DiMichelle To Face Tough Judge on Sentencing Day

New mob wives Alicia, left, and Natalie.
When the New York Post makes a cover story out of you visiting a courthouse to hear a judge sentence your husband to prison and focuses much of the reporting on the clothes you are wearing, you can pretty much conclude your 15 minutes have begun.

It was the day after the "Mob Wives" premiere, at which at least one party goer was brought to the hospital following the major brawl that busted out there, and Alicia DiMichele, a new star on the show, was off to attend the sentencing of her husband, reputed Colombo enforcer Edward "Tall Guy" Garofalo, Jr., at Brooklyn Federal Court.

Federal Judge Sandra Townes sentenced the mobster to seven years in prison for murder conspiracy, extortion and witness tampering.

Next month the judge will sentence DiMichele, 40, for embezzling union funds from a trucking company she and her husband once owned.

Like most of us would be in in her shoes, she is concerned, she told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview.

And she should be. Based on what we know, Judge Sandra Townes is not known for cutting those with mob connections slack. And since DiMichele already has plead guilty, she will stand totally naked on judgement day (metaphorically speaking, perverts).

Husband Garofalo has already been in prison for three years as the case was moving along.

So the big question, for Alicia, anyway, is will she end up doing any time herself.

After she accepted the "Mob Wives" gig this past summer, the feds asked a judge to have DiMichele's financial status reevaluated to include her income from the TV show. The feds need this information in order to fine her for helping her husband gangster Edward “Tall Guy” Garofalo steal $40,000 from a teamsters pension funds, according to E News Daily.

A possible reason why Alicia became a proactive business partner
to her mobbed-up husband, if it matters, is the huge amount
of debt Tall Guy accumulated. According to 
The New York Post:
"Garofalo, it seems, loves gambling,
but isn’t all that good at it.

The feds won't find any mob-money, however, "as prosecutors might suspect," her lawyer decided to point out in an interview he gave to Philly.com. But the feds have since clarified that they had asked probation officials to look into DiMichele's finances because it seems she has more money now, "not because of how she got it," according to a law-enforcement source, according to RadarOnline.com.

Alicia also owns retail store Addiction Boutique, located in Cherry Hill and on 12th Street and Passyunk Avenue, in Philadelphia. (On top of everything else, she is dealing with litigation from Gucci regarding trademark infringement, and several other companies may join Gucci in litigating against her. This is the result of her posting pics of the alleged counterfeit products on the Internet; she also got in some trouble for posting other pictures online: As E News Daily also wrote: "As she is awaiting sentencing, she needs to advise the court when she travels outside the state. But when she posted pics of herself and friends on the Internet, she was supposed to be at West Virginia University helping her son settle into his dorm.") 


DiMichele was actually arrested for the crimes committed with her husband. As the New York Post reported: "Alicia DiMichele may have an alleged mobster husband — but she’s anything but a traditional big-haired mob wife who spends her day cooking pasta dinners for her made man.

"Alicia is an equal partner with her hubby, Edward “Tall Guy” Garofalo Jr., according to the feds — a “wise gal” helping to blaze a trail for other women hoping to enter the profession.Brooklyn federal prosecutors say the “mobette” — a 38-year-old mother of three — helped the Colombos embezzle union pension and benefit-plan money while working at mob-controlled construction companies."

Wives usually are kept far away from the illicit doings of their mob husbands -- although some are known to have conducted business for imprisoned husbands. In the case of Joe Massino, before flipping, his wife was alleged to have passed on his orders to family members. Wives are also known to have collected loanshark payments -- shows how much today's mobsters trust one another. And these types of mob wives would make for a hell of a reality show.

A possible reason why Alicia became a proactive business partner to her mobbed-up husband, if it matters, is the huge amount of debt Tall Guy accumulated. The Post: "Garofalo, it seems, loves gambling, but isn’t all that good at it.

"And like other mobsters, Garofalo had put almost everything in his wife’s name.

"In the hole for hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, DiMichele filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

"She took a sales job at Bizarre Video, a porno-film-production company in New York with reported mob links that describes itself as “the largest fetish company in the world.”


"Apparently, she did well, because a year later she and her husband were the proprietors of a trucking company." And we all now know how that worked out.


According to the RadarOnline story, DiMichele faces sentencing guidelines of up to six months, "but the reality is the judge could give me whatever she feels," Alicia said. "If she feels I deserve two years in jail, she could give me that.”

There's a good chance whatever the sentence, it won't be only for the embezzlement charge. There is reason to believe that this judge will be thinking of everything but the kitchen sink as it relates to DiMichelle -- including the fact that she was actually arrested with her husband, that she sold alleged counterfeit products, inadvertently exposed herself breaking probationary guidelines. The judge also could consider Alicia's decision to further the mob's glorification by joining the cast of "Mob Wives" which she reportedly had turned down several times.

All these things could quite likely fuel whatever decision the judge reaches on sentencing.

Consider what happened to Francis “BF” Guerra, a long-time associate of the Colombo crime family.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for selling his own prescription drugs.

However, prosecutors had been trying to get him to pay the bill for a double homicide, but the jury acquitted Guerra of both murders, only finding him guilty of selling his prescriptions.

Read what the Daily News reported of the verdict -- and see the name of the judge -- on July 11, 2012: "Federal Judge Sandra Townes seemed puzzled by the result, sending the panel back into the jury room so she could re-read the verdict sheet before it was announced publicly."

Then, this past October, he was sentenced to 14 years for selling prescription pills... or, as we noted in an earlier story, was he?

Consider a press release regarding the verdict: "During the sentencing proceeding, United States District Judge Sandra L. Townes found that, in addition to the crimes of conviction, the government proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant had committed numerous additional crimes, including the 1992 murder of Michael Devine and the 1993 murder of Joseph Scopo...

“Years ago, the defendant Guerra chose a life of crime, with murder as his criminal stock in trade. Organized crime has always been about money rather than honor, and recent years saw Guerra move into the equally deadly business of illegal trafficking in prescription drugs,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “This sentence is a harsh warning to anyone considering introducing these addictive, deadly drugs into our community. This sentence also sends an important message to members and associates of organized crime. We will never stop investigating and prosecuting the murders and other violent crimes they commit..."

Back then, in the earlier story, we wrote "this is kind of frightening if you understand the ramifications of a judge ignoring a jury's verdict when sentencing someone; the jury trial is the most fundamental right, the key law that makes the U.S. what it is today..."

Which we rewrite as: "Alicia, this is kind of frightening..."

Comments

  1. I really love reading this site, but I can't believe you report on Mob Wives. Scripted bullshit, I can't believe I just wasted my time complaining about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I report on the show's ramifications in the real world. I don't do recaps - I do behind the scenes stuff. My traffic increases exponentially when the show is on -- and some of my best stories -- about Chris Paciello and Lee D'Avanzo -- never would've happened without the show.

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  3. Dang Ed, I had to go back and reread it a couple times...sounds like Miss Alicia is Bonnie to her Clyde.

    I think it's a stupid move on her part to be part of the show because when Ramona was on the show, it gave the feds ammo to change up her fiance's bail plan. In any case, it's humorous for her to cry "victim" and point fingers at Karen Gravano when her rap sheet doesn't look squeaky clean either. Craziness!!

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