Scores

  Years after, I learned the sad and ironic reason for Scars’s escape from justice. Gambino acting captain Craig DePalma was scheduled to be the chief government trial witness against Scars. It had been DePalma’s grand jury testimony that led to Scars’s indictment in Atlanta in the first place, and it was DePalma’s trial testimony that was anticipated to convict him.

  However, at the trial, on the witness stand, DePalma refused to answer any questions, instead asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. Apparently, having inwardly hoped in vain that Scars would plead guilty and not proceed to trial, he found he could neither face Scars in the courtroom nor accept a public labeling of him as a mob “rat.” After the judge dismissed him from the stand, he was returned to a holding facility where he hung himself. Sadly, DePalma’s “sacrifice” was for nothing because, within a year, Scars would be charged in an unrelated murder case in New York and would himself become a federal cooperating witness in major mob prosecutions and a WITSEC participant.

  Although brain-dead from that fateful night, Craig DePalma’s physical body continued in an unresponsive vegetative state, and his father had his body placed in a Westchester, New York nursing home on life support. As Greg DePalma renewed his illegal activities as a Gambino captain, including the planning and the commission of new crimes, he held weekly meetings in his son’s room, with the body present, believing he would be safe from the government’s prying eyes and ears. He turned out to be wrong.

  The executive prosecutors in the Florida prosecutorial office, humiliated by the results in our case and its national ramifications, quickly moved to prepare and file a motion for reconsideration of our sentences. The final motion was signed, not by Hunt, but by the United States Attorney, the chief legal officer in the district. The stated ground for reconsideration was the government’s self-proclaimed failure, the first time around, to sufficiently emphasize the crucial policy considerations involved in the sentencing of “those who undertake at great personal risk, cooperation against organized crime.”

  What happened next was breathtaking. In what appears to have been a unique act during his tenure as President George W. Bush’s attorney general, John Ashcroft authorized his office, represented by Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff—Director of the National Crime Division and later to be Director of Homeland Security—to appear in support of the reconsideration motions. Chertoff’s support was extraordinary in its force and quality. All the other districts, as well as Delaware, appeared and echoed the position of the Attorney General of the United States, arguing for our immediate release.

  Conway denied the motions, pronouncing herself well satisfied with her original sentences. She acknowledged the opinion of the Attorney General, noted the motion signatory as the United States Attorney, as well as the victim’s unusual continuing support, but apparently couldn’t have cared less.

  Additional motions were filed by the government to reduce our sentences; each was denied by Conway. We served every day of the two-hundred-month sentence, minus federal good-time credits, for a total of thirteen-plus years. No nonviolent undercover cooperator, having risked his life at the government’s request, has ever served as long.

  EPILOGUE

  The Aftermath

  After my surrender into WITSEC custody, the Delaware Insurance Department filed a motion in the New York federal district court seeking appointment of a Receiver over Scores. The day the motion was to be heard by the court, Blitz Bilzinsky and Harvey Osher, representing Scores, filed the club into formal bankruptcy. That bankruptcy filing had the effect of staying Heritage’s Receiver appointment motion, and Delaware next proceeded to file a creditor claim in the case.

  Faced with years of litigation, and an uncertain outcome as to where ownership would eventually be awarded by the court, Heritage opted to settle its claim with Scores, realizing a multimillion-dollar recovery.

  As a result, ownership of Scores became the undisputed property of Bilzinsky, Osher, and their associates.

  Scores remains one of the most successful upscale gentlemen’s clubs in the world, with establishments in New York City and around the country.

  Anne C. Conway continues to serve as a federal district judge on senior status in Orlando.

  Judy Hunt retired as a prosecutor in the Middle District of Florida and is now engaged in the private practice of law.

  Mike Sergio, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, surrendered into federal witness custody in 1999 and served a total of twenty-two months of imprisonment. His potentially multi-decade sentence was dramatically reduced by his cooperation against high-level mafia defendants. He is now retired.

  Steve Sergio pled guilty to reduced charges in an arrangement with New York prosecutors and served thirty-seven months in federal prison. He refused to cooperate with the government.

  William “Willie” Marshall entered a witness prison facility and served nine months in custody, also receiving significant credit for his cooperation against major mafia targets.

  Acting mafia captain Craig DePalma initially pled guilty in the Scores case and received an eighty-seven-month sentence. While incarcerated, he agreed to testify in Atlanta and became the chief witness leading to the indictment of Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo. However, at trial, he refused to answer any questions and later hanged himself in a United States Marshals holding facility.

  Greg DePalma, who was facing a twelve-year sentence in the Scores case, received a seventy-month term when he succeeded in falsely convincing his sentencing judge that he was extremely ill and on the verge of death. When he was convicted in yet another subsequent case based on recorded telephonic evidence against him, including boasts of the health ruse he’d pulled off on the prior judge, he received an extremely harsh sentence. He died in jail.

  Mikey Scars was acquitted in Atlanta, but was subsequently indicted in a murder case in New York. At that time, he became a major cooperator against the mob, going on to testify in multiple major trials, including a case against Gotti Jr. In an extraordinary sentencing proceeding in New York, where he received maximum leniency for his cooperation, he was required to waive double jeopardy, enter a guilty plea to the Atlanta acquitted offenses among other crimes, and admitted he’d been wrongfully found not guilty in the Gold Club trial.

  Steve Kaplan, owner of the Gold Club, entered into a plea agreement with Atlanta prosecutors during the Gold Club trial. He stipulated to a three-year prison term, a cash forfeiture of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, and surrender of the Gold Club real estate, the business, and licenses.

  Atlanta AUSA Arthur W. Leach retired from the US Attorney’s office after an impressive career in organized crime prosecution. Today he practices criminal and civil law in the federal courts in Georgia and throughout the United States.

  AUSA Carol Sipperly retired from government service after the Scores case concluded, but returned and now serves as a federal prosecutor based in Washington, D.C. After the Scores case, I’m told AUSA Marjorie Miller retired from the practice of law.

  Special Agents William Ready and Jack Karst remain in distinguished active service in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  Attorneys Morris “Sandy” Weinberg in Tampa, and Peter Ginsberg in New York, remain highly distinguished practitioners of law. They were never fairly or reasonably compensated for their tireless advocacy and representation in this matter; their work spanning almost twenty years. Our attorney and friend, Myles Malman, died in the spring of 2014, after a ten-month battle with brain cancer. We all mourn his passing.

  I have not spoken to Pearlstein since 2001. We each served a total of thirteen-plus years in WITSEC facilities (two hundred months minus full good-time credits). Although the New York prosecutors had promised to use all their influence to keep us housed together while incarcerated, we were separated in the first year by the Bureau of Prisons, and New York refused to intercede on our behalf.

  My former law par
tner, Andrew Cuomo, has been elected, reelected, and serves with distinction as governor of the State of New York, following in the footsteps of his father.

  In September 1998, GQ published an article about Scores, mafia infiltration at the club, and the FBI investigation into the Gambinos.

  Playboy published an article by A. J. Benza in 1999 titled “The Naked and the Dead,” lamenting the decline of Scores after my ownership ended; remembering the good old days.

  Maxim magazine published a history of Scores’ celebrity magnetism in December 2009 titled “Savanna to the Champagne Room,” and Stuff magazine joined the parade with a pictorial: “Scores Scoreboard: Living in the lap dance of luxury,” featuring photographs and stories about star regulars at the club.

  Law and Order presented an episode based, in part, on our Scores story. It was called “Ambitious,” actor Joe Piscopo played me, and it aired in May 1999, almost one year after our surrender.

  The undercover recordings from the Gold Club case are still aired on television programs exploring the risks of undercover cooperation.

  Since 1998, I have continuously cooperated with the Delaware Department of Insurance in the recovery of fraud proceeds. Working in conjunction with the National Heritage Life Insurance Receiver, I testified and submitted affidavits in multiple civil trials and other proceedings and also participated in ongoing debriefings, all of which resulted in multimillion-dollar recoveries. My efforts were lauded as particularly distinguished and significant in court submissions by Delaware seeking leniency on my behalf.

  Originally promised a few months in witness jail, followed by life in the Witness Protection Program, I was released from a WITSEC facility after thirteen-plus years and given not a new identity, but a bus ticket to Brooklyn. (But that’s a story for another day.)

  I appeared on 60 Minutes in 2015, interviewed by correspondent Anderson Cooper. The segment featured a reunion with Agent Ready, retired Atlanta prosecutor Art Leach, and Steve Sergio. I managed to refrain from calling him “Sigmund the Sea Monster.”

  Oh, and I wrote a book.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book began its road to life in the year 2000, in a Federal Witness Security Program facility, on a manual typewriter, using ribbons purchased at commissary. The work kept me sane and provided an outlet for my frustration, fear, and bitterness.

  During those years, my amazing nieces, Sheri and Kim, kept the wheels of progress spinning by talking to me every day, putting up with my incessant complaints, typing my drafts into the computer, and correcting my errors; along with my angels, Angela and Patricia, they were always always there for me. Without my devoted friends, no book—nor sane person—would have emerged from the ordeal.

  I was kept alive by the steadfast friendship and amazing support of those who never left me in their rearview mirrors—Keith, Julie, Marissa, Harvey, Mark, Ted.

  It was celebrated filmmaker Marcos Zurinaga from Puerto Rico who read my 1,000-plus page manuscript and, finding merit and meaning within its pages, first encouraged and nurtured me through the experience of sharing it.

  All my respect and gratitude to Joel Gotler of Intellectual Property Group, my agent, advisor, friend, and confessor. He keeps my head on straight (not easy with a gay man). My love to Joel’s right-hand woman, Rachel Levine, who has more patience than Job; and my sincere appreciation to IPG’s affiliated literary agent, Murray Weiss of Catalyst Literary Management, who taught me so much.

  I owe everything about this book to the gang at BenBella Books out of Dallas. But for its impressive publisher, Glenn Yeffeth, I seriously doubt my story would ever have seen the light of day. He has become the “soul” and “guiding light” of my story, and his staff of enthusiastic and talented folks has infused me with excitement and anticipation. Special thanks to Erin Kelley, who started me on this creative journey with Skype calls from Europe.

  No words can express my feelings of complete gratitude to my editor, Alexa Stevenson. How lucky I am to have found a kindred soul who understands me, my life, my sense of humor, and my desire to express my innermost feelings. You have made me a better writer and a better person, and you are always there for me. I will never forget your tremendous contribution.

  To my fantastic lawyers, Jon Moonves and Tom Greenberg, at Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein & Lezcano. They taught me that I am not the easiest client to handle.

  To everyone at Goldcrest Films and Gaumont International Television, especially Nick Quested, David Kennedy, Robyn Meisinger, and Sharon Hall, for believing in me and filling me with dreams of a bright and exciting future in a new life.

  And to all the friends who took me back when I came home and supported and cherished me, and the new friends who gave me back my old confidence and hope for long-awaited redemption: Keith, Julie, Steve, Harvey, Mark, Angela, Ted, Adam, Alex, Peter, Carol, Greg, Sam, Bruce, Mark, Sabrina, Blue, Bentley; to my dear ones, Jamie, Mike, Daniel, Lew, Harry, Jacob, Kyle, Nick, Drew; and to my hearts, Adam and Claudio.

  To my family of all families: Carole, Sheri, Kim, Joe, Robert, Nina, Parker, Brooklyn. I love you all so much. More than you know.

  And to all those I have failed to honor here under the pressure of writing these acknowledgments: Forgive me. I owe you.