Federal Judge John S. Martin, Jr. (S.D. NY, G.H.W. Bush) agreed on Jan. 29 to appoint an administrator for a mob-riddled union that ignored court orders to clean itself up. The next day, he appointed frmr. N.Y.C. Police Commissioner Robert McGuire to take over the union.
Local 1588 of the Intl. Longshoremen’s Assn. in Bayonne settled a racketeering case in 1992 filed by the U.S. Attny. for the Sou. Dist. for NY. As part of that settlement, Eugene G’Sell and John Angelone agreed to keep the Genovese crime family out of their union, and to have nothing to do with Genovese associate Joseph Lore. But in a 2001 trial, G’Sell and Angelone detailed how they helped embezzle between $1.3-$2.3 million from the union for Lore’s benefit.
Then this past May, the current president of 1588, John Timparano, and five other current and frmr. officials, were indicted in NJ state court for racketeering and extortion. U.S. Attny. James B. Comey asked Judge Martin for the court takeover on Dec. 10. after Timparano announced that he would still conduct officer elections on the 27th.
Lawyers for Local 1588 claimed that the state’s indictment against the reputed Genovese associate would soon be dismissed. And ILA Vice President John D. Baker claimed to have already taken action to clean up the mob-riddled local, and that the proposed fed. takeover was unnecessary. But agreeing with the U.S. Attny., Judge Martin said, “By the union’s own admission, from the date of the signing of the decree, officers of Local 1588 blatantly and repeatedly violated the terms of the consent decree.”
McGuire, the new administrator, was the Police Commissioner from 1978-83. In the 1990s, he supervised the reform of the city’s garment-trucking industry after it had been infiltrated by organized crime. [Newsday 1/29/03, 1/30/03]