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| September 7, 2000 | |
| By Jerry Capeci | |
| Lawyer
Throws Dirt, Talks Trash In Mob Garbage Case |
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 In his 30 plus years as a defense
attorney, mob lawyer Larry Bronson has made many good friends -- or acquaintances -- in
the law enforcement community.Bronson, who has represented turncoat as well as stand up gangsters, often boasts to wiseguys and their lawyers of a long friendship with FBI Director Louis Freeh, according to numerous defense lawyers who specialize in organized crime cases.
The judge cut short further inquiry on the subject so assistant U.S. attorney Paul Weinstein could not explore Bronson's well-known penchant around the federal courts and prisons for telling people how close he is to Freeh. Even if Weinstein could have pursued the issue, it's doubtful Bronson would have said anything derogatory or hurtful about Freeh, a former federal prosecutor and an adversary in a major heroin smuggling trial dubbed the Pizza Connection case. He described former federal prosecutor Charles Rose, a frequent courtroom opponent, as a "very, very close friend," but also an unethical scoundrel |
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| who played fast and loose
with the law six years ago during plea negotiations in an earlier racketeering case
against Avellino.
Rose's actions during negotiations in the earlier racketeering case could undermine a new racketeering case lodged last year against Avellino, according to a ruling by Hauppauge Federal Judge Denis Hurley. (Avellino's son Michael, and son-in-law Michael Malena, are codefendants, but the current hearing involves only the elder Avellino.) In fact, Avellino's only hope is for Hurley to rule that Rose secretly promised the defense team of Bronson, Brian Linder and Jay Goldberg that by pleading guilty in 1994 to racketeering charges, Avellino would get a free pass for any other crimes he had committed during a life of crime. That's highly unlikely, since the idea makes no sense and all the lawyers, and Avellino, said at the time there were no secret deals. "Charles Rose and I were friends," said Bronson, adding that he "took an active role in plea negotiations" with Rose, and not co-prosecutor Gregory O'Connell, who is still alive. "We ate lunch together across the street from the courthouse many times and we met in the diner two blocks from his house because it was more convenient for him ... we were what I would term very, very close friends." Bronson described many telephone conversations and other discussions in coffee shops, hallways and offices in which Rose assured him that "Avellino |
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(all) his criminal conduct"if he pleaded guilty to the racketeering indictment.
Asked if he had ever mentioned before that Rose had talked of unauthorized and improper meetings with Nickerson, Bronson, who has represented Avellino since 1993 and been involved in the current case for a year, said, "No, I just remembered it during your cross examination." O'Connell, who is currently in private practice, testified that he met Rose the first day he joined the U.S. Attorney's office in 1985 and that they became the closest of friends and worked together, as prosecutors and later as defense lawyers, until Rose's death in December |
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| 1998. He said he had
primary responsibility for the Avellino case, that he and Rose were engaged in plea
negotiations with all three lawyers, that a secret deal as they described made no sense,
and that Rose would never have agreed to one, especially without telling him. "Charles was one of my closest friends. He was a brother to me, as close as any member of my family," said O'Connell. Asked about Rose's relationship with Bronson, O'Connell said: "There are a lot of defense lawyers that I think he had a much closer relationship with than Larry Bronson….I think he had a casual relationship with Larry Bronson." By their respective testimony, it's pretty obvious which of the lawyers was a close friend of Charles Rose and which is something else. Before Hurley decides whether to toss Avellino's indictment in the garbage, he was to hear testimony on the subject late yesterday from Avellino. Trial is scheduled for Jan. 22. Gang Land fully expects Avellino to be there. |
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Last week, at a pre-trial hearing for Salvatore Avellino, a
millionaire Luchese capo (right) awaiting trial for murder and 
One major difference between the FBI Director, (left) and
Rose, (right) a onetime executive assistant U.S. attorney, is that Freeh is alive and
well, while 
Bronson (seen at right in a posed shot from "The Pizza
Connection" by Shana Alexander) also testified that Rose told him he had met
privately with Brooklyn Federal Judge Eugene Nickerson to convince him to accept the plea
deal and had an "off the record" session with the judge to discuss the 126-month
sentence that was agreed upon.
