FBI NOT CONCERNED WITH JUSTICE?

A Justice Department lawyer argued yesterday that the FBI had no duty to share evidence with state prosecutors that might have prevented the wrongful conviction of four men for a 1965 gangland murder in Chelsea. ``We would submit there is no obligation on the part of the FBI to transmit its internal memos to local authorities," said the lawyer, Mary M. Leach, insisting that state authorities -- and not the FBI -- were responsible for the prosecution. The government urged a US judge to dismiss a negligence suit filed against the federal government by Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone , who both spent more than 30 years in prison before they were exonerated in 2000 of killing Edward ``Teddy" Deegan.

The families of Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco, who both died in prison before being vindicated, shouldn't be allowed to sue at all , the government argued . ``I think it's wrong," said Limone, 72, who attended yesterday's hearing with his wife and other family members. He said the FBI should have turned over all of its evidence. Salvati, who attended the hearing with his wife, Marie, let his lawyers speak for him. ``If you have information that people are innocent, you come forward with it," said Salvati's lawyer, Victor Garo, calling the federal governent's conduct in the case ``outrageous."

US District Judge Nancy Gertner took the government's request under advisement, but questioned how the FBI could claim no liability when its agents failed to tell state prosecutors about wiretaps and informant information that suggested the four men were being framed for the slaying by Joseph ``The Animal" Barboza, a Mafia hitman who had turned government witness. After recruiting Barboza as a witness and using him in other trials against local Mafia leaders, FBI agents failed to tell state prosecutors during the 1968 trial of Salvati, Limone, and the others that they had evidence that Barboza was lying to protect Vincent ``Jimmy" Flemmi, who was alleged to be one of Deegan's killers. Flemmi, who died in 1979 of a drug overdose in prison, was the brother of longtime FBI informant Stephen ``The Rifleman" Flemmi, who is now serving a life sentence for 10 murders.

It was revealed in court yesterday that Vincent Flemmi became an FBI informant on March 12, 1965 -- the same day that Deegan, a petty thief suspected of stealing from local mobsters, was gunned down in a Chelsea alley. A state judge overturned the convictions of Salvati and Limone after a Justice Department Task Force investigating the FBI's handling of informants discovered long-secret FBI files that indicated Barboza may have framed the pair, along with the deceased Tameleo and Greco. The documents were not turned over to defense lawyers at the time of the trial.

Boston lawyer Michael Avery, who represents the plaintiffs, argued yesterday that the FBI deliberately withheld information from state prosecutors so the government could continue using Barboza as a witness, and to protect both Flemmi brothers, who were FBI informants. Avery accused the FBI of forming an alliance with Barboza, the Flemmis, and other informants to infiltrate the Mafia that was ``improper, illegal, and immoral," and that state authorities were unaware of. Avery disputed the Justice Department assertion that FBI agents shared some information about Vincent Flemmi's possible involvement in Deegan's slaying with Chelsea police.

While bugging the Providence office of the New England Mafia boss, Raymond L.S. Patriarca, in 1965, the FBI overheard Patriarca giving Barboza and Vincent Flemmi permission to kill Deegan, according to documents filed in court. The FBI had also received information from informants implicating Barboza and other men -- not Salvati, Limone, Greco, or Tameleo -- in the slaying. And when Barboza agreed to become a witness for the FBI, he told agents that he wouldn't say anything to hurt his best friend, Vincent Flemmi. Yet, according to court records, none of that information was turned over to state prosecutors.

Leach argued that Jack Zalkind, the Suffolk prosecutor who handled the Deegan case, conducted an independent investigation and made his own decision to prosecute Salvati and the others. She said the FBI agents did not know Barboza lied. But Gertner said that Zalkind made his decision based on a ``tainted record," without the benefit of information buried in the FBI files that suggested the men were innocent.

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