Manhattan federal judge Richard Berman was feeling the holiday spirit, and gave reputed Gambino associate Frank Roccaforte a break on his sentence for assault, drug dealing and bookmaking upon the 31-year-old's promise to settle down after getting out of the pokey as reported by Liz Sadler for the New York Post. Roccaforte was facing up to 57 months but after a paternalistic lecture from Judge Berman got only 46 months: "'You're getting close to real trouble, and this is the opportunity to turn your life around,' the judge said."
Of course, the so-called criminal justice system has been notoriously lenient with organized crime for decades.
In 2008 nearly 100 suspected mobsters were rounded up pursuant to a joint federal and local investigation dubbed Operation Pathfinder, and "yet only 17 of the 62 men charged in federal court remain behind bars" as reported by Alan Feuer for The New York Times:
Eighteen have finished their prison terms — some less than a year in length. Five received time served and periods of supervised release, and 21 were sentenced to probation or community service. The results were similar among those charged in state court in Queens; 18 of the 26 defendants never saw prison, having received either time served in jail or a conditional discharge, in which charges are dropped if the defendants' proverbial noses remain clean.
Similarly, in 1971 the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Crime "conducted a study of 1,762 cases in state courts in the years 1960 through 1969 involving organized crime figures," and the results were shocking as reported by Nicholas Gage in a September 25, 1972 article ("Study Shows Courts Lenient With Mafiosi") for The New York Times:
The committee, whose chairman is Senator John H. Hughes of Syracuse, found that the rate of dismissals and acquittals for racketeers was five times that of other defendants. In New York City, 44.7 per cent of indictments against members of organized crime were dismissed by Supreme Court judges during the ten year period. Only 11.5 per cent of indictments against all defendants were dismissed, according to the study. In 193 instances where organized crime figures were actually convicted, the study showed that judges let the defendants off with suspended sentences or fines in 46 per cent of the cases.
Earlier this year the FBI inexplicably gutted its resources for targeting organized crime in the Big Apple notwithstanding that it has solved only a tiny fraction of mob-related murders, barely dented the operations of the powerful Genovese family and left most of the money on the table.
The mob fought the law, and the mob won.
