Skip to main content

"I'm a rat," Emiliano "Emo" Gonzales member of Arillotta's "crew"

Emiliano "Emo" Gonzales, aligning with state police in 2003 was a slippery slope.
He told jurors today in an extortion conspiracy case that his on-again, off-again relationship with investigators led him to the witness box in Hampden Superior Court, saddled with an unsavory label.
"What happens to rats?" Assistant District Attorney Carmen W. Picknally asked Gonzales during questioning.
"They get killed," Gonzales responded.
"And what are you, sir?" Picknally asked.
"I'm a rat," he said, after admitting he wore a body wire to record conversations with defendants Anthony J. Arillotta, 39, of Springfield, and brothers Ty C. Geas, 35, and Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 40, both of West Springfield. The three are standing trial for extortion conspiracy. Each has pleaded innocent.
The trial began Wednesday before Judge Constance M. Sweeney.
The defendants are accused of trying to shake down Carlo and Gennaro Sarno, cousins from Greater Springfield who once owned profitable - but illegal - video slot machines. The accused allegedly used Gonzales as a conduit to pitch a mandatory profit-sharing plan. He testified that he recorded three meetings on the subject in May 2004.

Video slots machines, or "fruit machines," have historically been vulnerable to "tribute" demands from mobsters, according to criminal investigators.



Arguments and testimony have portrayed Arillotta as an emerging organized crime leader attempting to trump other gangsters the Sarnos were paying in the wake of the fatal shooting of former boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno on Nov. 23, 2003. The Geas brothers were violent ex-convicts who Arillotta had recruited as his henchmen, investigators have said.

Gonzales told jurors he approached state police after a dust-up at his bar, Emo's Place, earlier that month. After the fight, one brawler, Frankie A. Roche, came back and trashed the bar - including three of the Sarnos' poker machines. Bruno reportedly ordered Roche to make restitution. Bruno was killed less than two weeks later.

Roche, Fotios Geas, and Brandon D. Croteau, have been charged in connection with Bruno's slaying. That case is pending, and has figured only subtly in the extortion trial.

Gonzales faces a 15-year mandatory sentence for drug trafficking after a 2005 arrest. He is testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

He told jurors today the "turmoil" on the streets after the Bruno shooting spurred him to approach law enforcement five years ago. He said he asked investigators to lead him in shackles to their first meeting in 2003.

"I had them handcuff me because the patrons that were there .¤.¤. I didn't want them to get any suspicions," he said.

Gonzales said he was a member of Arillotta's "crew" until he was arrested with drugs in 1992 and went to prison for a decade.
After being released, Gonzales said he began working as a collector for the Sarnos' poker machine business. He admitted under cross-examination that he also continued to dabble in drug dealing and fencing stolen goods.
With a foot in both worlds, Gonzales told jurors he agreed to pose as a conduit for the Sarnos, and wore a body wire for state police during discussions with the defendants in 2004.
The first audible recorded meeting took place on the morning of May 5, at the White Hut restaurant in West Springfield. Jurors heard a recording of the defendants' alleged plans to put 10 of their own slot machines in choice spots across the city.
The recorded talks included scornful references to aging mob soldiers Felix L. Tranghese and Mario Fiore mentioned during testimony as men who were offering the Sarnos protection. The Sarnos have refused to testify at the trial.
From the first May 5, 2004 meeting came these exerpts:
Fotios Geas: "And then you got these old timers that think they wrote the (expletive) book on being sharp, and they're (expletive) stupid. You know?"
And later, Arillotta: "It's the hard way or the nice easy way, OK? We are in the machine business. So we're going into spots .¤.¤."
After allegedly threatening to take sledgehammers to the Sarnos' machines and have 15 guys "run them over 85 times" with a car if the police interceded, Arillotta continued at another recorded meeting on the same day: "Those vending machines, those are ours. If we want, we'll take every single one of them. Felix ain't stopping us, and Mario Fiore ain't stopping us. But we don't want to do that. We're being (expletive) gentlemen about it."
Gonzales testified Arillotta pulled the plug on the entire plan after confronting him about cooperating with police on May 14. Gonzales was arrested on drug charges a year later and fled to Canada; he was apprehended three months later and remains held without bail.
He is due to continue testifying tomorrow. Gonzales will face cross-examination by defense lawyers Vincent A. Bongiorni, Daniel D. Kelly and Peter M. Murphy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound,Ronald B. Campbell,Andrea G. Reeder,Dylan C. Grose,William C. Casteel.arrested

Four people were arrested on suspected drug charges, including the group's leader.Methamphetamine was found at the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound at West 19th Avenue and South Gum Street. Benton County Undersheriff Paul Hart said they needed so many officers as a "precautionary" step because the Gypsy Jokers are known to be connected to drugs and other criminal activities."It is an outlaw motorcycle gang with convicted felons who reside there," Hart said. "We gear up to meet that threat."Some stolen property and a couple of weapons also were seized, he said. The Violent Crimes Task Force, made up of federal agents and local police detectives, raided the club house and two homes at 5 a.m.The Benton County Regional SWAT team and the Yakima SWAT team were used to help search all the buildings."Because of the large site ... it makes it difficult to secure and make sure everybody is safe," Hart said. "The Violent Crimes Task Force ... ...

William (Billy) Bowden pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom today to carrying a firearm in a careless manner in January 2007

William (Billy) Bowden, 33, pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom today to carrying a firearm in a careless manner in January 2007 and skipping out on his preliminary hearing about a year later. Other drug and weapons charges related to the 2007 incident were stayed as part of a plea bargain securing the two convictions. Bowden remains in custody though, charged with manslaughter in relation to the November 2007 killing of Jeff Engen, who was fatally stabbed at the Empire Cabaret, prompting the club to close. That charge remains before the courts. Bowden has been in custody since he was arrested Feb. 14 in Whistler, B.C., and returned to Manitoba. The Crown and defence jointly recommended that time be noted in his sentence for carrying the firearm. That crime occurred around 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, 2007, as Bowden was leaving the NV lounge in a truck with friend Ken Houston, court heard. Police discovered a Glock 9mm handgun loaded with 18 bullets in a pile of garbage close to where the...

Oak Park gang member charged in the shooting death of one of his homeboys while they were out on a retaliation attack in rival territory.

Closing arguments began today in the murder trial of a reputed Oak Park gang member charged in the shooting death of one of his homeboys while they were out on a retaliation attack in rival territory.Deputy District Attorney Anthony Ortiz said as many as 30 shots were fired in the June 27, 2005, broad-daylight shooting on Della Circle in the Florin area. One of the shots fired by defendant Denishio Demmitrius Collins, 26, killed David Perkins, 22, one of the eight gang members from the Oak Park Bloods who filled three cars in the assault on a rival Crip set, according to Ortiz."This wasn't an in-the-dark sneak attack," Ortiz said. "These were people who said 'screw it' - this is our war and we're going to bring it to your streets." After the shooting, the Oak Park gang members dumped the dying Perkins out of one of their vehicles and left him to die, Ortiz said."He was left on a sidewalk to die by his homeboys," the prosecutor said. Their m...