Reputed long time mobster and Colombo crime family consigliere Richard Fusco got a very lenient sentence of only four months to be served in a prison hospital from federal judge Kiyo Matsumoto.
The 76-year-old Fusco was charged for his role in the shakedown of a Gambino crime family mobster for a six-figure amount to come from the Gambino families cut of the 18th Avenue street feast. Fusco demanded the money as payment for an altercation between a Colombo family associate was stabbed by a Gambino family associate. Fusco was facing up to two years in prison for the extortion charge.
“Richard Fusco”
Fusco pushed a walker into court and his lawyer cited a list of medical conditions as reasons why his client shouldn’t go to prison. Fusco suffers from prostate cancer, kidney failure, claustrophobia, depression, and has had three heart attacks according to lawyers. Fusco also claimed to be stone deaf in court many times blurting out that he couldn’t hear anything the judge was saying even after being given wireless headphones. Fusco’s lawyer even argued that he felt his client’s life hangs in the balance and was concerned that his client may come out of the Bureau of Prisons facility in a box soon after he arrives.
Prosecutors did not dispute the fact that Fusco had some significant health issues. But they were quick to note that even while Fusco was undergoing dialysis three times a week he was still serving as the Colombo crime families consigliere and attending captains meetings. Fusco was allegedly even sponsoring gangsters to be inducted into the crime family showing he was still quite competent.
Judge Matusmoto said that because Fusco was so sickly that he was entitled to a break but still had to serve some jail time, albeit in a prison hospital because he has returned to his mob life after previous convictions. After being sentenced the wiseguy miraculously seemed to be hearing fine and in good spirits, as he chatted and joked in the courthouse lobby for almost a half-hour. Fusco even approached a Daily News reporter and snapped about how he had called him a geezer in a 2011 article showing a pretty sharp memory for being so elderly and ill.
