A Mafia Valentine

ON Valentine's 1980, Judy May met her sweetheart for a special dinner in downtown Brooklyn.

The dinner, at Lenny's Clam Bar, would be long remembered for many reasons. But on that cloudy Valentine's Day, May, who was 24, knew that the meal with her fiance would probably be the last time they would see each other for weeks.

She was a juror at the murder trial of Anthony (Nino) Gaggi, a Gambino capo (right) whose jury would be the first in Brooklyn to be sequestered since the 1940s, when several members of Murder Inc. went to trial, were convicted and executed.

The prosecution wanted the jury members locked up, fearing mobsters would try to reach them. Judge Edward Lentol agreed.

By Valentine's Day, 11 jurors had been selected and the process promised to drag on another week. Then there would be the trial. So the jurors pressed Lentol for a special Valentine's Day dinner so they could see their loved ones one last time.

Lentol was a tough, no-nonsense judge, but like many Italian-Americans, was a romantic. He agreed they could have dinner with their loved ones, but not far from the courthouse and under close supervision.

And so, under the watchful eyes of State Supreme Court officers, May, according to prosecutors, listened as her beefy, sandy-haired boyfriend, Wayne Hellman, whispered words that would live with their love for the next 13 years: Acquit Gaggi.

The woman, according to a federal judge who heard the evidence, listened well and voted to acquit Gaggi of killing two Gambino mobsters had been marked for death.

Now, two trials and two children later, their love is bruised but intact, even though they may be separated for the first time in many years.

At their first trial, the Hellmanns were acquitted of jury tampering but convicted of fraud for lying about their income on applications for a mortgage and a car loan, debts they obtained a decade ago and paid without a hitch.

A federal appeals court threw out the fraud conviction and ordered a new trial, ruling the couple should have gotten a separate trial and not been codefendants of six mob killers during a 16-month murder and racketeering trial.

Wayne Hellman, who caused it all to happen, finally did right by his bride. He took the witness stand and took the blame. He testified that he didn't believe he did anything wrong, but he absolved his wife, saying he signed her name on the applications.

He was convicted of fraud and faces three years in prison.

Normally, no one would ever be charged with a crime for doing what Hellman did, let alone be preparing to go to jail but that's just what he's up to these days as he awaits sentencing by Manhattan Federal Judge Miriam Cedarbaum.

Prosecutor Gilmore Childers intends to present evidence at an upcoming hearing that Hellman was involved in jury tampering and should do three years, the same prison term he got from Judge Vincent Broderick after his first trial.

"Enough is enough," said defense lawyer Jay Horlick. "After all these years, Wayne should be allowed to stay home and care for Judy and provide for their children. They have suffered too much already."