Tony's old school friend digs himself into trouble with his gambling, while Tony's family problems only continue to grow.
Plot
Happy Colombos' day
Famed mob boss' sons win mistrial over red-faced feds
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Anthony Colombo plants kiss on cheek of attorney Louis Fasulo.
Christopher Colombo
Manhattan federal prosecutors got whacked again in another big-name mob case. And this time, it wasn't a Gotti who walked - it was two Colombos.
Brothers Christopher and Anthony Colombo, sons of the late mob boss Joe Colombo, avoided conviction on most counts in a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy charging them with extortion and loansharking.
Anthony was acquitted of the conspiracy charges and Christopher scored a mistrial after jurors deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. The lone convictions came for Christopher Colombo on two lesser gambling charges, which had been expected.
Lawyer Jeremy Schneider admitted Colombo was a gambler and a bookie with operations in the Bronx and East Harlem and encouraged jurors to convict him.
Schneider said Colombo faces months in prison on the charges. "I just want to go home and hug my kids," Colombo said.
The onetime star of the HBO reality show "House Arrest" was accused of forcing a loanshark victim to pay $600,000 in vig - mob talk for interest - on a $90,000 loan.
Outside the courtroom, he grabbed the jury foreman in a bear hug and playfully patted him down, mocking the witness stand claims of a crooked contractor who said Colombo once did the same to him.
Anthony Colombo said prosecutors unnecessarily tossed their father's name into the case to sway jurors against him and created the name Colombo Brothers Crew to smear them even further.
"My father's been dead for 37 years," Anthony Colombo said. "What was it for, if not to taint the jury?"
Joe Colombo was gunned down at a Columbus Circle rally in 1971 as he took to the streets with a high-profile campaign to accuse the government of tarring law-abiding Italian-Americans with supposed links to the Mafia.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to retry the Colombos on the deadlocked charges.
Among them was a claim that Anthony Colombo shook down the owner of a Manhattan construction firm for $100,000.
"It's a great day," said Anthony Colombo's attorney Louis Fasulo.
Jurors deliberated for nine days after 21 days of testimony but the foreman said there was little budging two male jurors who held out for conviction from the start.
"We can't go into people's heads and change their minds," said the foreman, Fred, who asked to be identified by his first name only.
After the verdict was delivered, jurors continued deliberating and decided to acquit Anthony Colombo of charges he shook down the Manhattan contractor, the foreman said.
But by then Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald had declared a mistrial on most counts and sent the jury home.
Analysis
Fan-written episode notes for The Happy Wanderer from the Episode Guides forum (circa 2002).