Lawyer Claims FBI Knew Convicts Were Innocent
New York Lawyer
February 28, 2007
By Denise Lavoie
The Associated Press
BOSTON -- The FBI considered the lives of four men who spent decades in prison for a murder they didn't commit "acceptable collateral damage" in the fight against organized crime, a lawyer for the families of the men said Tuesday.
Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of two other men who died in prison after being convicted in the 1965 gangland killing of Edward "Teddy" Deegan are suing the federal government for malicious prosecution.
Lawyers have not specified the amount they are seeking, but have cited court decisions that show other plaintiffs were awarded $1 million for each year in prison.
In closing arguments Tuesday, attorney Michael Avery said Boston agents knew that FBI informant Joseph "The Animal" Barboza lied when he named the four men as Deegan's killers. Barboza wanted to protect a fellow FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was involved in Deegan's killing, Avery said.
The men were "acceptable collateral damage" in the FBI's priority at the time -- taking down the Mafia through the use of criminal informants, Avery said.
The government has argued federal authorities had no duty to share information with state officials who prosecuted Limone, Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco. Justice Department lawyer Bridge Bailey Lipscomb said Tuesday that federal authorities cannot be held responsible for the results of a state prosecution.
Lipscomb said the state investigated the case for eight months and had 10 investigators working on it.
"To the extent that Barboza lied, someone should have gleaned that lie out of all the investigation," she said.
Salvati and Limone were exonerated in 2001 after FBI memos dating back to the Deegan case surfaced, showing the men were framed by Barboza.
The memos were made public after they were discovered by a Justice Department task force probing the FBI's relationship with gangsters and FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.
