Former cops to be flown back to New York

Jace Radke

Monday, March 14, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

Two retired police detectives will be flown back to New York sometime in the next two weeks to face charges that they secretly served as mob informants and hitmen while employed with New York City Police in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Louis Eppolito, 56, and Stephen Caracappa, 63, were ordered by a federal magistrate Friday to be held by the U.S. marshals and taken to the Eastern District of New York where they will face charges in connection with eight mob-related slayings and three attempted killings in the New York City area.

Eppolito and Caracappa, who have been living in Las Vegas for a decade, will likely be placed on a marshals' plane to New York within the next two weeks.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch told U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt that the two men served as insiders for Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, a former underboss for New York's Luchese crime family, who is now a government witness.

"There are at least three cooperating witnesses that are former high ranking Luchese crime family members to whom Casso used to brag about how he had cops on his payroll," Henoch said. "He called it his crystal ball.

"Mr. Carracappa and Mr. Eppolito are the people that allowed Mr. Casso to see the future."

Henoch said the government's evidence in the case will include audio tapes and videotapes, testimony from citizens, law enforcement officers and cooperating witnesses as well as crime scene evidence.

David Chesnoff, who represents Caracappa, and Richard Schonfeld, who represents Eppolito, argued that their clients are decorated former police officers and that the government's evidence amounts to stories being told by criminals and Mafia bosses.

"The government wants to use Casso's words to incriminate these gentleman, even though there is no truth to them," Chesnoff said as he argued for the two men to be released while defending the charges against them.

"I'd ask that you allow the justice system through a jury and a judge determine the truth."

Leavitt said the judge in New York who will preside over the trial can revisit his order to detain the defendants.

"Let there be no doubt that these defendants pose a threat to the community," Leavitt said.

Eppolito, who worked for New York Police from 1969 to 1990, and Caracappa, who was employed there from 1969 to 1992, were arrested in Las Vegas Wednesday night as they entered Piero's restaurant on Convention Center Drive.

They are also charged in the indictment with drug trafficking and money laundering after they relocated to Las Vegas.

Henoch said the defendants set up a drug deal with Eppolito's son, Anthony Eppolito, and another Las Vegas man, Guido Bravatti, acting as the sellers.