The judge in the Abner Louima torture case rejected prosecutors' bid for a gag order yesterday - but warned both sides to tone down their comments to the press. Brooklyn Federal Judge Reena Raggi also consolidated the civil rights and perjury charges against ex-cop Charles Schwarz into one case, over defense objections. Acting Brooklyn U.
S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad wanted to muzzle Schwarz's lawyers after they called perjury charges against the ex-cop "vindictive" and said they were designed to intimidate defense witnesses. Raggi said the intimidation charge came dangerously close to crossing the line. Schwarz was granted a new trial after a federal appeals court overturned his conviction on violating Louima's civil rights. He is accused of restraining Louima in a 70th Precinct stationhouse bathroom while another cop, Justin Volpe, sodomized the victim with a wooden stick. John Marzulli 2 deli-slay juries Two men charged with slaughtering three people in an apartment above the Carnegie Deli last year will go to trial this month before two juries - in one courtroom. The unusual arrangement of separate but simultaneous trials was ordered yesterday by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman. She decided on dual juries after ruling that Sean Salley, 30, and Andre Smith, 32, needed separate trials because each accused the other of firing the fatal shots. The two juries will sit for testimony that applies to both defendants but will be separated for testimony or evidence that deals with one defendant. Barbara Ross Mob boss gets life Former Bonanno crime boss Anthony Spero was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without parole - and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and the funeral expenses of one of his murder victims. Spero, 73, who was convicted last year of racketeering and ordering three murders, had asked for leniency because of his age and pleaded poverty in a bid to avoid fines. Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman ignored the pleas. "The case highlighted . . . the extent to which young men are lured into this life where they become cannon fodder to be killed or to kill, with people like Mr. Spero benefiting from it," Korman said. He ordered Spero to pay $7,477 in funeral expenses to the family of Louis Tuzzio, who was killed on Spero's orders in 1990 after botching a hit. Defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said he would appeal the conviction. John Marzulli DNA links con, rape The 1997 rape of a 25-year-old New York University graduate student in Greenwich Village was solved when DNA led to an inmate upstate, cops said yesterday. A blood sample taken from Roland Johnson, 44, after he was imprisoned on a grand larceny conviction - the 25th conviction of his life - linked him to the crime, police said. Alice McQuillan
To Post Comments Sign In