we don’t even know about I will try and find out but this is not a isolated or a new thing its not just the colombos or Bonannos I also doubt its a coordinated guys are just seeing a chance to make some money there lawyers are probably giving them the idea. Nicky Santora and sally Ko have good lawyesr. Not sure about tommy he has been away for a few years now
But like The mafia said staying low key and pretending to not know what the Mafia is will only ensure that you spend the rest of your life in prison. Just look at what happened to Gene Gotti, Frank LoCascio, and I think the same thing happened to Joseph Armone. If all of these guys go to prison forever just for the sake of pretending the Mafia doesn’t exist there won’t be anything left. I’m not saying go around shouting that you’re in the Mafia but not fighting the government with their own tactics just to stay secret is dumb. Just think if they win this thing that’s more money to go into their crime families’ coffers it would make them stronger financially. Like any business money is the lifeblood of a Mafia family, along with a steady string of successors.
Not concerned about the “secret”, that’s been out since Valachi and Appalachian. I also agree Gotti’s old “no plea” rule was retarded. I’m saying drawing more attention to yourself,business and personal family is not wise. I also doubt there would be any sharing of the proposed bounty wiTh crime family.
Call me crazy, but I think you want the Feds to forget you. Play the old man card and go on
Not so much sharing, but the money could be used to finance lucrative illegal business ventures for the Bonannos, bringing in ever more cash. He’s a Mafia lieutenant, that’s what mobsters do. Well, the smart ones. Personally, I think that mobsters suing the government is lame.
You dissed the Colombo guy last week for doing the exact same thing the Mafia lol
no I dident your getting me mixed up I defended him in the post I made about tommy G doing the same thing
Nicky was in the crew with Sonny Black and the whole Donnie Brasco incident right? Or am i mistaken?
yes that’s nicky old school he really has seen it all in his life he was with mikey Sabella but after three capos killing and mikey got demoted he got put in Sonny Blacks crew how he is not doing life in prison is crazy Pistone said nicky took part in the three capos murders. He was convicted at the same trial with lefty and those guys. Bruno Kirby played him in the movie about Donnie Brasco the film showed nicky being killed which is part of a lot of inaccuraties in that film. Lefty was nothing like how they potrayed him in that film and Sonny Black was actually really close to “Donnie Brasco” why he got whacked
Benjamin Ruggiero didn’t do life either, he just came out a sick old man. He was already old before he went in.
Thar dude died broke as hell. Talk about degenerate gambler
Exactly. Mobsters are supposed to make money off of degenerate gamblers, not be degenerate gamblers themselves.
true smart ones are but so many of them are degenerate gamblers from low level guys to bosses like gotti Joey merlino and Jackie. Ridiculous number of these guys are junkies aswell a lot more than people realize
true the story is the first thing he did when he got out is went to joey Massimo and asked his permission to take out the 500k contract on Joe Pistone. Feds found out went to joey Massimo who told the feds not to worry that Joe was not in danger but lefty went to his grave trying to find Pistone
yea, I just finished reading the Donnie Brasco book, was Nicky a galante loyalist or was he with rusty? I figure he was with Galante b/c his capo, sabella was with Galante also, but suprising he wasn’t killed off when the power changed.
he was a Galante loyalist mikey i am surprised he wasn’t killed aswell probably because he was a good earner and someone must have vouched for him apparently he thought he was going to get whacked and was happy he only got pushed down to soldier
whatever happened to Sonny Black’s sons? any of them enter the life?