BY: Paul Tennant
eagletribune.com
HAVERHILL — Two city men charged with supplying drugs to Maine connections through the Iron Horsemen motorcycle gang have had their convictions overturned.
One of them had been sentenced to life in prison.
Ramon Dellosantos, 42, and Richard Szpyt, 53, former president of the Iron Horsemen, a motorcycle gang based in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, were arrested in October 2008 along with 18 other people and charged with selling marijuana and cocaine to customers in Maine.
A U.S. District Court jury in Portland, Maine, found the Haverhill men guilty in March 2010. Judge George Singal sentenced them to prison — 10 years for Dellosantos and life for Szpyt, who has multiple drug convictions. But last week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which covers Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico, overturned the conviction.
Defense attorney Stephen Colella of Haverhill, said the government failed to prove a conspiracy during the trial, and that the judge should have allowed a motion for a verdict of not guilty. Colella has represented both Dellosantos and Szpyt in other matters and served as co-counsel with defense lawyers Eliot Weinstein and Robert Levine during the trial in Maine.
Colella said the defendants were "overcharged" and some evidence was permitted at the trial that should not have been allowed. That all three appeals court judges — Juan Torruella, Norman Stahl and Jeffrey Howard — called for overturning the convictions is "significant," Colella said.
While their convictions were reversed, Dellosantos and Szpyt remain behind bars, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark, who is assigned to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland.
Dellosantos is being held at the Federal Correctional Institute in Schuylkill, Pa., while Szpyt is at the United States Penitentiary in Coleman, Fla. Delosantos has filed a request for bail and the U.S. Attorney's Office is "in the process of responding to the motion," Clark said.
Asked what his office is likely do in the wake of the decision of the appeals court, Clark said federal prosecutors in Maine will likely consult the Department of Justic and "consider our options."
The indictments against Delossantos and Szpyt remain outstanding until the government drops them — or they're acquitted at a subsequent trial. Colella said the two men should be able to make strong arguments to at least be released on bail.
Szpyt was arrested by Haverhill police, the FBI, Essex County Drug Task Force and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on March 18, 2008, at 12 Haviland St. Haverhill police said he was arrested on warrants charging him with trafficking in cocaine and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Local police and federal agents arrested Dellosantos at his home at 566 Washington St., at the corner of Washington and Florence Avenue, in late October 2008. Federal prosecutors said he was among a group of people involved with the Iron Horsemen, which funneled drugs from Massachusetts to Maine.
The drugs were distributed throughout Maine from at least 2004 until December 2007, prosecutors said.
Dellosantos, Szpyt and Sherwood Jordan were found guilty of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and more than 5 kilograms of cocaine. Szpyt and Jordan were also found guilty of four counts of using a telephone to facilitate a drug conspiracy.
Dellosantos received a 10-year prison term while Szpyt received a life sentence because the conviction was his third on a felony drug charge.
Sgt. John Arahovites, spokesman for the Haverhill Police Department, said Dellosantos was a "major cocaine supplier" to the Haverhill area. Arahovites said Dellosantos used to describe himself as a used car dealer.
Judges Torruella, Stahl and Howard said in their decision the government failed to prove Dellosantos or Szpyt were involved in any illegal drug activity in Maine.
"The government's primary cooperating witness was Robert L. Sanborn, who also testified pursuant to a plea agreement. Sanborn's testimony was generally focused on drug distribution in Maine and he did not directly implicate Dellosantos in any illegal activity," the judges wrote.
They further wrote, "Sanborn also admitted that in the late summer or early fall of 2005 he began distributing marijuana in addition to cocaine. There is no evidence that Sanborn consulted with or received approval from Szpyt when he started to distribute marijuana, or at any point thereafter."