Thomas Petrizzo a captain in the Colombo crime family charged with shaking down debris haulers at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorists attack is facing sentencing and wants off easy. His attorney claims he is a upstanding and hard working citizen who is deeply remorseful for the small part he played in the scheme. He claims his client was only briefly involved in the mafia run kick back scam back in 2009. The defense has asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Sandra Townes to sentence the defendant to probation although the recommend sentence under his guilty plea is from 10-16 months.
Prosecutors agreed to reduce the mandatory sentence guidelines down to 8 month for the aging mobster but urged the judge to sentence the long time New York Mafia member accordingly. They noted that he has been a long time member of the Colombo family and has been arrested for violent criminal activity since 1964. They also requested that he be fined $5,000 and be forced to pay back a restitution of a little over $34,000 due to his financial stability.
Letters of support were sent to the court in support of Petrizzo also asked the judge to go easy at sentencing. One even called the mob linked New Jersey contractor “the unsung hero if the building of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center back in 1970”. Sentencing has been pushed back a month to allow the Probation Department to complete a final pre-sentence report on the defendant.
