Aug 20, 2007 8:18 pm US/Central
Judge Threatens Mob Trial Defendant With Contempt
CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Frank Calabrese Sr. (File)
CBS
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There was a ruckus in the courtroom Monday during the Family Secrets mob trial, with the judge threatening to hold defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., in contempt of court if he continued to try to testify about evidence already ruled inadmissible at his racketeering conspiracy trial.
Calabrese became upset when prosecutors continued to object to some of his testimony.
Calabrese had blurted out a claim concerning an alleged robbery in which he had been the victim. When prosecutors objected -- evidence concerning the robbery had been ruled inadmissible -- Calabrese became upset.
"Your Honor, how am I going to defend myself?" Calabrese asked Zagel.
At that, Zagel sent the jury out of the courtroom, admonished Calabrese and warned Calabrese's defense attorney, Joseph Lopez, against "your client's intention to get into evidence material that I'm quite sure you told him he could not get into evidence."
The warning followed a flare-up of emotion on the part of Calabrese, a convicted loan shark who is one of five alleged members of the Chicago mob on trial in the Operation Family Secrets case.
"I will not allow you to introduce evidence that is inadmissible," Zagel told Calabrese in his second day on the witness stand. Zagel told Calabrese to stop trying to introduce evidence that "you personally think should be introduced" even though it already had been ruled out.
"You will not question my rulings in the presence of the jury," Zagel said. He said he would hold Calabrese in contempt it if happened again.
Calabrese, 70, is accused by federal prosecutors and witnesses of doubling as a mob hit man when not operating a loan sharking business. His brother, Nicholas, testified earlier that Frank Calabrese on a number of occasions strangled victims with ropes then cut their throats to make sure they were dead.
Before his current legal troubles began, Calabrese had been indicted in the mid 1990s on gambling and racketeering charges. Calabrese told the court Monday he decided to run away and become a fugitive.
"I had six drivers' licenses, six birth certificates and six credit cards," Calabrese said.
Calabrese says he had second thoughts; he couldn't leave his family, so he came back to Chicago to face the music.
He mentioned his estrangement from his son, Frank Calabrese Jr., who, the elder Calabrese claimed, had stolen $2 million from him.
"I seen him spending money like he was crazy," Calabrese Sr. said.
"Did you punish your son?" attorney Joe Lopez asked.
"No way," Calabrese answered.
"Did you strike your son?" Lopez asked.
"No," Calabrese testified.
"Did you put a gun under your son's nose?" Lopez asked.
"No way," Calabrese again responded.
Father and son were imprisoned together at the Milan, Mich., federal prison. It was there that Frank Jr., secretly recorded incriminating conversations with his father.
Frank Jr., often wore headphones that contained a listening device; that puzzled his father.
"I asked 'Why are you always listening to that music?'" Calabrese said, apparently unaware that he was being recorded.
Nor did he realize he was being videotaped in the prison dayroom when friends came to see him.
Calabrese discussed those taped conversations with his son, saying they were misinterpreted, saying in effect that they were harmless and non-threatening.
He blamed a lot of the wrong-doing on his brother Nick Calabrese. He compared Nick to the character Alfredo in the movie "The Godfather," calling him "a screw-up."
Also on trial are Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78, James Marcello, 65, Paul Schiro, 70, and Anthony Doyle, 62. They are accused of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that involved extortion, gambling, loan sharking and 18 long unsolved murders.
On Thursday, Frank Calabrese testified that he knew many people involved in organized crime, hung out with them and did business with them but did not belong to the mob.
He denied ever committing any of the murders alleged in the indictment produced by an FBI investigation known as Operation Family Secrets.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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