Joe Bruno on the Mob -- Jerry Capecis Gangland Says Junior May Still Have to Testify in Court, and

Junior Doesnt Like It One Bit. April 23, 2012 As was reported by Jerry Capeci in his April, 19, 2012 Gangland column, Hector Junior Pagan may indeed have to testify in court because one of the men he ratted on, Nicky Santora, has refused to take a plea deal, and his case is scheduled to go on trial on May 7. This puts a monkey wrench into the government desire not to have Pagan testify at any trials, and has pissed off Pagan to no end. As I reported in my April 18 column, the reason the government wants no part of Pagan on the witness stand is because his disgusting performance on the VH1 television show Mob Wives has made him a hated man by the millions of viewers who watch the show. This truism will make it difficult, if not nearly impossible, for the government to find twelve jurors who would take anything Pagan says on the witness stand at face value. According to Gangland, Pagan has been sending letters to estranged family members, saying if he didnt turn rat, he was facing 50 years in prison. He also complained, Why dont these guys take a plea deal? Well, five out of the six defendants did take a plea, including his former father-in-law Anthony Graziano and Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti. But Santora, as of this moment, has turned thumbs down on a plea which would have given him less than two years in prison. If convicted, Santora can get more than ten years behind bars. It will be interesting to see if Santora sticks to his guns, even if only to aggravate the government, who willingly got into bed with a piece-of-garbage like Pagan; not to mention Pagan himself, who doesnt want to stare down his former pals from the witness stand. Editors note: If you have an extra $45 a year in your pockets, you could do worse than spending it on a yearly subscription to Jerry Capecis Gangland column (www.ganglandnews.com). Capeci is the Godfather of crime writers and has a knack for getting the goods on whats happening in organized crime circles before it appears in the major newspapers, and sometimes even before the government.

April 19, 2012 This Week In Gang Land

By Jerry Capeci

The Worm Turns; Mob Wives Outcast May Star In Court

A week after his guilty plea, Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti remains the big winner in the soapopera like drama involving Hector (Junior) Pagan, the turncoat ex-hubby of Mob Wives star Renee Graziano. But the traitorous reality show bit-player may yet end up being a star witness in Brooklyn Federal Court. Thats because aging capo Nicholas (Nicky Mouth) Santora refused to cop a plea deal like his Bonanno boss and four others did, and is now set for trial next month on gambling, extortion and drug charges. In that event, you can count on the government to use Pagan as a star prosecution witness. Neither Pagan nor the Brooklyn U.S. Attorneys office is happy about that. They had hoped that all six defendants would have taken plea deals, reliable sources tell Gang Land. Sources say that in letters and other communications with estranged family members, Pagan has begged their forgiveness and at the same time blamed the feds for forcing him to become a stool pigeon by threatening to send him to prison for 50 years if he didnt cooperate. He says hes sorry he had to do it, but insists that he had to take the plea (and cooperate) because the U.S. Attorneys office has got two murders on him and hes facing two life terms and 50 years, said one source who has seen letters and other things. Why dont these guys take a plea, Junior complained in another communication, said one source. Pagan added that because of his cooperation he expects to get about the same prison time as the gangsters he tape recorded, instead of life. For several months, law enforcement and underworld sources have been telling Gang Land that Junior was involved in at least two murders, but Gang Land has been able to confirm only one: the July 2, 2010 robbery murder of Luchesse associate James Donovan, in which Pagan fired the fatal shot. As Gang Land reported last week, the office of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch offered all six defendants sweeter than usual plea deals in an effort to end the case without having to call Pagan as a witness and disclose that his deal was even sweeter than the one the gangsters got.

Sources say that Juniors decidedly anti-social violent tendencies also come though loudly and clearly on the tape-recordings that he made while wearing a wire for the DEA, especially in discussions he had with his ex-father-in-law, capo Anthony (TG) Graziano. This guy is a big tough guy, one of the toughest guys youve ever seen or heard, said one source who has heard some of the Pagan tapes. He beats guys half to death with his fists. In one talk with Graziano about a beating victim, the source quotes Pagan as saying:, I saw the guy, I had a hammer in my hand, I pulled him out of the car and I beat him. You didnt hit him with the hammer, did you? replied Graziano, the source continued. No, I would have killed him. I beat him with my fists so bad that he was unrecognizable, said Pagan, according to the source. Graziano sounded pretty proud of his now ex-son-in-laws vicious fisticuffs. At one point, after Junior and TG reminisced about another violent Pagan episode, Graziano exclaims: Remember the time that you hit that guy and his head bounced off the wall and you left part of his head on the wall? In two separate boasts, said the source, Pagan is heard telling Graziano that Badalamenti is terrified by him. Once, Pagan said, I went to go talk to him and he shit in his pants. Another time, Pagan said when he went to see Vinny TV about something and his knees buckled. After Badalamenti and Graziano copped plea deals last week, it looked like the government would be able to keep Pagan under wraps, at least until after the end of Mob Wives, season two. On Friday, however, a surprise decision by the 69-year-old Santora he turned down a deal with sentencing guidelines of 12 to 18 months and now faces more than 10 years behind bars if convicted threw a monkey wrench into the governments hopes, at least for the time being. Attorney Richard Rehbock told Chief Judge Carol Amon that Nicky Mouth, who also faces up to two years behind bars for

allegedly committing crimes while on supervised release, had opted for trial, apparently hoping that an acquittal could lessen his post-prison charge to a violation with a likely term of six months. But beating gambling extortion and drug charges that are part of a racketeering indictment is always a tall order. According to a snippet of a conversation described by one source, Pagan can be heard telling Graziano that when he met Vinny TV and tried to pay him $1500 he owed him, Badalamenti said Junior didnt owe him the money. He said Santora laid it out to him. When Graziano asked what happened next, Pagan said, So I went to Santora, I thanked him and I gave him the money, said the source. Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Monday, but Amon pushed it back to May 7, when Rehbock stated that until Vinny TV copped a plea deal, he had expected lawyer Ronald Fischetti to share the defense load but now he needed more time to prepare for trial without him. Meanwhile, we post this important update on Vinny TVs guilty plea: Last week, Gang Land wrote that Badalamenti admitted being a member of the Bonanno family when he pleaded guilty. But during his allocution, he never actually mentioned the Bonanno family. He stated only that he was associated with a group of individuals or enterprise, so technically, for the record, he did not admit being a Bonanno crime family member. In Gang Land, thats no small distinction.