Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A tiny fraction of drug defendants in federal cases chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty. A new report from Human Rights Watch indicates that just 3% of defendants charged with drugs choose to go to trial, the Huffington Post reports. The reason: The excessive penalties for drugs, according to…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev yawned Wednesday as he pleaded not guilty on 30 charges in federal court, the New York Daily News reports. At times, the 19-year-old appeared to be fidgety; other times he appeared to be nonchalant, the News wrote. One victim expressed feeling uneasy at the hearing. “It…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Carla R. Walker, 43, of Lebanon, Ill. must not have listed “running away” in her escape plan when she wore flip-flops to rob her hometown bank. Walker pled guilty Thursday in federal court on one count of bank robbery, announced the Justice Department in a press release. They must have heard Walker…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Mob boss DeLeo’s been off the streets for a while, but that hasn’t kept the feds from coming after him. The 69-year-old Colombo Family ‘Street Boss’, of Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in Boston Federal court Thursday to racketeering conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms, the Justice Department announced in a press release. As…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com A Seattle couple busted for welfare fraud pleaded guilty Thursday. Apparently they had a lot more to lose than met the eye. Chiropractor David Silverstein, 60, was the lover of Lyudmila Shimonova, 53, but told authorities he was her landlord of the million dollar home near Pritchard Beach on Lake Washington in…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Sometimes being a ‘friend of Israel’ means sharing criminals. Three Israeli mobsters were extradited to the U.S. in January 2011 in the first extradition of its kind under Israel’s racketeering law, which parallels RICO, the U.S. law targeting organized crime. Two of the three pled guilty to a host of drug and…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Racketeering, narcotics trafficking, assault, extortion, murder? Just another day-in-the-life of a Gambino mobster. Five Gambino wise guys pled guilty this week to a range of nefarious charges, announced Preet Bharara, NY U.S Attorney in Manhattan. Working as “soldiers” and “associates” of the Gambino crime family, Vincenzo Frogiero, Todd Labarca, John Brancaccio, Christopher…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com A 2010 sting nailed a would-be bomber for attempting to plant an explosive device in the bustling Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago. Now, he’s likely to be out of commission for a long time. The FBI announced Monday that Sami Samir Hassoun, a 24-year-old green card holder from Lebanon, pleaded guilty to one…
