A Gambino crime family indictment, announced in April 2010, charged 14 defendants with extortion, gambling, loan sharking and some with sex trafficking, with girls as young as 15. One prosecutor suggested that the activity might represent “a new low for the Gambino family.”
A defense lawyer in the case contends that the government helped promote that same kind of illegal activity. The lawyer, Gerald J. McMahon, said in newly filed court papers that one of the men running the trafficking ring was a convicted sex abuser who had a cooperation agreement as a federal witness.
“A reasonable person might wonder, whether the government — in its zeal to make a racketeering case against the Gambino family — allowed a 15-year-old girl to be shamefully and criminally exploited.” Mr. McMahon wrote.
Mr. McMahon , who represents 1 of 14 defendants in the case, has asked the court to dismiss the indictment on grounds of “outrageous government misconduct,” legal papers show.
Federal prosecutors, who have not yet responded to the motion, declined comment but James Margolin, an F.B.I. spokesman in New York said, “This office would not — and did not — approve of any criminal activity involving a minor, much less the sexual exploitation of a minor.”
Mr. McMahon, in his court papers, identified the witness as Jude Buoneto, who he said raped one girl and sexually abused another in the 1990s. Mr. Buoneto once also ran a brothel with his mother in Brooklyn, Mr. McMahon wrote.
Prosecutors have described the Gambino witness only as CW-1 in court papers. They say he pleaded guilty in the 1990s at age 19 to misdemeanor offenses of acting in a manner to injure a child under 17, and sexual abuse in the third degree. They say CW-1 will be called to testify at trial, and have indicated that he has knowledge of Gambino crimes that go beyond the trafficking ring.
The women who worked as prostitutes were all under 20, and were recruited in New York and New Jersey, prosecutors said. The defendants advertised on Web sites like Craigslist, drove the women to their appointments and kept about half of their fees, the government said.
Source: NY Times
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