Feb 15, 2008 7:44 pm US/Eastern
$100M Wrongful Conviction Judgement Appealed
BOSTON (AP) ―
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Judge Gertner awarded $26 million to Peter Limone.
WBZ
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Gertner said it took 30 years to uncover the injustice, and that (quote) "the government's position is, in a word, absurd."
WBZ
The Justice Department decided Friday to appeal a $101.7 million judgment awarded to four men who spent decades in prison for a murder they did not commit.
A federal judge in July found the FBI responsible for framing Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo for the 1965 slaying of Edward "Teddy" Deegan.
The government filed notice of appeal just four days ahead of the deadline.
The Justice Department did not spell out its reasons for appealing. The document just gives notice the government plans to fight the judgment, which was issued in July and became final in December.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the reasons for the appeal would be explained when the government files its brief in case at a later date. He said he could not estimate when that would happen, and declined further comment.
An attorney for Salvati, Vincent Garo, has estimated that an appeal would take more than a year and could cost the government as much as $14 million in interest and legal fees if the judgment is upheld.
Garo said he would comment later Friday.
Deegan was a small-time thug who was shot in a Chelsea alley on March 12, 1965.
In her ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner found that FBI agents Dennis Condon and H. Paul Rico knew that mob hitman and FBI informant Joseph "The Animal" Barboza was lying when he named the four men as Deegan's killers.
Barboza fingered the four men in order to protect Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, a fellow FBI informant who involved in the Deegan slaying.
Gertner said Condon and Rico covered up evidence of Barboza's lie, and also told state prosecutors who were handling the Deegan murder investigation that they had verified Barboza's story.
Tameleo and Greco died behind bars.
Salvati and Limone were freed after three decades in prison in 2001, after FBI memos related to the Deegan case surfaced during probes of the Boston FBI's corrupt relationship with its gangster informants, James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, Vincent's brother.
Salvati, Limone and the families of Tameleo and Greco sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.
Gertner awarded $29 million to Salvati, $26 million to Limone, $13 million to Tameleo's estate and $28 million to Greco's estate.
The wives of Limone and Salvati and the estate of Tameleo's deceased wife each received slightly more than $1 million.
The men's 10 children were each awarded $250,000.
The Deegan case was included in the House Government Reform Committee's investigation of the FBI and its use of criminal informants.
Rico, one of the agents blamed in the case, was arrested in 2003 on murder and conspiracy charges in the 1981 killing of a Tulsa, Okla., businessman. Rico died in state custody in 2004 while awaiting trial. Rice denied before the House committee that he and his partner helped frame an innocent man for Deegan's death, but acknowledged that Salvati wrongly spent 30 years in prison for the crime.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Slideshow: Timeline: Framed By The FBI
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