By Jerry Capeci

Alfred Santoro, a former cop who drove jurors to and from court, must testify about conversations jurors had in his car as well as some talks he had about the anonymous jurors with the sexpot hired by the Gigante investigators.

"I think it is the first step in seeing to what extent the system has broken down," said Gigante lawyer Michael Marinaccio, seen at left in this drawing by courtroom sketch artist Ruth Pollack. Juror discussions may have undermined his client's right to a fair trial, said Marinaccio. Convicted of labor racketeering in 1997, Gigante, 70, is serving a 12-year prison term.

In one taped conversation, Santoro gabbed on about his law enforcement career and his special insights about the mob -- he guarded Gigante when he was hospitalized before trial -- as the unidentified woman oohed and aahed.

"Oh, I'm interested," she cooed at one point. "Wow," she said sweetly at another.  "You gotta write a book, you ARE interesting," she said later.

Gigante used the "attractive and flirtatious female" and two unsavory investigators as part of a "concerted, expansive effort to undermine the jury's verdict," said assistant U.S. attorneys George Stamboulidis, Andrew Weissmann and Daniel Dorsky. They charged that investigator Raymond Glynn was strongly criticized by a federal judge 12 years ago in a similar case involving Genovese mobsters and that John Ryan lost his investigator's license in 1997 after pleading guilty to wiretapping the home phone of Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano after he began cooperating.

The prosecutors objected to the unusual inquiry, charging that despite hours of conversations in which Santoro and other drivers were "peppered ... with leading questions about the Gigante jurors," the defense failed to uncover any wrongdoing that justified a hearing.

Gigante's lawyers claim jurors violated Judge Jack Weinstein's instructions and discussed the case prematurely. The lawyers pushed for a full hearing -- with testimony from jurors and their drivers -- to fully explore the alleged jury misconduct and determine if their verdict was tainted and should be thrown out.

Weinstein said he would permit defense lawyers to question only Santoro at a hearing next month.

Among other things, Fiumara, who is said to travel in trunks of cars, is charged with leaving New Jersey without permission, falsifying parole supervision reports and failing to report a change in residence.

Jeffrey Blackman, 42, (right) who was last seen alive after an all night card game at a mob social club, was a dealer at card games allegedly operated by Robert (Pepe) Vernace, sources said.

Vernace, 57, was a virtually anonymous Queens mobster until his arrest last fall for the Apr. 11, 1981 slayings of bar owners Richard Godkin and John D'Agnese.

Blackman's badly decomposed body was recovered late Monday night after numerous parking tickets slapped on the auto led detectives to the illegally parked car at 70-80 Park Drive East, said a police source.

Blackman, a former transit worker, was nude, bound and appeared to have been tortured. A sharp instrument, possibly a screwdriver or ice pick, had been shoved up his nose, sources said.

The medical examiner is still trying to determine the exact cause of death.

After a card game at the Glendale Social Club on 76th Ave., Blackman was seen about 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 28 driving the car at 68th St. and Myrtle Ave. - about four blocks from Vernace's Vita Cafe on Cooper Ave.

The killers, sources said, may have wrongly suspected that Blackman was an informant who led to Vernace's arrest last fall by Queens Cold Case Detective Thomas Mansfield.

"My client is in mourning over the loss of a close friend," said Vernace's lawyer Joseph Corozzo. adding that police efforts to link Blackman's killing to Vernace are "attempts to prejudice him in the existing criminal case."

Blackman was a gambler and reportedly had run up some debts, but so far, police discount that as a possible motive. "It involved maybe a couple thousand dollars and nobody gets killed like this for that amount of money," said one investigator.