Questions abound after lawyers proposed a new trial date and the lead prosecutor left the case amid unexplained circumstances.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas, charged in U.S. District Court in connection with the 2003 murder of organized crime boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, is slated to stand trial starting March 1. However, prosecutors filed a motion to move the trial date to April 5 after the departure of Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd E. Newhouse from the case.
“He’s out,” said replacement Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul H. Smyth, who refused to comment on the reason for the last-minute change in leadership.
Smyth told U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor that Michael Crowley, a federal prosecutor out of Boston, will assist him.
“He’ll be able to step in, if necessary,” Smyth said of Newhouse during a break in a pretrial hearing on Friday afternoon.
What prompted the sudden personnel change has been as closely guarded as new evidence that has emerged in the case, which lawyers on both sides refuse to talk about.
Geas was charged in 2008 with murder in aid of racketeering after admitted gunman Frankie A. Roche, who was charged previously in Hampden Superior Court, turned federal informant and told the FBI Geas paid him $10,000 to kill Bruno.
Roche, an ex-con and fringe character in local criminal circles, told agents that Geas, a reputed mob enforcer, recruited him to shoot Bruno on behalf of rival gangsters amid a coup.
Bruno, 57, was the local head of the New York-based Genovese crime family until Roche shot him six times as the mobster left his regular Sunday night card game on Nov. 23, 2003.
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