Jan. 13, 1997

CHIN'S MATTER OF HEART

By Jerry Capeci

VINCENT (Chin) Gigante was still in the hospital last week recovering from open heart surgery, but that didn't stop the reputedly crazy reputed boss of the Genovese crime family from changing his mind about a few things near and dear to him.

Gigante, 68, switched lawyers and decided he would rather convalesce in the Upper East Side Manhattan apartment of his longtime paramour than at his estranged wife's house in suburban New Jersey.

Gigante's changes of heart were announced in Brooklyn Federal Court during a brief proceeding before Judge Eugene Nickerson.

Defense lawyer James LaRossa said he was stepping aside in favor of the firm of Culleton, Marinaccio & Foglia, a politically connected Bronx law shop with ties to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and to Gigante's brother, Rev. Louis Gigante, who used to be a city councilman.

Philip Foglia has campaigned for Giuliani and is a charter member of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Rev. Gigante, a community activist, supported Foglia in a failed 1988 run for Bronx District Attorney.

During a bitter Democratic primary fight, Foglia was accused of leaking confidential information to mobsters while he was an assistant Bronx District Attorney. Giuliani, former Manhattan U.S. Attorney, had worked

with Foglia in several joint federal-state investigations and leapt to his defense.

The following year, Foglia campaigned in the Bronx with Giuliani during the Republican's first run for mayor.

"Mr. Foglia is a lawyer admitted to practice law in New York City and his firm is entitled to take on the clients of its choice," said a Giuliani spokeswoman.

The change in attorneys, Gigante's third in five months, was shrouded in mystery. LaRossa ducked Nickerson's question about the switch, saying it was "not appropriate" for him to explain.

In court, Foglia's partners, James Culleton and Michael Marinaccio, said the legal musical chairs would not delay the trial, set to begin March 17. Gigante, who is charged with ordering eight gangland slayings and plotting to kill mob rival John Gotti, was represented by Barry Slotnick from 1990 until last August, shortly before Chin was declared mentally competent to stand trial.

Culleton and Marinaccio told Nickerson that their new client suffered complications from his surgery, including low blood pressure, anemia and infection, but was expected to be released from Mount Sinai Medical Center this week.

Without going into a lot of detail, they asked the judge to allow Gigante, who had gotten permission two months ago to move in with his estranged wife so he could be close to his ailing 94-year-old mother, to move in with Olympia Esposito, when he left the hospital.

Sure, why not, said Nickerson, who, this time, chose not to ask why Gigante would rather stay with his lover than his estranged wife, who is also named Olympia.

 
MEANWHILE, Gigante's acting boss and acting underboss won a small victory in their uphill battle to become the first defendants to have lie detector results admitted into evidence at a federal criminal trial.

Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled an evidentiary hearing to decide whether to permit a respected polygraph expert to testify at the trial of Liborio (Barney) Bellomo (left) and Michele (Mickey Dimino) Generoso. They are charged with a 1991 gangland slaying and a host of other things, including extortion and labor racketeering.

Bellomo and Generoso passed lie detector tests administered Dec. 20 by Paul Minor, a former chief FBI polygraphist, concerning the hit. Their lawyers argue that Minor should be allow to testify at the trial, which is to begin next month. The two men passed three previous tests.

Citing recent remarks by FBI Director Louis Freeh and other law enforcement officials about the importance and reliability of lie detector tests and the advances of polygraphy as a science, the defense lawyers contend Minor's testimony would be more reliable than the testimony of the former gangsters who are expected to implicate Bellomo and Generoso.

"(Minor) wrote the manual and codified the procedures which are currently used by the FBI" and would testify that his test results were 96% to 98% accurate, said defense lawyer Alan Futerfas. "Given the current state of expertise in polygraphy and the credentials and expertise of the polygraphers used here, there can be little doubt that Bellomo and Generoso are legally and factually innocent of the homicide charges."

Kaplan, who criticized earlier lie detector tests Bellomo passed when refusing to grant him bail, scheduled a hearing for Wednesday.