Genovese Family Member Convicted of 20-year-old Mob Hit

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 24- District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that a 64-year-old New Jersey man with ties to organized crime is facing life imprisonment after being convicted of murder for his role in a “mob hit” that occurred in the Bronx 20 years ago.

Paul Gaccione, a.k.a. Doc, was found guilty on one count of murder in the second degree in the death of Angelo Sangiuolo, who was 32-years-old when he was shot to death on June 3, 1992. The jury found that Gaccione, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, had acted-in-concert with others in causing Sangiuolo’s death.

State Supreme Court Justice Seth Marvin set sentencing for Wednesday, September 12, 2012 in Part T27. The judge could impose a maximum term of up to 25 years to life in prison.

The jury heard testimony that Gaccione was the driver of a stolen van in which the deceased was a passenger when he was shot numerous times in the torso and head. Following the “hit” in the vicinity of Wilkinson and Westchester Avenues, Caccione drove the van into the parking lot of a nearby McDonald’s Restaurant at 1515 Williamsbridge Road and abandoned the stolen vehicle with the body in it.

During the trial, witnesses testified that the murder had been arranged by Angelo Prisco, a member of the Genovese Organized Crime Family and carried out at Prisco’s direction by John Leto, who shot Sangiuolo to death. The deceased was in the van with Gaccione and Leto under the pretense that Prisco had asked them to help Sangiuolo resolve some problem.

Both Prisco and Leto were prosecuted and convicted for their roles in this killing as well as other crimes, by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The case against Gaccione was referred to the Bronx District Attorney for prosecution because federal authorities lacked jurisdiction under the RICO Statute. Gaccione could not be charged under the federal enterprise corruption law solely on the basis of his participation in the murder.

The case against Gaccione is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robert Caliendo, of the Rackets Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Glucksman of the Investigations Division.

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News Photog Captures Vicious Pitbull Attack

(Photos by David Greene)

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 22- Dozens of Concourse residents watched in horror as a dog was brutally attacked by a pit bull. Two police officers stayed back at a safe distance, one holding a billy club as a half dozen residents separated the two dogs. The critically injured dog was taken by cab to a local animal hospital, its condition was not known. The alleged owners of the pit bull were allowed to take the dog back inside an apartment building and no report was taken or summons issued by police.

Investigate Cougar Gate!

Naomi Rivera’s Opponent Calls on DA, Attorney General to Probe Alleged Misuse of Tax Payer $

By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 20- Follow the money, is what Naomi Rivera’s opponent is saying to investigators in regards to affairs the assemblywoman had with younger men whom she put on staff at her office and at a not-for-profit. The political challenger is calling on the Bronx DA and state Attorney General to investigate alleged misuse of tax payer dollars.

Mark Gjonaj candidate for the 80^th assembly district sent the following statement: “The Post story shows a clear misuse of public tax payer dollars, which only serves to further voters’ lack of confidence in their elected officials. These allegations necessitate an immediate investigation by the Bronx District Attorney and the NY state Attorney General. I am sure on election day, the voters will make their voices clear that this behavior is no longer acceptable by their public officials.” 

Another opponent of Assemblywoman Rivera Adam Bermudez said, "I believe that no voters who have heard the well reported facts regarding misappropriation of tax dollars will vote for the incumbent Assemblywoman. 

In what has become the second of a series of stories the New York Post last Sunday had a front page story about Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera titled “SUGAR MAMA.” 

This was a tell all story by “BOY TOY” #1 Vincent “Vinny” Pinela on how he got a job as executive director of a non profit The Bronx Council for Economic Development. In the Post article Pinela claims that he had no experience in non profits, but was hired at a salary of $60,000 at the urging of Assemblywoman Rivera after the two started to see each other. The Post article goes on to say that Pinela and Rivera shared an address for parts of 2008 and 2009, that the non profit received over $300,000 in grants from the state, and that Assemblywoman Rivera herself steered just under half of the monies to the non profit herself.

As for where the state monies went, the Post says that romantic dinners, a payment of over $40,000 to a production company owned by one of the assemblywoman’s family members for work done in 2007, and political expenses and donations, (which the Post says were not allowed by a non profit) were among other items. 

As to why the article brings in her father Assemblyman Jose Rivera who was the Bronx Democratic County Leader from 2002 until 2008, I spoke with Mr. Mike Nieves (her father’s campaign manager), who said “Jose Rivera's daughters private life has nothing to do with her father.” 

I called Assemblywoman Rivera's office for a comment from her only to be told that the spokesman would get back to me. After a few more calls I got the spokesman for Assemblywoman Rivera who told me that he would send me a response by my deadline. I was able to extend the deadline still with no comment however from Assemblywoman Rivera as the spokesman was in a meeting and out of the office I was told.

I spoke to several other people which included Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. who asked me to make sure that I mentioned that He was the first elected official to endorse Mark Gjonaj for the 80^th Assembly seat, not Naomi Rivera. Political Strategist Patrick Jenkins spokesman for the Bronx Democratic County Organization said, “The Bronx Democratic County Organization stands behind Assemblyman Naomi Rivera and continues to support her, and will not change their position.” Again there were some supporters of Assemblywoman Rivera who did not want to comment.

You can go to my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com and check the archive section on the left for the links to both Sunday's and Monday's New York Post stories.

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Yanks are Sitting Pretty

Beat Boston to Continue Command of First

(Photo by Gary Quintal)

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 20- More than 330,000 fans came to Yankee Stadium during the most recent seven game homestand of the Yankees. Many fans took advantage of summer vacations to spend some time at the great ballpark in the Bronx.

The first four games were contests between the Texas Rangers, leaders of the American League West, and the Yanks, leaders of the American League East. Fans could have been witnessing a preview of the ALCS. The battle between the two American League powerhouses was centered upon which of the two clubs would finish the 2012 season with the best record in the league, thus capturing home field advantage in the American League Championship Series.

The two clubs entered the series with identical won/loss marks, 67-47. The Yanks clinched the four-game series by winning the first three contests while holding the Rangers to a total of four runs. Yankees starters David Phelps, Hiroki Kuroda and Freddy Garcia each won one contest.

The Texas offense came to life in the final game on Thursday by scoring 10 runs on 16 hits. The 10-6 victory allowed the Rangers to leave the Bronx without having been swept.

Although the Yanks gave up 10 runs on Thursday, manager Joe Girardi reflected on the team’s fine work, “We pitched pretty well. We swung the bats pretty well. We played pretty good baseball. We’re in the race for the best record.”

After the Rangers limped out of town on Thursday night, the Boston Red Sox began their second three-day visit within a month. The three sell-out crowds were treated to some interesting baseball between the arch-rivals in the American League East.

The Yanks, more than any other club in the majors, have lived and died by the home run. On Friday, their season high of five homers provided them with a 6-4 victory over the Red Sox. On Saturday, the only run scored by New York was by a solo home run by Curtis Granderson. The single run was not sufficient as Boston won by a score of 4-1.

The multi-homer hitter for the Yankees on Sunday night was not the usual suspect. Icharo Suzuki homered in consecutive at bats to the delight of the full house. He followed the two four baggers with an infield single. Much less surprising was that Derek Jeter hit safely in his first three at bats. The three hits raised his career total to 3,251, one below Napoleon Lajoie, who is in 12^th place. The four Yankee runs were scored by the two future Hall of Famers, Jeter and Suzuki. Each crossed the plate twice during the game.

Hiroki Kuroda held Boston scoreless for 6.1 innings before surrendering a solo home run to Adrian Gonzalez. That homer was the only run given up By Kuroda in his eight innings on the mound. The 4-1 win was the ninth in his last 11 decisions.

The Yanks are still leading the race in the A.L. East, but the final outcome has not been decided. Tampa, in second place, has won 11 of its last 13 and Baltimore, in the third place, has won 11 of 15. The Yanks will face the Rays in six additional games and will play Baltimore on seven more occasions. The Yankees have kept pace with their challengers, winning 9 of their last 12 contests. The home games were not only a financial success, but were beneficial to the pennant race for New York as the Yanks won five of the seven games played.

The ability of the Yankees to win on the road as effectively as they do at Yankee Stadium will also be a factor in the race for the American East title as 16 of the club’s next 22 games will be played on the road.

The answer to where the Yankees will place as the regular season concludes may be a little clearer to discern on August 27 when the Yanks return to the Bronx after a six game road trip.

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Stormin’ Yanks Bash Sox

(Photo by Gary Quintal)

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 18- All but one run for each club was scored via a home run on Friday night at Yankee Stadium. The five homers clouted by the Bronx Bombers allowed them to edge the Boston Red Sox, 6-4.

The five long balls of the Yankees raised their total this season to a Major League high of 186. The Yanks, on a good run, have homered in 33 of their last 37 games. They are currently on pace to equal if not surpass their single season mark of 244, achieved in 2009.

Nick Swisher hit the first Yankee homer of the contest with one out in the first. He connected for another solo homer from the other side of the plate with one out in the seventh. This was the 12^th game in Swisher’s career that he accomplished this feat. He is only behind teammate Mark Teixeira, who has homered from both sides of the plate in 13 games.

The very hot Swisher has scored and driven in at least one run in each of his last six games. The streak is the longest by a Yankee since August 30-September 4, 2008 when Alex Rodriguez did the same.

Manager Joe Girardi said of Swisher, “He’s been extremely impressive. He’s done a great job there [batting in the second spot].”

Curtis Granderson (31) and Russell Martin (13) hit back-to-back homers in the second inning.

Derek Jeter led off the fifth with his 250^th homer, surpassing Graig Nettles on the Yankees. The homer was his 10^th of the 2012 season, which gave the Yankees a Major League leading total of 10 players (Robinson Cano, Eric Chavez, Curtis Granderson, Raúl Ibañez, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Russell Martin, Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira) with homers in double digits. The hit also increased Jeter’s consecutive game hitting streak to 13.

Girardi praised the iconic Yankee hero, “He’s [Jeter] an amazing player. How many 38 year olds play 15 games in a row.”

Red Sox starter Franklin Morales gave up four of the home runs in 5.1 innings. In his only other start against the Yanks this year Morales also yielded four homers. Interestingly, in six other starts in 2012, Morales surrendered only one home run.

The Red Sox scored all their four tallies in the third inning. Although none of the four runs were charged to Yankees starter Phil Hughes his throwing error caused them to be scored. Mike Aviles singled to begin the inning. Hughes fielded an easy grounder by Scott Podsednik into center on what appeared to be an easy double play. With one run in and two on base Dustin Pedroia awarded himself three runs batted in with a homer into the left field seats as a present for his 29^th birthday. This was the third game in which Pedroia celebrated his birthday with a home run.

Hughes gave up only two other hits in his seven inning stint. The win ended his two game losing streak.  Girardi was pleased by his performance, “He got ground balls; he didn’t walk people; he got us through seven innings. It was great except for his throw to second.

David Phelps (3-3) and Jon Lester (6-10) will start the second game of the weekend series to be played on Saturday at 4 p.m.

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Yankee Pitching Can’t Slow Ranger Bats

(Photos by Ken Carozza)

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 17- The Texas Rangers ended their eight-game losing streak at Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon with a 10-6 victory over the Yankees. Despite the Texas win, the Rangers trail the Yanks by 1.5 games for the best record in the American League.

After holding the Rangers to a  lowly batting average of .199 (37 for 186) in their games during the 2012 season, the Rangers exploded for 16 hits and 10 runs on Thursday afternoon. After the conclusion of Wednesday night’s contest, Texas Rangers skipper Ron Washington accurately prognosticated the immediate future for his team’s batters, “What I see is that the past three days the Yankees pitchers have shut us down…We’ll bounce back tomorrow. Maybe we need the challenge of facing [Ivan] Nova tomorrow…Maybe tomorrow we’ll bust out.”

Texas busted out from the top of the lineup to the bottom and from the first inning to the ninth. All but one batter, first baseman Mitch Moreland, hit successfully, and Moreland walked twice. Twenty-two Rangers reached base successfully.

The hits were effective as the Rangers were successful in 6 of 15 chances with runners in scoring position. Adrian Beltre and David Murphy each drove in three runs with three hits. Craig Gentry also had three runs batted in, two on a single and one on a ground out. Elvis Andrus AND Geovany Soto each got two hits and drove in one run.

Both starting pitchers, Ivan Nova and Derek Holland, had very similar statistics; each pitched 5.2 innings and gave up four earned runs; neither was involved in the decision.

The Yanks concentrated their offense in one inning, the sixth. Five batters hit successfully and five runs were scored. In the other eight frames, the Yanks were limited to five hits and one run.

Two future Hall of Fame members, Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki, had multi-hit games. Jeter’s single in the sixth drove Suzuki across the plate and increased Jeter’s hitting streak to 12 games. His single in the next inning raised his career total to 3,247, five from tying Napoleon Lajoie for 12^th place in career hits. Suzuki got singles in each of his three official at bats, raising his batting average as a Yankee to above .300 (24 for 77).

On Friday night the Boston Red Sox come to the Bronx for a three game series. Phil Hughes (11-10) will start for the Yanks and Franklyn Morales (3-3) will start for Boston.

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Bombers in sweep mode with latest win over Rangers

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, August 16- The four-game series in the Bronx this week with the Yankees and Texas Rangers could be a possible prelude to the American League Championship Series in October. So far, after the Yankees rain delayed 3-2 win Wednesday night, the advantage in October could go to New York.

Pitching wins games in the post season, and Yankees starters have certainly quieted a potent Texas lineup. Freddie Garcia, making his 13^th start of the season followed the two-hit shutout of the night before allowing two runs in 6/2-3 innings in winning his third straight start.

Garcia (7-5) allowed four hits and the Yankees bullpen did the rest. Rafael Soriano threw a scoreless ninth and recorded his 29^th save.

“Our guys have done a tremendous job,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “I applaud out pitches.” Ivan Nova, (11-6) will try and get the Yankees a sweep over the Rangers as the series concludes Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

But it seems the Yankees pitching staff this season has found a way to keep Texas off the bases. The Rangers came into the series as the top hitting team in baseball with a .276 average.

“Once again pitching stops everything,” commented Rangers manager Ron Washington.

Yankees pitching has held Rangers batters to a .199 average this season, and until Josh Hamilton hit the first of two home runs in the fourth inning, another one in the sixth, accounting for their only runs, the Yankees staff had held Texas scoreless for 19 consecutive innings in the Bronx.

“They scored a bunch of runs the first night,” added Washington. “Last night they got another good pitching performance from Kuroda. Tonight we were in the ballgame. But you have to give them credit. Their pitching stopped us.  We’re a team that can score runs but we just haven’t been able to score any right now in these three games here.”

Washington said he was hoping to see his team score some runs Thursday afternoon. But the way the Yankees starters have been going in this series, there may be no need to rush CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte off the disabled list and back in the rotation.

Said Garcia, who has not lost to the Rangers since 2004, “When you see one guy pitch, and the other guy pitch you’re thinking you got to go out there and try to do the same.” He is 5-0 with a 1.90 ERA during the streak against Texas.

Texas has scored four runs in the three games and has lost eight straight games in the Bronx. Hamilton reached a career high in home runs with 33, and became the second player to drive in 100 runs this season, next to Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera.

“When you are seeing the ball good you feel like you feel like you can pretty much hit anything,” said Hamilton who had a four-home run game earlier this season at Baltimore and recorded his seventh career multi-home run game.

Hamilton came up in the ninth inning against Soriano with a chance to tie the game and struck out.

A three-run third inning was enough runs for the Yankees. Nick Swisher drove in a run off with a double off Texas starter and loser Scott Feldman (6-7). Swisher has driven in seven runs in the series, including a grand slam home run Monday night and a two-run blast Tuesday.

New York won for the seventh time in the last eight games. 

e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com. Watch and listen to Rich tonight on www.inthemixxradio.,com live at 10:30 p.m. as he hosts Keep it in the Ring w/Rich&Jason.