Other Couple new articles

Monkey business . . .

It's no secret actor Steven Seagal testified he was threatened by the Gambino crime family, who tried to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.

But what is a secret was where Seagal was while the diciest part of the mobster trial was going on.

So here's the story. Our Sneed spy in northern Thailand tells us Seagal was spotted attending a monkey school. Yep. Escorted by Thai policemen, Seagal was in a small village watching a school performance of trained monkeys. The school specializes in training monkeys to do tricks, ride tricycles and slam-dunk basketballs.

Seagal, who was also accompanied by two gorjus Thai women, told the Thai press he was planning to move to Thailand and buy some property soon.

I think you can file that under people going to extremes to get away from the mob.

(Our thanks to Sneed source John Hundrieser, son of Ald. Marge Laurino (39th), who spotted Seagal.)
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Odd parole puts state on the spot

Sunday, April 6, 2003

By JEFF PILLETS and RANDY DIAMOND
TRENTON BUREAU



Prosecutors believed he was the mobster's mobster, a captain of the Genovese crime family whose skill at strong-arming rival mafiosi made him the man on the North Jersey waterfront.

But when he faced the Parole Board at East Jersey State Prison, Angelo Prisco denied his life of crime and his role in an arson fire that landed him in prison for 12 years.

"I had nothing to do with it,'' Prisco said. "Organized crime? ... I knew some of those guys because they were in my poker game. But I had nothing to do with it.''

Prisco's exasperated parole examiners reminded him that twice before, he had been denied parole for failing to admit past mistakes. Then they promptly voted to release the unrepentant inmate with the following warning from board member Peter Van Etten: "Behave yourself, will you."

Prisco's unusual parole is now the subject of state and federal investigations and a potential land mine for the McGreevey administration. But documents obtained by The Record and interviews with key Parole Board sources show the May 2002 decision to release him was only one in a series of concessions made to the reputed mobster.

The Prisco file reveals a flurry of meetings, faxes, and e-mails between top Parole Board officials and lawyers for Prisco. There were negotiations about his release date, negotiations about where he would live, and negotiations about whom he would live with.

The lawyers even had a private meeting with board Chairman Mario Paparozzi where they were introduced to the board's leading expert on the parole process.

Sources within the parole agency say normal board procedures were sidestepped, hearing dates were manipulated, and pressure was brought to bear on board members who balked at what one called "the Prisco parole juggernaut.''

"It was clear to everyone who touched this case that this guy's parole was being orchestrated,'' said one longtime parole official. "Nobody is supposed to get this kind of treatment. Nobody.''

The Prisco affair is reminiscent of other scandals that have tarnished the agency: Paparozzi's predecessor as board chairman, Andrew Consovoy, resigned in July 2000 amid accusations that he gave special treatment to mobsters, including one of Prisco's convicted co-defendants in the fire that destroyed the Mug Shots Pub in Garfield.

After a two-year investigation, the state dropped the Consovoy matter without filing charges. But now, once again, the board's offices are awash in subpoenas. Board members and longtime office staffers have been visited by FBI agents and representatives of the state Division of Criminal Justice.

"We're right out of one swamp into another,'' said one longtime board member. "How does one agency attract so much corruption?''



ä

Three key Parole Board sources who gave lengthy interviews to The Record on the condition their names be withheld said the Prisco controversy began the morning of May 15, 2002, when Paparozzi walked into the office of board member Rolando Gomez-Rivera looking for a favor.

Paparozzi asked Gomez-Rivera if he would rescind, or "vacate," his earlier decision denying parole for a prisoner named Angelo Prisco, the sources say. Gomez-Rivera said he would look into the case and get back to him. Vacating the January 2002 ruling, which said Prisco would not be eligible for parole consideration again until June 2003, would clear the way for Prisco to get a new parole hearing immediately.

After retrieving the case file from the record room, sources say, Gomez-Rivera was taken aback to learn Prisco was a reputed mobster. He asked another Parole Board official, then-Executive Director Kenneth Connolly, to check out Prisco's background with a New Jersey State Police source.

"Rolando at this point was getting upset. He was determined not to vacate if the state police confirmed that Prisco really was a capo,'' said one source.

Despite Prisco's well-documented history as a crime boss, the sources say, the state police investigator identified Prisco as only a crime family soldier instead of a captain. On that basis, Gomez-Rivera decided to go along with Paparozzi's request and vacate his earlier decision.

Sources say Connolly, who was believed to have blown the whistle on Consovoy, was furious that the Parole Board seemed to be once again cozying up to the mob. They said Connolly charged into Paparozzi's office to confront him.

"What are you doing?'' Connolly told Paparozzi. "This is just the stuff they got Andy [Consovoy] on.'' The sources said that Paparozzi gave no immediate explanation to Connolly, but later that day showed up at his office with a small piece of paper on which the name "James Davy" was written. Davy is Governor McGreevey's chief of operations and one of the select set of close friends the governor brought to Trenton from his years as Woodbridge mayor.

"It was a phone message from the governor's office,'' said one of the sources. "Mario said, 'Davy called. He thinks it would be a good idea if we looked into this parole case.'" Davy has not commented on the case and did not return calls last week. McGreevey has angrily denied his office had any involvement, and blamed the Prisco parole on "bad guys" at the Parole Board.

The sources said Paparozzi's request to Gomez-Rivera and the subsequent tense meeting between Paparozzi and Connolly sent convulsions through the Parole Board's offices. Worried staffers began whispering about the case and quietly researching Prisco's history.

The sources said staffers recalled that only a few days earlier, Paparozzi had met in the Parole Board's Trenton headquarters with Donald Scarinci and Robert Levy, two lawyers representing Prisco. Scarinci, lead partner in a large Secaucus firm, is a prominent Democratic fund-raiser who served as chief counsel to McGreevey's transition team. Levy, who is a partner in Scarinci's firm, is a former prosecutor in the state Attorney General's Office who specialized in mob cases.

Also in the meeting was Doug Chiesa, a 28-year Parole Board veteran who had worked as an aide to McGreevey when the governor was executive director of the board in 1985 and 1986. Chiesa had virtually written many of the agency's administrative codes and procedures, sources said.

Internal e-mails obtained under the state open records law confirm that Chiesa and his boss met with two lawyers about Prisco, but do not reveal what happened at the session. Paparozzi, who declined to speak in depth for this story, has said that he was only extending a routine courtesy to Prisco's lawyers. Scarinci and Levy have refused to comment.

"No one knows what was said in the meeting except the people who were there,'' said one source. "But right after that is when the Prisco case took off.''

On May 23, six days after Prisco's earlier parole denial was vacated, he was given a new hearing before two parole examiners: Van Etten and Laurie Fuchs, an alternate board member who rarely heard cases. Both declined to be interviewed for this story. Fuchs said she could not speak because of the ongoing investigation.

In an audiotape of the hearing, a frustrated Van Etten reminds Prisco that he was previously denied parole for minimizing his criminal conduct, and he repeatedly tries to get Prisco to acknowledge his criminal background. Prisco admits playing cards with Mafiosi, but says he never took part in organized crime.

"We are not going to sit here and hear you talk about your poker game,'' snapped Van Etten. "I want to hear how you were involved in this conspiracy. Real simple, real short, so we can get on the move here.''

Prisco, however, offered little more than incoherent stammerings about poker debts. He said he pleaded guilty because "they put my name right on top of the indictment.'' He rambled about being near the end of his life, although he admitted that, at 62, "I'm not exactly at death's door.''

After a brief recess, Van Etten and Fuchs voted to parole Prisco and ordered him released to relatives in New York City. They set his release date for Oct. 21, some five months later, because the New York State prison bureaucracy would first have to approve details of the parole.



ä

In a bizarre coda to Prisco's hearing, he seems to object to the idea of a New York release, blurting out that "I was told it would be easier for me to get paroled to New Jersey ... that I needed a New Jersey address.''

Fuchs, however, insists Prisco belongs with his family in New York. She makes several unsuccessful attempts to find out why Prisco was preoccupied with getting a New Jersey address.

"Was it staff that told you that? Who told you that?'' she asks.

Prisco hesitates before answering, "I can't remember.''

Sources say Fuchs' cryptic exchange with Prisco reflects her wariness about a case she would have preferred not to hear. Fuchs, they said, was present when Paparozzi first approached Gomez-Rivera, heard his request, and later commiserated with staffers who felt Paparozzi was out of line.

The sources said Fuchs felt strongly that Prisco belonged in New York, where he had always lived and where he had a family to support him.

"She was adamant that this guy needed to be out of Jersey,'' said one source.

Parole Board documents signed by Fuchs stipulate that Prisco's release should be under a "NY only plan.'' Yet, the sources said, within weeks of signing Prisco's parole papers, Fuchs found herself under pressure from Paparozzi's office to let Prisco out early - to his aunt's house in Smithville, near Atlantic City.

At the same time, documents show, Prisco's lawyers were successfully lobbying the board for more favorable release terms:


In a June 6 letter from Levy to Paparozzi, the lawyer refers to "telephone conversations'' he had with Chiesa where the board official "revealed'' that obtaining the New York approval would take a long time. "Mr. Prisco has a home and employment waiting for him in New Jersey,'' Levy wrote.


A June 12 memo from Chiesa to Larry Gregorio, chief of the Parole Board's release unit, urges the staff to review Prisco's case.


In a June 13 memo, Chiesa tells Gregorio, "The chairman [Paparozzi] wants me to keep the attorney informed of any action taken ... upon reconsideration of the case.''


On June 26, Fuchs and Van Etten sign papers agreeing to change Prisco's parole to New Jersey, but do not move up his Oct. 21 release date.


On June 27, Chiesa sends a fax to Levy saying, "I have not forgotten about this matter. I am still awaiting ... a final decision.''


A July 2 memo from Chiesa to Fuchs and Van Etten urges them to move up Prisco's release date.


On July 19, Fuchs and Van Etten sign papers moving Prisco's release up to Aug. 21.



ä

Several board sources who reviewed the documents for The Record - including some who offered firsthand accounts of the Prisco saga for this article - say they are convincing proof of an ethical breakdown at the Parole Board.

"My God, Paparozzi and all his top staffers were doing cartwheels for these mob attorneys,'' said one source. "This mobster was even able to dictate the terms of his own release.''

It was late fall, about three months after Prisco's release, that state investigators started showing up at Parole Board offices and the homes of some board officials. By January of this year, sources say, investigators were talking to board employees about the possible use of concealed tape recorders to gather evidence.

Even though observers agree that the Prisco case file offers abundant circumstantial evidence of an aggressive effort on behalf of the reputed mobster, it is far from clear who was behind it or why they were doing it.

The McGreevey administration insists that Davy had nothing to do with the parole and claims that no one in the governor's office has even been interviewed by investigators. On the day when allegations against Davy were first published last month, McGreevey vehemently came to his defense, calling Davy "a decent and honorable man'' whose "greatest decision in life is going to 9 o'clock or 10:30 Mass every day.''

Even though the governor angrily urged reporters to "chase the bad guys" responsible for Prisco's parole, the administration has blocked the release of information that could shed light on the case: The Record's request for Davy's phone logs and e-mails to the Parole Board came back with all phone numbers deleted. A spokesman said the governor's office routinely claims privilege for all such records.

Officials in the governor's office say privately that Paparozzi simply fabricated the story about Davy to get back at the administration for taking the side of parole labor unions, which were engaged in a bitter dispute with the chairman. Several sources said the dispute eventually forced Paparozzi's resignation in August 2002.

People who know Paparozzi describe him as a complex, calculating character who enjoyed his job. As a Republican holdover in a Democratic administration, they say, Paparozzi worked hard to keep his position, a prestigious post that paid $92,750 a year and enhanced his reputation as a national parole expert.

Yet even those who claim they were put off by Paparozzi's hands-on management style say they cannot imagine him inventing a story to help a mobster, although they point out that he does keep a framed photo of "Godfather" don Michael Corleone near his desk, along with photos of the Beatles.

"I know Mario a long time, all his faults, all his ambitions, and I just can't believe he ordered Prisco's parole all on his own,'' said one source.

Administration officials were gleeful over recent reports that Prisco's Hollywood friends, including actor Steven Seagal, had contacted acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco in 2001 seeking help for the mobster. DiFrancesco says he ignored the entreaties, but McGreevey aides, speaking on background, said the reports underscore their suspicions that the Prisco matter is really a Republican mess created by Republican appointees. Fuchs, Van Etten, and Paparozzi are all Republican appointees.

But the administration did not initially disclose that McGreevey himself also had met with a Prisco ally.

Hollywood producer Bob DeBrino, Prisco's cousin, told The Record that several months after he talked with DiFrancesco, he met then-Governor-elect McGreevey at an East Rutherford benefit in December 2001 that had been arranged by DeBrino for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

DeBrino said the governor accepted the invitation and the two men spoke at the event, but never discussed Prisco, an account confirmed by the governor's office. DeBrino nonetheless described himself as "desperate'' to find help for his jailed cousin.

"I would have asked the president to help my cousin,'' he said.

A few months later, in early 2002, DeBrino said, he went on an "all-out effort'' to find a lawyer who could get his cousin out of prison. He said he talked to more than 100 people - from FBI officials to legal experts - to find the right New Jersey lawyer.

DeBrino said he settled on two prominent Democratic law firms: Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge and Scarinci & Hollenbeck. He says he thought Scarinci might be able to handle the case under the table through his political connections.

"Do you know anyone? You guys are plugged in,'' DeBrino says he told Scarinci. He said Scarinci told him, "No one does anything like that any more,'' but promised to do his best for Prisco.



ä

More than a month after news reports first revealed the investigation, the unanswered questions surrounding Prisco's parole remain as mysterious as ever. Some who have followed the case feel they might never be answered.

Sources who have talked with the FBI say agents appear to be groping for solid legal ground to build a federal case. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, speaking in a recent interview, acknowledged that finding those grounds is always a hurdle: "You've got to show me where the federal law violation is, because I'm not here as the state ethical ombudsman, I'm here to prosecute federal crimes,.'' he said.

There is little faith among Parole Board members interviewed that state investigators have the stomach to aggressively pursue an investigation that could prove an embarrassment to McGreevey . In the end, they say, the Prisco matter will remain a mystery.

"Democrats and Republicans are all the same: They won't really investigate the board because it's just too messy, too many politicians have made cushy little homes for themselves here,'' said one longtime board member. "One mobster pulls a few strings to get paroled. So what? This is Trenton. Strings get pulled. That's how things work.''


***

February 1998: 58-year-old Angelo Prisco is sentenced to 12 years in prison for agreeing to help an arsonist collect money for burning down the Mug Shots Pub in Garfield. Prosecutors describe him as a "capo," or leader, of the Genovese crime family.

July 2000: Prisco is denied parole at first eligibility hearing and later loses appeal.

March 2001: Prisco's cousin Robert DeBrino, a Hollywood producer who specializes in mob movies, calls acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco for help paroling Prisco. DeBrino says DiFrancesco "promised to help me, but blew me off.'' DiFrancesco says he dropped the matter when he found out about Prisco's mob ties.

January 2002: Prisco is again denied parole because he refuses to acknowledge his status as a mobster. The hearing officers, including Parole Board member Rolando Gomez-Rivera, set Prisco's next parole eligibility date for June 2003.

April 2002: State prosecutors decide against pressing charges against Andrew Consovoy, the former Parole Board chairman who resigned amid allegations that he engineered early parole for select mobsters. Among those who allegedly benefited was reputed mobster Anthony Vincent Ravo, a Genovese associate who hired the arsonist to burn down the Garfield pub.

May 2002: Board Chairman Mario Paparozzi meets with two Prisco attorneys seeking to appeal the mobster's parole denial. One of the attorneys is Donald Scarinci, a major Democratic fund-raiser who was chief counsel to Governor McGreevey's transition team.

May 17, 2002: Prisco's parole denial is officially erased, or "vacated," without going through normal Parole Board procedures. Gomez-Rivera, one of two board members who approved the unusual move, later says Paparozzi urged him to act as a favor to the governor's office.

May 23, 2002: Board member Peter Van Etten and alternate board member Laurie Fuchs approve Prisco's parole to his wife's New York State home no later than Oct. 21.

June 6, 2002: Prisco attorney Robert E. Levy, an associate in Scarinci's firm, writes a letter to Paparozzi requesting the mobster be released at an earlier date to his aunt's home in Smithville, near Atlantic City.

July 10, 2002: Van Etten and Fuchs sign an order granting the mobster's early release to New Jersey. Sources say Fuchs resisted changing the terms of Prisco's parole but reluctantly caved in to pressure from Paparozzi's office.

Aug. 21, 2002: Prisco, 63, is released from prison and tells parole officers he plans to work three days as a prep cook in a Morristown restaurant.

March 2003: News reports say state and federal investigators are looking into allegations that McGreevey's office sought special treatment for Prisco as a favor to Scarinci. An angry McGreevey denies involvement and urges media to "chase the bad guys'' responsible for Prisco's parole, but later refuses to release phone records that could absolve his office.

Part Two will appear in The Record on Monday.
 

suziwong

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you Amos !! Very Good find !!

if it is possible please write this articre address !! Are there any pictures ??? hiiii ii !! with two thai women !! ;)
in oneness
 

suziwong

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you Amos!! I wanted these address for photos !! You are right no new photos !!:(

in oneness
 

suziwong

Administrator
Staff member
"told the Thai press he was planning to move to Thailand and buy some property soon."

Wise man !! Thailand is really wonderful, amazing and exotic country !! Good choice !!
in oneness
 

tora

Funmaker
Damn!If so then I have to change my plans about moving to the States.I'll got straight to Thailand then!
 

kokoro

Protector
here's a couple of links to various info, alot of background stuff, but also allot of what has already been published. Interesting reading.



Seagal

and here, just scroll down a little: Seagal stuff


Don't believe everything you read, but don't not believe either!
;)

And take a look at this poser:poser

this guy resembles Beeker from the muppet Show!!
:D
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
"Seagal next married Arissa Wolf, former nanny to the children of Steven and Kelly's. Arissa's daughter Savannah was born in September 1996."

This article says he and arissa are married!!! Is this true?? Bad news for me then...:eek:
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
He's common law married though, right? I guess I need to look up cali law to know for sure, though....
 

Mama San

Administrator
Brother? That should be a big surprise to Steven!!
Married to Arissa? No!
See!!! They still can't get their facts straight!
Nothing new though, for "reporters"!
God bless,
Mama san
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
Who is this other girlfriend they keep talking about? I have no idea, and it says she was threatened? kokoro is this stuff bogus or what?
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
Nothing those reporters can say bother's me...Well, except that he might be currently married (that got me all excited for a while!) I will hear the rest from Sensei's lips or not at all...(Like that will ever happen) :eek: Some of it might be true, but some of it is soooo obviously outrageous...I wonder why we even bother to post this stuff here?
 

kokoro

Protector
Originally posted by Lotussan
Nothing those reporters can say bother's me...Well, except that he might be currently married (that got me all excited for a while!) I will hear the rest from Sensei's lips or not at all...(Like that will ever happen) :eek: Some of it might be true, but some of it is soooo obviously outrageous...I wonder why we even bother to post this stuff here?

Hmmm...Like I said, don't believe everything you read!!

and I posted it because, IMHO, it was interesting reading, no matter what it says or what you believe, the web is full of crap like this.
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
kokoro you know how protective I am of Sensei, it was very interesting I guess, and I didn't mean to sound critical of you...Thanks for the effort (Like Suzi says) We have to decide what's true and what isn't, the point is, is that is very hard to do...I'm sorry if I made you feel bad dear, you know you are a very special friend to me...How have you been? :)
 

kokoro

Protector
no worries:)

I should have been more specific in my reply.
Wrapped amoungst all the lies and BS, sits the truth, or at least, some of it, and only one man knows that!

I find it fascinating how individuals can reasearch only one side of things, and call it the truth, or profess to print it as a 'conspiracy' or whatever else, because an acquaintance of an associate of a friend of the makeup lady said so!!

None of us have to decide what is true or not, as none of us know the man intimately enough. We all like the bloke for our own reasons. And everyone has a temper at some stage, he's only human.

I just enjoy the man's movies, would love to learn his Aikido, and just sit down and have a bit of a banter about life in general. It's not a dream, or an aspiration, just one of those things in life that is out of reach. So, life goes on huh.

You didn't upset me at all;)

How have I been???

Great!! I'll be a grandad ( pappy) in July, baby Baily is due on my birthday, so it's kinda special.
Lets say I'll be trying to make her "hold on" until then!! lol

I'm now unemployed too. Can only blend with racists and biggotted rednecks( workmates) for so long before you have to counter attack, so rather than end up explaining myself to the law, I chose to leave my job, and I feel GREAT!!!
So now, like an erection, it's upwards and onwards!!!!

Just got a new PC, as the other one packed a sadd, so I'm learning the ropes of the new windows/software etc.


and how are you and the family doing??
 
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