Detroit, MI Organized crime cases aren't easy

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Catherine Jun
Source: detnews.com

Organized crime cases aren't easy

RICO convictions require more proof from prosecutor

Catherine Jun / The Detroit News

Detroit —U.S. attorneys are charging former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his inner circle under a law designed to bring down organized crime, and experts say winning a conviction under the law isn't always easy.
The RICO Act — or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act — was enacted in 1970 to prosecute the Mafia. It was used to bust mob boss John Gotti in 1992 and other members of the Gambino crime family in 2006
But since it was enacted, the law has been used to prosecute everything from drug gangs, Catholic dioceses accused of covering up sex abuse by priests, anti-abortion activists blocking access to clinics and public officials accused of corruption.
The act allows prosecutors to target groups of defendants as being part of a criminal enterprise, often for crimes that occurred years ago. Crimes under this act are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and those found guilty can be ordered to repay ill-gotten gains.
"It looks to me as if they're looking at the office of the mayor as the enterprise … the same way you'd use for a motorcycle gang a clubhouse as the enterprise," said Alan Gershel, former head of criminal prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit and now a professor at Thomas Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills.
RICO has been used more recently, and closer to Detroit.
This summer, the first of six members of the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy in a federal courtroom in Detroit in one of the largest indictments ever brought in the Eastern District of Michigan.
In 2007, Peter Dominic Tocco, nephew of former Detroit crime boss Jack Tocco, was convicted in a RICO case involving illegal sports betting and money laundering. He was sentenced to just over three years in prison and faced, along with other defendants, a $3 million forfeiture order. He had pleaded guilty to the charges.
But convicting in a RICO case isn't easy.
"You have to prove all those underlying crimes beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jeff Grell, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who has taught RICO litigation for 11 years. Prosecutors also must prove there was a continuous pattern of crimes, Grell added. "That is a heavy burden."
In fact, Gotti was first acquitted in 1987 in a RICO case. It was only after one of his underlings turned on him that Gotti was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and several murder charges. The mob boss was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison without parole. He died of cancer in a prison hospital in 2002. cjun@detnews.com



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From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101216/METRO/12160379/Organized-crime-cases-aren’t-easy#ixzz18LTMgKtn





From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101216/METRO/12160379/Organized-crime-cases-aren’t-easy#ixzz18LTCbZp1