By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A defense lawyer is accusing the feds of misconduct, alleging in federal court in New York that authorities helped promote teen prostitution, a crime the Gambino Crime family is accused of, the New York Times reports.
The paper reports federal authorities have charged the crime family with sex trafficking with girls as young as 15. The prosecutors at one point called it ”a new low for the Gambino family.”
But defense attorney Gerald J. McMahon, who represents one of 14 defendants in the case, said in newly filed court papers that one person operating the sex ring, who was a convicted sex abuser “had a cooperation agreement as a federal witness,” the New York Times reports.
”A reasonable person might wonder,” Mr. McMahon wrote, according to the Times, ”whether the government — in its zeal to make a racketeering case against the Gambino family — allowed a 15-year-old girl to be shamefully and criminally exploited.” He’s asked that the case be dismissed for “outrageous government misconduct.”
Federal prosecutors, declined comment and had yet to respond to the filing, the Timews reported.
FBI spokesman James Margolin, an F.B.I. spokesman in New York, told the Times: ”This office would not — and did not — approve of any criminal activity involving a minor, much less the sexual exploitation of a minor.”
To read more click here.
