A key government witness abruptly decided to stop testifying against a construction company owned by relatives of two Philadelphia mobsters because he received a threatening telephone call, a prosecutor said Friday.
Ronald Chance investigated mob ties to the construction industry in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Chance had appeared before the New Jersey Casino Control Commission on Monday to discuss whether the company, Bayshore Rebar, should be allowed to do work in the Atlantic City casino industry. His testimony was to continue Friday, but he notified state prosecutors Thursday night he wouldn't do so.
Assistant Attorney General Anthony Zarrillo said Chance received the phone call sometime after his Monday appearance. Zarrillo would not say what the threat was or whether law enforcement is investigating it.
``He received a form of a threat that caused him to rethink his continued cooperation with us,'' Zarrillo said Friday. ``It had nothing to do with the accuracy or veracity of his testimony.''
Chance had testified that convicted mob killer Lawrence ``Yogi'' Merlino had founded Bayshore as a way to get around minority set-aside requirements for some construction jobs, something that was widely known in the construction industry.
On Friday, Joseph N. Merlino -- Lawrence Merlino's son – said Chance was lying.
Due to his sudden refusal to continue and be subjected to cross-examination by Merlino's lawyer, Chance's testimony had to be stricken from the record. He did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment Friday.
Merlino’s lawyer, John Donnelly, called the reported threat “an absolute, complete, unadulterated lie, a lie calculated to prejudice my client.'' He accused the state Division of Gaming Enforcement of having ``a mantra that they will never, ever, ever allow anyone with the name Merlino to have a license.''
Joseph N. Merlino and his mother, Phyllis, own Bayshore Rebar, which inserts steel rods into concrete to strengthen it. They maintain that the Pleasantville-based company is clean and that they have nothing to do with ``that side of the family.''
``No one in this room will ever see those people together,'' Donnelly said. ``As human relations go, I think the other side of the family has gotten the message.''
This is the third time Bayshore has sought to do work in the Atlantic City casino industry. The state rejected two previous attempts for such a license dating back to the 1980s.
Merlino’s father was convicted of a mob killing, agreed to cooperate with the government and died while in the federal witness protection program in 2001. His cousin is jailed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph ``Skinny Joey'' Merlino.
Deputy Attorney General Wendy Way said the case against Bayshore is about its officers' relationships to mobsters.
``It is not about prejudice, it is not about stereotypes, and it is not about one name any more than it is about another name,'' she said. ``Nor is it about the legacy _ illicit and repugnant as it is -- of a father and an ex-husband.
``It's what you do about that legacy,'' Way said. ``Do you renounce it or do you continue it?''
She cited testimony of law enforcement officials about meetings between Anthony Giraldi, who the state alleges is a mob associate, and ``Skinny Joey'' Merlino, including once when Giraldi picked him up from the airport in a new Cadillac.
Prosecutors cited more than 4,000 phone calls between Joseph N. Merlino and Giraldi, whom he describes as a friend he has since cut off contact with.
Way also cited testimony from officers about several meetings in a restaurant in Margate between ``Skinny Joey'' and Joseph N. Merlino in 1998; calls from Bayshore Rebar's offices to the home of Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Ligambi; and a graduation party for Ligambi's son that Joseph N. Merlino attended.
There also was testimony that ``Skinny Joey'' Merlino repeatedly called his cousin, Joseph N. Merlino, from a federal detention center.
``Never once did they tell Skinny Joey, 'Stop calling,' `` Way said.
Donnelly says Giraldi is nothing more than a plumber from Philadelphia.
It could be several months before a decision is reached.
