16 YEARS AFTER A PLEA-BARGAIN OBTAINED BY DECEPTION

Who is the criminal when the prosecutor is dishonest?

Free after nearly 16 years in prison, former Mafia captain Vincent M. Ferrara strolled out of the federal courthouse in Boston yesterday holding the hand of his 20-year-old daughter, saying he felt vindicated by a judge's decision to cut several years off his sentence because of government misconduct. Prosecutors had argued that Ferrara, 56, will resume his leadership role in the New England mob, but the only family reunion he mentioned yesterday was a visit to his 90-year-old mother in a Worcester nursing home. ''I'm going to see my mother right now," said Ferrara, wearing sweats, a black Nike cap, and sunglasses as he climbed into a waiting black Cadillac, driven by his cousin, outside the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse yesterday morning. Asked about plans by his daughter, Bianca, to open a restaurant with him, Ferrara said, ''That sounds good."

It was Ferrara's first taste of freedom since he was arrested in November 1989. Three years later, under a plea agreement with the government just as his case was about to go to trial, he pleaded guilty to racketeering, extortion, gambling, and ordering the 1985 slaying of Vincent ''Jimmy" Limoli. He was sentenced to 22 years. US District Judge Mark L. Wolf tossed out Ferrara's sentence in April after finding that a prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn, had withheld evidence during plea negotiations that a key witness had tried to recant his claim that Ferrara ordered Limoli's murder.

Wolf concluded that Ferrara was probably innocent of Limoli's slaying but pleaded guilty rather than risk a wrongful conviction. If Ferrara had been aware of the recantation, the judge decided, he may not have agreed to the deal that sent him to prison for 22 years. Prosecutors alleged that Limoli, a Mafia associate, was killed in the North End because he stole drugs from a mobster.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Wednesday rejected a request by prosecutors to keep Ferrara behind bars while they appealed Wolf's ruling. The government is now awaiting a decision by the US solicitor general's office on whether to appeal Wolf's ruling ordering Ferrara's release. ''I feel vindicated, but in a sense I never felt I was all that wrong to begin with," Ferrara said outside the courthouse. ''They overplayed their hand."

Ferrara, a father of five, will be living in the suburbs with another daughter. He will be on supervised release for three years and prohibited from contact with any convicted felons during that time. US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's office, which had opposed Ferrara's release because prosecutors believe he still poses a danger, declined to comment on his release yesterday. A spokeswoman for Sullivan's office said an internal investigation by the US Department of Justice into allegations of misconduct against Auerhahn is ongoing. Auerhahn is currently assigned to the US attorney's antiterrorism and national security unit.

Ferrara's attorney, Martin Weinberg, said the case was a textbook example of a judge ''standing between an unpopular defendant and an overaggressive government."

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