Federal footdragging over FBI corruption could be costly

More than six months after a federal judge ordered the government to pay $101.7 million to four men who spent decades in prison for a murder they did not commit, the Justice Department has not informed the court whether it will appeal. As the government weighs its options, the award continues to grow, accruing another $100,000 in interest each week since the judgment was formally entered in late December, according to lawyers who represent the plaintiffs. The interest, the lawyers say, will continue to mount at an annual rate of about 5.1 percent until the case is resolved. Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, declined to comment on the case this week or on whether the government will appeal.

The government, which must notify the court by Feb. 19 if it wants to appeal, will be forced to pay the additional $100,000 a week in interest if it loses an appeal, the plaintiffs' lawyers said. "It's a lot of money," said Victor Garo, a Medford lawyer who represents one of the men, Joseph Salvati. He estimated that an appeal would take more than a year and could cost the government an additional $13 million or $14 million in interest and legal fees if the judgment is upheld.

In a landmark ruling last July, US District Judge Nancy Gertner found the FBI responsible for framing Salvati, Peter J. Limone, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo for the 1965 slaying of small-time criminal Edward "Teddy" Deegan in a Chelsea alley. She concluded after a 22-day bench trial that the FBI deliberately withheld evidence of the four men's innocence and helped hide the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars, where Tameleo and Greco died.

The discovery of secret FBI files that were not turned over during the men's 1968 state trial for Deegan's slaying prompted a state judge in 2001 to overturn the murder convictions of Limone and Salvati. Limone was immediately freed from prison. Salvati had been paroled in 1997. The convictions of Tameleo and Greco were later set aside posthumously.

Documents in the Deegan killing showed that the FBI knew that the key witness in the case, notorious hitman-turned-government witness Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, may have falsely implicated the four men while protecting one of Deegan's killers, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was an FBI informant. His brother, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, was also a long-time informant. Gertner found that the FBI protected Barboza and Vincent Flemmi because both provided valuable information against the Mafia, which was the bureau's top priority at the time.

Gertner ordered the government to pay $29 million to Salvati, now 75 and living in Boston's North End, who spent 29 years and seven months in prison; $26 million to Limone, 73, of Medford, who spent 33 years and two months in prison; $28 million to the estate of Greco, who died in 1995 at age 78, having served 28 years; and $13 million to the estate of Tameleo, who died in 1985 at age 84, after serving 18 years in prison. She also awarded money to the wives and children of the men for loss of consortium and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Justice Department lawyers argued during the trial that the FBI had no duty to share internal documents with state prosecutors and could not be held responsible for the state's prosecution of the four men. In October, the government's lawyers urged Gertner to reduce the $101.7 million award, arguing it was excessive and appeared to have a "punitive component." The judge refused and is considering whether the government should be forced to pay legal costs and lawyers' fees to the plaintiffs, estimated to be as much as $6 million.

Juliane Balliro, one of the lawyers representing the Limones and Tameleos, predicted the government will appeal the $101.7 million judgment to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, but said she is confident Gertner's decision will be affirmed. "No judgment is bulletproof, but I think she was very cautious in her judgment here," Balliro said. She said the judgment was consistent with wrongful imprisonment cases across the country in which plaintiffs were awarded $1 million for each year they spent behind bars.

Garo said, "The question really presented is whether or not the federal government will finally do the right thing and not appeal and let these families live the rest of their lives without this hanging over their head."

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