N.Y. RACKETEERING CASE: Judge refuses to release pair

Former detectives viewed as danger to community

Las Vegas residents Stephen Caracappa, left, and Louis Eppolito appear in court Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt. Illustration by David Stroud.

Two retired New York City police detectives pose a danger to the community and must remain in jail pending trial in a racketeering case that has linked the pair to eight Mafia slayings, a Las Vegas judge ruled Friday.

"If the defendants were willing to obstruct justice then, it seems to me that they would be willing to obstruct justice now," U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt said Friday.

Eppolito and Caracappa were arrested Wednesday evening at an upscale Italian restaurant in Las Vegas and appeared before Leavitt for a detention hearing. The hearing paved the way for the defendants to be transferred to New York, where the case will be tried.

Leavitt listened to extensive legal arguments before refusing a defense request to release the former detectives on bond.

Eppolito and Caracappa are charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy and narcotics distribution. The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the FBI.

The racketeering conspiracy led to eight murders and two attempted murders, according to the indictment, which claims the defendants were associated with the Luchese organized crime family while working for the New York City Police Department.

"They betrayed their oath, and they desecrated their department and clandestinely engaged in a pattern of corruption and murder," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch said Friday.

Defense attorneys claim prosecutors based their case against two decorated police officers on allegations made by mob informants who are trying to avoid life sentences.

"This case sounds like a credibility case," said attorney David Chesnoff, who represents Caracappa.

Eppolito and Caracappa are accused of committing one of the killings themselves: the 1992 shooting death of Eddie Lino, a captain in the Gambino crime family.

Prosecutors claim Eppolito and Caracappa formed a business relationship in 1985 with Anthony Casso, then a high-ranking member of the Luchese family.

Starting in 1986, prosecutors allege, Eppolito and Caracappa were paid $4,000 a month by Casso for sensitive New York police and governmental information. Prosecutors claim the pair provided Casso with insider information until about January 1993.

According to prosecutors, Casso was shot by several Gambino family associates in September 1986 and received information from Eppolito and Caracappa about those involved in the incident.

Henoch said that information led to the slayings of four people, including Lino and a man who was killed in a "tragic case of mistaken identity." The prosecutor said Eppolito and Caracappa were paid $65,000 for killing Lino.

Other killings and attempted killings in the case involved people who were suspected of working as cooperating witnesses, Henoch said.

"The government alleges tampering with witnesses is exactly what these two gentlemen do," the prosecutor told Leavitt.

Defense attorneys claim Casso is one of the informants prosecutors used to bring the case against Eppolito and Caracappa.

"Casso began cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors in 1994, the same time that the (current) allegations began to surface," the attorneys wrote in a court document. "Prior to Casso's agreement to cooperate with the government, he had been a fugitive for 30 months. After Casso began to cooperate, he admitted his role in 36 killings."

The defense document claims Casso was sentenced to life in prison after federal prosecutors caught him in a lie and ended their relationship with him.

Prosecutors have not identified the cooperating witnesses who are expected to testify.

Henoch said Eppolito grew up in a family closely linked with organized crime. Eppolito detailed those ties in his 1992 autobiography, "Mafia Cop: the Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob."

According to court records, Caracappa helped form the Organized Crime Homicide Unit within the Major Case Squad of the New York City Police Department. In that position, Caracappa had access to most of the information on organized crime collected by the squad.

Henoch said Caracappa applied for gun permits in 2002 in New York and falsely claimed to have a legal residence in the city.

For about a decade, Caracappa and Eppolito have lived across the street from each other on Silver Bear Way in southwest Las Vegas.

Henoch said investigators found 116 firearms in a safe when they searched Eppolito's home. He said Caracappa's home was not searched.

At Friday's hearing, Chesnoff read letters written on Caracappa's behalf by three retired New York City police officers. One came from Joseph Nekola, who retired in 1990 as a captain of detectives.

"I have known Mr. Caracappa personally for more than twenty-five years and find these allegations totally out of character for the fine police officer and person that I have worked and socialized with," Nekola wrote.

Another letter came from Daniel O'Rourke, a sergeant who retired in 1996.

"I find that the person being described in the papers is not nor could be the Detective Caracappa that I supervised," O'Rourke wrote. "I hope and pray that we do not rush to judgment."

A letter from Dominick Ripillino, Caracappa's supervisor in the Organized Crime Homicide Unit in the early 1990s, described Caracappa as an honest and trustworthy detective.

"I had the privilege to work with Steve as far back as 1971 when I was an undercover detective in the Narcotics Division of the NYCPD," Ripillino wrote. "On many occasions Steve put his life in danger protecting me when I was involved in making narcotic buys."

Chesnoff said it seems incredible to him that those who placed Caracappa in a position of trust for 23 years could have been so wrong about his character.

According to the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, Caracappa worked for the New York City Police Department from June 1969 to November 1992, and Eppolito worked for the department from August 1969 until February 1990.

Caracappa is licensed in Nevada as a private investigator. His wife of nearly 20 years, Monica, works as a real estate agent.

The indictment claims both Caracappa and Eppolito have engaged in drug distribution since moving to Las Vegas. Eppolito's son, Anthony, has been charged with drug distribution in a separate case filed in Las Vegas.