Bonanno Lifer Joe Chilli Wins One: Gets Supervision, Not Prison

Listing on a cane last Tuesday, wearing a blue-and-white Reebok tracksuit and a pair of black Crocs, Bonanno wiseguy Joseph Chilli III, all 400 pounds of him, went to Brooklyn federal court to take his medicine.

Joe Chilli III

Both prosecutor and probation officer recommended that the judge give Chill, 63, who violated his supervised release, time served rather than seven to 13 months in prison as called for by sentencing guidelines.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis mostly went along with the recommendations made by assistant U.S. attorney Margaret Gandy and Department of Probation officer John Alamanza. He gave Chilli four more years of supervised release. (Lifetime home release also was on the table for the longtime Bonanno wiseguy; his root crime is a drug conviction, specifically, a 2000 drug case to which Chilli pleaded guilty in 2003.)

Considering his lifetime "profession" as a badguy, in all likelihood this won't be his last dance either as the possibility he won't get caught meeting with his mobster friends again in the next four years seems rather remote.

Previously in Manhattan, for the same charge of V'ing his SR, Chill had been sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center for two months. That stemmed from a Manhattan Federal Court conviction.

This trip, Chilli outright copped to meeting with his wiseguy pals, but steadfastly claimed the meets were not criminal in nature. Rather, they had to do with legitimate business (Chilli distributes Italian foodstuffs to pizzerias and grocery stores).

Chilli's four-year-long stretch of post-prison supervision would have ended this week had the wiseguy not had his recent trouble. Instead, he gets another four years.

Chilli is morbidly obese and reportedly suffers from a slew of medical ailments.

Chilli is the son of longtime Bonanno soldier Joseph (Junior) Chilli, who died in 2008 at age 74 from a myriad of medical ailments. Junior also had a problem with not associating with wiseguy buddies on his "do not associate with" list, and it cost him several parole violation bids over his last decade.

Chilli III’s lawyer admitted the wiseguy had met with at least three reputed mobsters between October 2018 and March 2019.

Chilli's business reportedly is a produce-delivery service. His former cellmate -- and also a reputed wiseguy -- Dominic DiFiore had been helping him find clients. Chilli's foodstuffs outfit offers tomato sauce, olive oil and meat etc to pizzerias and grocery stores. The company also employs the son of Salvatore Palmieri, another alleged mobster, as a truck driver. (Palmieri’s wife reportedly cleans Chilli’s house.)

A third alleged wiseguy, Joseph Giddio, visited the ailing Chilli at home to check on him, too.

In court, Judge Garaufis parsed words with Chilli's attorneys, and told Chilli:

“I’ve been dealing with these problems with the Bonanno organized crime family for the last 18 years, including violations of supervised release.

“It’s a little bit sophomoric and a little bit simplistic to say you’re engaging in business with [these] people.

“Work with people who don’t have these connections to organized crime.”