Posted on 02/11/2016 8:22:48 AM PST by Titus-Maximus
Convicted of plotting to kill John Gotti, Hudson County Mob Boss Bobby Manna allegedly planned to murder United States Attorney Samuel A. Alito, Assistant United States Attorney Michael Chertoff, and (Donald Trump's sister) Judge Barry.
". . . an FBI report . . . purportedly establishes that the FBI was apprised by some informant that Manna was involved in a plot to murder: the trial judge, Maryanne Trump Barry; and the United States Attorney, Samuel A. Alito; and the chief prosecutor, Michael Chertoff . . ."
United States v. Manna UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY October 25, 2006 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PLAINTIFF, v. LOUIS ANTHONY MANNA DEFENDANT.
Mr. Louis Anthony Manna #09211-050 Fci Fairton P.O. Box 420 Fairton, New Jersey 08320 Pro Se
Christopher J. Christie United States Attorney 970 Broad Street Newark, New Jersey 07102 By: Joseph Gribko Assistant U.S. Attorney
The opinion of the court was delivered by: Debevoise, Senior District Judge
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
OPINION
In this extensively litigated case Petitioner, Louis Anthony Manna, moves i) to disqualify the United States Attorney's Office of Newark, New Jersey, ii) for relief pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(6) from the June 29, 1998 judgment of the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry denying Petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, and iii) for leave to file additional materials. The motion for leave to file additional materials will be granted, and the additional materials will be considered in connection with the other motions.
I. Background
In 1989 a jury found Petitioner guilty, among other things, of RICO offenses involving predicate violations of the Hobbs Act (extortion) and the Taft-Hartley Act (bribery), organized gambling and three separate murders relating to the affairs of the Genovese Crime Family. The convictions for conspiracy to murder in aid of racketeering involved the planned murder of John and Gene Gotti, high-ranking members of the Gambino organized crime family, and Irwin Schiff in August 1987. On September 26, 1989 Judge Barry sentenced then sixty year old Petitioner to eighty years imprisonment.
The Court of Appeals affirmed Petitioner's conviction without opinion. United States v. Manna, 919 F. 2d 733 (3d Cir. 1990) (table). The United States Supreme Court denied Petitioner's petition for certiorari, Manna v. United States, 499 U.S. 949 (1991).
On April 21, 1997 Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner's principal claim was ineffective assistance of Petitioner's trial counsel, Raymond A. Brown, Esq. Subsidiary claims were misconduct by the police and/or the prosecution, including Brady violations. In a January 29, 1998 opinion, Judge Barry carefully analyzed and rejected the claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. She found the claims of prosecutorial misconduct unpersuasive and after consideration rejected them. The court dismissed the petition. Petitioner moved for reconsideration. He also filed a notice of appeal and applied for a certificate of appealability. Prior to that time, through a series of Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") document requests and lawsuits, Petitioner had obtained a vast quantity of documents, and he continued thereafter to obtain additional documents through such means. While the motion for reconsideration was pending, on three occasions (March 5, 1998, March 20, 1998, and July 23, 1998), Petitioner submitted and requested the court to review "hundreds upon hundreds of pages of various memoranda, declarations, and exhibits submitted by petitioner" (August 3, 1999 opinion of Judge Barry at p. 3).
The first wave of documents and memoranda, submitted on March 5, 1998, purported to demonstrate "a further Brady violation and withholding of material information on the government's part" and one document purportedly showed "both a withholding of critical information concerning witness Vivian Lewis and her identification of DeSciscio as a participant in the Schiff murder, and the joint participation of the New York City police with the Newark and New York FBI" (Id. at 4). Petitioner sought to strengthen his thesis with the documents submitted on March 20, 1998. Judge Barry dealt with these contentions and also with contentions based on other documents dealing with, among other things, the government's handling of potential witnesses Tom Smith, Dennis Roman and Joe Petrizzo. She found no basis for Petitioner's claims.
Petitioner's July 23, 1998 submission consisted of a forty-seven page declaration in further support of the motion for reconsideration attached to which were hundreds of pages, (in three volumes, each several inches thick), containing all kinds of materials, including the "entire array" of documents Petitioner received pursuant to his FOIA request concerning Schiff.*fn1 Judge Barry accepted this material for its arguable relevance to the Brady claim raised in the petition.
Judge Barry reviewed Petitioner's contentions. She considered once again his claim that Special Agent Mullaney had falsely stated that a photograph or photo spread of DeSciscio had not been shown to Ms. Lewis and his claim that the government had falsely denied that information Detective Remo Franceschini had given to the New York City Police Department had not been shared with the government. Judge Barry once again found these claims to be baseless.
The mammoth July 23 submission raised two principal new claims. The first concerned an FBI investigation beginning in 1987 into approximately nine unsolved murders committed between 1977 and 1987 and their connection, if any, to the Genovese Family hierarchy and Vincent "Chin" Gigante. The FBI concluded that there was insufficient evidence that these murders were interrelated or ordered by the Genovese Family. Judge Barry found that these murders were not relevant to Petitioner's case and that there was no Brady violation for not turning over 302 forms concerning their investigation.
The other principal claim raised in the July 23 submission constituted Petitioner's contention that one or more New York FBI agents who listened to the August 1987 tapes, and importantly the August 5 1987 tape, failed to identify the speakers. This, Petitioner claimed, was information that should have been turned over to the defense. Judge Barry rejected this contention because no one who reviewed the tapes "was even remotely" familiar with any of the voices thereon, including the voice of the Petitioner. Judge Barry proceeded to analyze carefully why the 302s upon which Petitioner relied were not Brady material.
After completing her extensive review of the arguments and mountains of material that Petitioner submitted to her, Judge Barry concluded that he had not established that she erred in January, 1998 when she held that Petitioner had failed to demonstrate ineffectiveness of his trial counsel or Brady violations. She denied the motion for reconsideration on August 3, 1999.
On February 19, 1998 Petitioner had filed a notice of appeal and applied for a certificate of appealability. On March 2, 1998, the Court of Appeals stayed Petitioner's application and appeal pending disposition of the motion for reconsideration. After denial of the motion for reconsideration, the Court of Appeals on October 31, 2000 denied Petitioner's motion for a certificate of appealability. The Supreme Court denied Petitioner's petition for certiorari, Manna v. United States, 532, U.S. 1009 (2001). Petitioner continued to make FOIA requests and continued to receive documents in response thereto. According to his petition, on August 16, 2002 Petitioner received documentation establishing that after he had been convicted but before he was sentenced the FBI had received information (which was communicated to Judge Barry) that the Judge and United States Attorney Samuel A. Alito and Assistant United States Attorney Michael Chertoff were the subject of death threats from Petitioner. This information was not disclosed to defense counsel.
The information as received by Petitioner consisted of a serious of highly redacted copies of memoranda included as Exhibit 2 of Volume 1 of his Appendix in Support of Motion for Relief from Judgment. A July '89 memorandum from FBI New York to Director FBI/Priority and FBI Newark/Priority read in part:
Subject: Martin Casella; Frank Daniello; Richard DeSciscio; Louis Anthony Manna; AKA Bobby Manna [redacted] AKA; [redacted] USDC Judge Maryanne Trump Barry; USA Samuel A. Alito; AUSA Michael Chertoff - Victims; AFO conspiracy; OU:NK.
Renktel to Director, dated July 14, 1989.
On July 19, 1989 [redacted] Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City, New York advised that Louis Anthony Manna, Inmate Number 092111-050 has been visited by [redacted] . . .
[redacted] Advised no records are kept of destination for outgoing mail or origin of incoming mail. Further [redacted] records indicate AUSA/NK has subpoenaed visitors list for the month of June. [redacted] added that the type of subjects in captioned matter most often pass messages outside jail through attorneys.
A memorandum, the date of which is undecipherable, from ADIC New York to SAC Newark recited that its subject matter was Louis Anthony Manna and other inmates and USDJ Maryanne Trump Barry - victim; USA Samuel A. Alito - victim; AUSA Michael Chertoff -victim. It referenced "AFD; Conspiracy" and recited that on July 25, 1989 the Federal Correction Institute at Otisville, New York made available correspondence and visitors lists regarding the subject inmates.
There are other memoranda concerning the investigation of the conspiracy referred to in the previously mentioned memoranda suggesting continued investigation by the FBI. The final document in Petitioner's Exhibit 2 consists of pages ten, eleven and twelve of a larger document and this segment is entitled "Threat Assessment: Traditional Organized Crime." It includes the following:
Louis Anthony Manna is alleged to be and, in fact, was convicted on 6/26/89 of controlling a particularly violent faction of the Genovese LCN. The trial of Manna, et al, was an intensive effort by AUSA, Mike Chertoff and it is certainly conceivable that Manna would hold Chertoff singularly responsible for the convictions. Likewise, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry's courtroom presence could be perceived by Manna to have been a detriment to his defense strategy.
At this point, no available information exists to make an informed judgment as to Manna's continued stature within the Genovese LCN and it therefore must be assumed that he continues to maintain a position within the herearchy (sic) of the Family. Manna's reputation and evidence presented at his trial indicate that he is more than capable of ordering the execution of others. Manna's conviction for plotting the execution of both John and Gene Gotti is basis to belive (sic) that he is capable of ordering the execution of a U.S. District Court Judge or Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mana's (sic) incarceration should not be viewed as a barrier to any continued control he may have over other Genevose members or associates . . . Additionally, other members of Manna's organization capable of commission of violent acts, continue to be under the control of Manna. Newark has made appropriate notifications to USMS, Newark, Captioned victims, and Chief USDC Judge Newark.
On September 4, 2003, Petitioner filed a motion which he characterized as a "Motion for Discovery In Connection With Proceeding Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255". Because Judge Barry had been appointed to the Court of Appeals, the motion was assigned to the Honorable William J. Martini. In his June 29, 2004 opinion, Judge Martini described Petitioner's ground for relief as follows:
Although it is not clear how or when he came by it, an FBI report - now an exhibit to the instant motion - purportedly establishes that the FBI was apprised by some informant that Manna was involved in a plot to murder: the trial judge, Maryanne Trump Barry; and the United States Attorney, Samuel A. Alito; and the chief prosecutor, Michael Chertoff - all three of which [sic] are now Third Circuit judges. Furthermore, this FBI report was apparently communicated to Judge Barry after conviction, but prior to his sentencing. Manna argues that upon receipt of this information Judge Barry had a statutory duty to communicate this information to Defendant's counsel and to recuse herself. Manna's instant motion seeks discovery against the Government to further develop these materials. He argues that were a proper foundation developed, the Court would have cause to vacate the prior habeas petition and/or vacate the prior sentence - ostensibly imposed by a biased judge.
(June 29, 2004 Opinion at 2, 3).
In that case Petitioner argued that his motion to compel discovery was ancillary to the original habeas petition, not a successive petition. The government, on the other hand characterized the motion as a new or successive habeas petition - and, therefore, beyond the jurisdiction of the district court absent certification from the Court of Appeals. Thus the court observed that the first issue to be determined was one of characterization. "Is this motion substantively a motion to hear a new habeas petition - leaving the Court with no jurisdictional basis to hear the action? Or, is the relief sought ancillary to the prior, but otherwise concluded, habeas petition first filed in 1997?" Id. at 3. The court addressed these questions in the context of the "unusual constellation of facts - alleged bias of the trial judge caused by facts brought to her attention by the Government ex parte between the time of Defendant's conviction and sentencing." Id.
The court rejected Petitioner's contention that the proceeding was not a new, second, or successive proceeding but, rather a continuation of his original habeas action, stating:
Moreover, this action is not in any meaningful sense ancillary to the first filed, but now concluded habeas petition. Petitioner seeks through discovery evidence that Judge Barry may have been biased (or, more properly, may have appeared to have been biased) during prior proceedings. But the prior habeas petition did not seek such relief, i.e., he removal of Judge Barry, nor would the information Petitioner now attempts to elicit have aided Petitioner in developing the claims made in the prior petition. Petitioner is not seeking to use discovery to vindicate claims made in his first petition. Here the claim is new: appearance of or actual judicial bias. And here the relief sought is new: vacation of the prior habeas petition. Thus the substance of the motion is that it is part and parcel of a new habeas petition, seeking, inter alia, the vacation of the prior habeas action on a theory of judicial bias - actual or apparent.
(MORE AT SITE)
The Genovese Crime Family breaking the rules!
Donald used his Mob connections - paid off the appropriate people - and all is fine.
/snark
It wasn’t personal...
Life is valuable. Even for those that don't think so.
Yes the Clinton's got paid.
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