A federal jury in Chicago, IL has convicted reputed Outfit capo Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno and three others, including reputed Outlaws motorcycle club member Mark Polchan, on racketeering charges for their roles in a criminal enterprise which involved, among other things, the bombing of a rival video poker firm and a string of burglary jobs as reported by Steve Warmbir for the Chicago Sun-Times. A fifth defendant, so-called video poker king Casey Szaflarski, was convicted on gambling and tax charges. Warmbir reports that "when the verdicts were read at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, sobs and wails could be heard from family members of the defendants in the federal courthouse."
That didn't take long. The jury had been deliberating only since late Monday as reported by Andy Grimm for the Chicago Tribune: "The jury since had sent two questions to the judge, requesting that they be given the day off Friday, though they didn't need that much time to review the evidence from the five-week trial" during which prosecutors "called 80 witnesses and entered more than 300 items into evidence." In contrast, four of the five defendants called no witnesses, and Polchan called only one.
Sarno, who had been out on bail, immediately was taken into custody. Sentencing is set for May 23, 2011, and The Large Guy faces up to 25 years in the pokey.
Video poker is one of the Chicago Outfit's more profitable rackets, and it allegedly controls "approximately 25,000 machines in bars and restaurants, generating millions of dollars in revenue" as reported by The Associated Press.
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