Michael Persico son of long time Colombo crime family boss Camine (Junior) Persico has renewed his motion to have his recent guilty plea rescinded. The Colombo family prince just recently lost a motion to have his plea agreement with the feds terminated but now claims more wrong doing by prosecutors and has once again filed a similar motion. The feds stated recently in court papers that they could prove Michael’s involvement in the mafia murder of rival Colombo solider Joseph Scopo during the bloody Colombo family war from 1991-1993. According to Persico and his lawyers this directly violates the plea agreement they entered into with the feds.
The statement from prosecutors about the mob slaying was in response to Judge Sandra Townes request for information being introduced at an upcoming pre-sentencing hearing. Prosecutors are supplying the information as reasons for why the judge should not mete out a sentence below the guidelines now in place of 37-46 months. But Persico’s lawyer says its the governments way of looking for a much stiffer sentence then the agreed upon plea deal led them to believe.
The plea agreement according to the defense lawyer prohibited the prosecution from advocating before the court and they have now broken that agreement. As per the plea the government should of declined the opportunity to supply information about additional crimes Persico allegedly committed as it was all included as part of the agreement. Prosecutors also notified the defense that they planned to call turncoat Colombo mobster Anthony (Big Anthony) Russo along with an FBI agent as witnesses during the hearing to back up their claims. This would also be a direct violation of the plea agreement according to Persico’s lawyer.
The plea seems like a sweet deal for the younger Persico even with the government’s attempts to influence the court for the high end mark of the sentencing guidelines. The defense team has filed for another adjournment if the motion is denied to allow time for them to go over the new information just turned over by the feds and prepare a proper rebuttal they deem necessary before sentencing.
