Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Gambino associate requests new judge in extortion case, alleging bias

A Gambino associate wants a new judge because the one handling his extortion case hates him, according to a filing by the mobster. Battista (Benny) Geritano says Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. “clearly expresses personal animus against me whenever I appear before him”. Geritano, 45, also contends the judge is too quick to force him out of his jail cell before court hearings. As if that’s not enough, he says the judge gives prosecutors everything they ask for “and denies virtually every thing my legal counsel asks for.”
Last May, federal prosecutors charged Geritano with making an extortion attempt through threatening letters. He sent the letters while he was serving a 12-year prison sentence for stabbing Nunzio Fusco after a shoving match in 2012.