| Posted on Wed, Jan. 15, 2003 |   |
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Merlino daughter led agents to Rinick
Inquirer Staff Writer The narcotics agent who found Billy Rinick hiding in his underwear beneath a bed in mob boss Joey Merlino's house said Merlino's 4-year-old daughter gave Rinick up. " 'Where's Billy?' " state investigator Michael W. McIlmail said he whispered conspiratorially when he saw Sophia Merlino sitting on her mother's bed in the master bedroom. " 'Billy's hiding in there,' " he said the girl replied innocently, pointing to a bedroom across the hall. McIlmail, testifying yesterday at Rinick's federal drug-trafficking trial, said he spotted the little girl when he reached the third floor of Merlino's plush, three-story South Philadelphia townhouse as agents conducted an early-morning drug raid Dec. 6, 2001. He said he and another agent found Rinick hiding under a partially collapsed bed in the room the 4-year-old had indicated. Rinick, he said, refused to come out when confronted. "I could see him on the floor under the bed, not his face, but his white undershirt and his white underwear." McIlmail said that when he and others pulled Rinick up, he began to flail his arms and curse at them. " 'Get the... off me,' " McIlmail said Rinick screamed as he swung his arms and elbows. " 'Get the... off me. I'm Billy Rinick. I ain't afraid of nobody.' " After Rinick calmed down, McIlmail said, "he asked us if he could put his pants on." McIlmail, a narcotics agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Organized Crime Section, was one of a dozen investigators who fanned out across South Philadelphia that morning executing search warrants that were part of an investigation into Rinick's alleged drug-dealing. The case was turned over to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Rinick was indicted last year on federal drug-trafficking charges. Since that raid, Rinick, 30, also has been convicted of an assault and indicted in a slaying. But it is his attempt to elude investigators by hiding under a bed in a mob boss' home that has gotten him the most notoriety. In fact, his attorneys have argued that it was Rinick's friendship with Merlino's wife, Deborah, that led investigators to incorrectly assume that their client was a mob figure. The lawyers also contend that Rinick has been wrongly identified as a drug dealer by two other cocaine traffickers who are now cooperating with authorities. Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino was in jail at the time of the raid. His wife, their two young daughters, and a nanny were in the house. The raid was conducted shortly after 7 a.m., McIlmail testified. The raid also was staged the same day that Merlino was to be sentenced for a racketeering conviction. Just hours after Rinick was found hiding in his home, Merlino was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. McIlmail said agents "expected to find" Rinick in the house on the 3200 block of Sydenham Street that morning. He said that Deborah Merlino answered the door in her pajamas and that agents then fanned out through each floor of the townhouse. He said that while agents were knocking on the door, one investigator from outside the house "spotted a male" moving around on the third floor. That, he said, led him to his search. McIlmail said that before he handed Rinick his pants - which he identified as sweat pants - he removed credit cards, a license, and $4,685 in cash from the pockets. " 'That's my... rent money,' " he said Rinick swore, contending that the cash came from rent paid on properties he owned and leased. McIlmail and another state investigator who testified later both said serial numbers from more than $2,000 in $100 and $20 bills seized that morning matched those used in "controlled buys" by informant Sam Pollino in the weeks before the raid. Pollino, who finished his third and final day on the witness stand yesterday, testified about a series of cocaine purchases he said he made from Rinick while cooperating with the state. Pollino, who wore a body wire, tape-recorded several meetings with Rinick in which he said drug buys were carried out. Under cross-examination by Joseph Levin, one of Rinick's two lawyers, Pollino acknowledged that the discussions on the tapes included no direct references to cocaine and that state investigators and the jury had to take his word about what was being discussed. Levin and co-counsel Robert Levant have told the jury that Pollino and Michael Focoso, another admitted drug dealer and Rinick associate, have implicated Rinick in drug deals to avoid lengthy prison terms for their own narcotics trafficking. The defense contends that the drug deals were between Pollino and Focoso and that discussions between Rinick and Pollino dealt with loan-sharking debts and construction work. But McIlmail, under cross-examination by Levant, said it was clear to investigators what was going on. He said that Pollino was supplied with cash by the state before his meetings with Rinick and that he returned with cocaine afterward. |
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