The Anonymous Jury Sings 'Not Guilty,' Then Escapes Through a Backdoor

Routinely mobsters are sentenced to life for the same litany of crimes: extortion, racketeering, bid-rigging, gambling, dealing and sometimes murder, among other colorful things.

The prosecutor will put together a nice package that falls under the RICO Act, which means that some defendants could go away for life for doing any of the above. Even having a cup of coffee with the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong place can send some fellas to the can for, like, forever under the right circumstances.

And who is putting guys there? The Feds, the prosecutors and the judges.

After what happened this week, I say, What good are they if they can prosecute big bad Mafiosos until the cows come home, but when it comes to the murder of a baby – a mere two-year-old child – in Florida by her own psycho mother, they put on a six-week trial that tapped 400 pieces of evidence only to fail to win over the jury -- an anonymous jury that sang “not guilty,” then escaped through a backdoor like the weasels they are, leaving us with a free Casey in the glare of the media spotlight. Well, jury, we don’t want her. You should have “manned up” and done the right thing.

Of course most mobsters serving time belong there. But you don’t think some street guys are in the can precisely because juries didn’t hold a high enough standard of “reasonable doubt?” They probably figured, this guy is Mafia, he killed and robbed someone somehow along the way, even if he is not guilty of these particular crimes. He deserves to go away. They all do.

It’s the exact opposite of Casey Anthony. The standard of  “reasonable doubt” was set too high by those folks. And why? Because Casey was a young woman, sitting across from them for six weeks with a childish scowl that couldn’t even hide a smidgen of her natural beauty? Is that why? Did she remind them too much of their own wives and daughters?

Well, maybe we needed some more grandparents on that jury. Even better, maybe we needed a made grandpa on that jury to lead the others out the front door, heads held high, a cry of “Guilty of murder in the first degree!” flying out their mouths.

(We do however look forward to sitting back and watching what happens to this evil demon babe. We have a feeling we haven’t heard the last of Casey Anthony. She will end up in prison, you read it here, for grand larceny, grand theft auto, drug possession and/or dealing – and perhaps another murder. That’s if she doesn’t end up getting herself offed somehow, maybe via a wealthy lover or husband?) Her lawyer, Jose Baez, said her life was in danger, he believed, and he was hiring muscle for her. Might want to do the same for yourself, Jose pally, you ain’t too popular on Nancy Grace, either. Cheney Mason is old school and I think can handle himself – I bet the guy is even packing cold metal.

Speaking of crime and punishment, how about the different ways our criminal justice system metes out justice to different types of criminals. Italians in the mob get life on a RICO for practically anything – the prosecutor puts together a nice package of various crimes, almost like a pizza with all the trimmings – a touch of this, a sprinkle of that, and the jury votes guilty as hell! But if you’re a bank exec stealing hundreds of millions, and you use a pen and paper instead of a pistol, you only have to give in and pay a giant fine your company can easily swallow – and then you don’t even have to declare yourself guilty!

The latest wrist slap directed at a major bank is the $228 million fine levied on JP Morgan Chase for “a bid-rigging scheme involving municipal bonds. The Chase ruling is the latest to come down in a series of fines involving a number of banks, including Bank of America and UBS,” reports the New York Times.

Bid-rigging scheme? Hmm. People talk about the end of the Mafia, but in the same breath they should acknowledge that the mob, during the days of its ascension, seems to have taught business how to do business.

“This scam that Chase, Bank of America and UBS were involved with was no different in any way, really, from old-school mafia-style bid-rigging scams,” The New York Times reported.

The banks – among the nation’s largest still standing – joined together and “carved up territory between them, arranging things” so that they wouldn’t have to bid against each other in municipal debt auctions.

“That means the 18 different states involved in these 93-odd deals all got screwed out of the best prices, leaving the taxpayers in those places severely overcharged for their public borrowing.”

The Times continues, “This is absolutely no different from what mafia groups in New York used to (and probably still do) for public contracts – the proverbial five families would get together, divide up the boroughs and neighborhoods between them, and each family would individually buy or intimidate their way into the bidding process, corrupting the game so that the public had to overpay for their garbage collection or their construction labor or whatever.

“The only difference here is that we’re talking about debt, not garbage. But the concept is exactly the same; it’s the same crime.”

If the Chase defendants had been a bunch of Italians from Bensonhurst, the charges would be of the RICO type. Sentences would range up to life. A parade of rats would be lined down the hallway. Somehow a murder or two would be thrown in to juice things up – liven the proceedings, as they say. Stealing may be enough to snag a banker or two, but for your average Mafioso, a body never hurts a conviction or curbs a judge’s sense of righteous indignation following sentencing.

For banks like Chase, the end game often amounts to little more than, “Admit nothing, pay two hours of revenue and all [is] good!”

The Times writer is obviously aware of this hypocrisy, noting, “Go back for yourselves and look through bid-rigging cases in the past. If you see a bunch of Italian names in the list of defendants, you can pretty much guarantee that there’s a RICO prosecution involved.

“But if the defendants are a bunch of Ivy-League educated bankers from Wall Street, what we end up getting is a negligible fine (officials will brag about this $228 million, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what the banks make scamming communities and governments) and, as always, no admission of guilt. This is how the SEC’s own press release reads:

“Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, JPMS has consented to the entry of a final judgment enjoining it from future violations of Section 15(c)(1)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 …

“Allowing Chase to settle without admitting guilt leaves the conned states and localities facing an uphill climb in any attempt to recoup more money through litigation.”

Comments

  1. She was guilty! That jury must have slept through the trial. Hope they all suffer from "buyer's remorse," regret their decision to the point it makes them all sick to their stomachs...

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  2. I agree, Anonymous. I think now that they are exposed to the world again, newspapers and TV and the opinions of friends and family, they will see the fault of their actions. And I am sure we will hear more from Mz Anthony. I'd almost bet on it...

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