Posted: Thursday, 02 July 2009 11:33AM
Give It Up Billy
Steve Corbett Reporting
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Just like a bad wine hangover, reputed mobster Billy D’Elia seems to take forever to go away.
Even as he’s in the early stages of a nine-year federal prison sentence, his reach and reputation make buzzers and bells go off in my head. His power might be diminished but his name still means something around here.
So does his reputed connection to the Mafia, where federal officials claim he served as crime boss of what’s left of the Russell Bufalino crime family, Northeastern Pennsylvania’s contribution to mob lore nationwide.
In hard coal country, the scene of the grime where he plied his trade – whatever that was – D’Elia’s impact remains strong and menacing.
And, after decades of hammering him and taunting him as a punk in many newspaper columns, I’m finally rooting for the bum.
But the big man let me down yesterday.
D’Elia yesterday invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination in an Allentown court proceeding where a judge appointed by the state Supreme Court is reviewing a defamation case against the Citizens Voice newspaper to see if a new trial is in order.
The big alleged gangster who has hung out for years with some of America’s most notorious mobsters didn’t even show up in court to make his play.
Instead, his lawyer filed papers that told the court to “fuhgettabouit.”
D’Elia ain’t saying nothing about nothing - at least for now.
I had great expectations for D’Elia, who government officials say cooperated with law enforcement officials and pleaded guilty to witness tampering and money laundering charges.
But he wasn’t about to corroborate what his one-time associate testified to in court yesterday.
Bob Kulick, who is facing federal prison time on a gun charge, told the court that D’Elia told him former Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan had assured him that the fix was in on a case involving another alleged D’Elia associate.
Conahan, a gangster himself, is preparing for federal prison after pleading guilty to taking kickbacks from Hazleton lawyer Bob Powell, who pleaded guilty yesterday to helping hide money he paid the judge and another gangster judge, Mark Ciavarella, who also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
Ciavarella was the judge in the allegedly fixed case, by the way.
I know this gets confusing but bear with me.
Kulick is a tough guy ex-con who I believe finally wants to set the record straight.
So I’m inclined to put some faith in his testimony – especially since another witness seems to have established that a relationship existed between Conahan and D’Elia.
A Luzerne County security guard testified under oath and under threat of perjury that she hand-delivered to Conahan between 10 and 20 envelopes she received from D’Elia. The alleged mob boss met her in the courthouse parking lot. The guard said she didn’t know what the envelopes contained.
Kulick said that he handed off his own envelopes to the security guard as well. Then he invited everybody to his lavish Christmas parties at the big home he shares with his wife whose parents own their own speedway in the Poconos.
Kulick said he gave Conahan free tickets to the NASCAR races there and that Conahan and Ciavarella sometimes took interns to the races in Ciavarella’s motor home.
The security guard testified that she attended the Kulick Christmas party. So did D’Elia, Conahan and Ciavarella, according to court testimony.
Other county officials received invitations but some confusion exists as to who actually attended.
We’ll find out.
Hopefully so will a federal grand jury that should be convened to investigate whether to indict some once well-respected leaders in the community on a whole slew of new charges.
If that happens, I’ll hoist glass after glass of red wine to celebrate another case where justice prevails.
Bad as it sounds, the hangover will be worth it.
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Corbett
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