Two more men ”“ one a “trusted member of James Galante”™s inner circle,” the other, the head of a family-owned trash-hauling business “who operated comfortably within the system” but lied to FBI agents about it ”“ have been sentenced in U.S. District Court in New Haven for their roles in Galante”™s alleged mob-enforced control of the western Connecticut carting business.
Richard Caccavale, 48, of Stormville, N.Y., was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release, fined $6,000 and ordered to forfeit $20,000 for conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Joseph “Fat Joe” LoStocco, 43, of Danbury, was sentenced to five years probation, the first six months in home confinement, fined $10,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for failure to report a felony. He confessed he knew about a conspiracy by others to violate RICO, but lied about it when FBI agents questioned him.
LoStocco is the owner and operator of the family-owned LoStocco Services trash-hauling company in Danbury and was not among 29 individuals and 10 businesses indicted last summer by a federal grand jury in New Haven. The indictment charged violations of federal law ranging from racketeering to extortion to witness tampering to a mob-enforced “property rights system” that stifled competition and inflated carting prices in eastern New York state and western Connecticut for the past several decades.
Since then, 21 of the original 29 defendants have pleaded guilty. Last month a grand jury issued a superseding indictment against Galante and some of his associates with charges that include kidnapping, and calls for a money judgment of at least $100 million, and forfeiture of 25 of Galante”™s trash-carting and related businesses, 24 Galante bank accounts and $448,153 in cash federal agents seized from his New Fairfield home and Danbury business offices.
A victim
Prosecutors said LoStocco was not viewed by the core group of racketeering conspirators as a source of competition within the market, but viewed him as “a ”˜friendly,”™” that is, a garbage hauler they could count on to offer no resistance to their efforts to lock up the market or artificially inflate prices. When FBI agents questioned him about the RICO conspiracy, however, LoStocco denied knowledge of it.
LoStocco”™s lawyers, Edward Gavin and Richard Meehan of Bridgeport, portrayed LoStocco as a loving husband and father and a hard-working businessman with no prior criminal record who is “anguished by the thought that his children must live with the shame he believes he bought to their family name.”
“In reality, Joe was a victim of the manner in which business was conducted in Danbury,” they said in their sentencing memorandum. “If he bucked the system, his access to the transfer station controlled by other defendants was in jeopardy. His is a classic case of going along to get along.”
“The government does not quarrel with this observation,” said Kevin J. O”™Connor, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut in court documents, “but notes that Mr. LoStocco operated comfortably within the system and, when federal agents questioned him, had an opportunity to set matters straight.
“Given that he chose poorly,” O”™Connor said, “he now stands before the court as a convicted felon.”
Exuberant involvement
Caccavale, on the other hand, was presented in court documents as “a trusted member of (Galante”™s) inner circle working closely with a number of co-defendants to enforce the property rights system and achieve the goals of the conspiracy.”
In fact, what is striking about Caccavale”™s conduct, the document said, “is both the breadth of his involvement in the conspiracy and the exuberance that characterized his efforts to further the goals of the conspiracy.”
That “exuberance” included not only planning and enforcing the property rights system and price fixing, but violence and threats of violence, planning physical assaults and threatening trash haulers who bucked the system. In a 26-page court document, Caccavale, the operations manager for Galante”™s Automated Waste Disposal in Danbury, is depicted in obscenity-laced wiretaps as a foul-mouthed thug who verbally bullied recalcitrant trash haulers, damaged their equipment, and twice attempted to arrange a “visit” to the husband of the state Sen. Lou DeLuca”™s granddaughter, among other criminal acts.
DeLuca had asked Galante to have someone “pay a visit” to the man he thought was abusing his granddaughter, and Galante asked Caccavale to carry the physical assault out. Federal authorities, who were wiretapping Galante”™s telephone lines, asked the state police to park a trooper in front of the Galante associate”™s house on the day of the intended beating, thwarting the plan. Caccavale tried to set up the beating the next month, but the assault never took place.
DeLuca stepped down as Senate minority leader after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of threatening last month, but said he will not resign the Senate and faces no disciplinary action by either the Republicans or the state Senate.
Role of bully
Caccavale”™s attorney, Richard Brown of Hartford, portrayed Caccavale in his Sentencing Memorandum as a “loving and caring dad” and husband who had no prior criminal record and would not have found himself a convicted felon if he had not gone to work for Automated Waste Disposal (AWD). “The idea of being a ”˜tough guy”™ for AWD is totally inconsistent with his family life and the life he lived before going to work at AWD,” Brown said.
“Quite frankly,” Brown said, “Mr. Caccavale has a very engaging and humorous personality” that is “totally inconsistent with the role of a bully he may have projected at work.”
O”™Connor, however, said in court documents Caccavale “enjoyed his trusted role within the enterprise” and was “plainly a member of the inner circle and is among the most culpable of defendants in this case.”
As recorded conversations prove, he said, Caccavale “was not averse to participating in property damage, threatening individuals or planning physical assaults,” and “readily and routinely engaged in multiple criminal acts in order to perpetuate the objectives of the racketeering enterprise.”
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