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Borgesi's lawyer said the verdicts were vindication and proof that testimony of a star prosecution witness, turncoat Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello, fell flat.

"The jury rejected his testimony," Paul Hetznecker said. "They did not believe it."

Hetznecker and Jacobs asked the judge to immediately release their clients on bail, arguing the jury had rejected the claims prosecutors used to hold Borgesi and Ligambi without bail since May 2011. Robreno said he would consider the request during a hearing Wednesday morning.

Massimino, 62, reputed mob soldier Damion "Dame" Canalicho, 44, and alleged associate Gary Battaglini, 51, were convicted of the larger mob conspiracy, but not any charges related to specific extortion or loan-sharking crimes, all built on testimony and secret recordings from informants, debtors and turncoats.

"It struck me as illogical," Lawrence O'Connor, lawyer for Gary Battaglini, said after the verdict. "We're obviously disappointed."

Margaret Grasso, Canalichio's attorney, said the jury "got it right on the bookmaking and video poker machines. [But] I think they were confused on the RICO."

Like the 62-year-old Massimino, both men have criminal records and could face years in prison. Robreno scheduled their sentencings for May 21.

The only other guilty verdicts were returned in two counts against alleged captain Anthony "Ant" Staino, 55, in connection with a loan to an undercover FBI agent.

Staino's attorney, Gregory Pagano, said jurors may have been swayed by tapes of a bathroom conversation in which Staino tells the agent "Don't make me hurt you."

Pagano argued Staino was obviously drunk at the time. Jurors acquitted Staino on 27 other counts, and deadlocked on the racketeering conspiracy.

"I'm surprised," Pagano said. "I would think that the RICO was all for one and one for all."

Staino and Battaglini were the only two defendants to be free on bail during the trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney John S. Han asked the judge to revoke bail for both men; the judge deferred a decision until Wednesday.

The one clear victor in the case was Licata, a 71-year-old alleged captain known as "Scoops" who authorities say is part of the family's North Jersey faction.

Licata was a focus in the trial's opening days, as jurors heard a recording of a May 2010 lunch meeting he helped organize at a New Jersey restaurant for mob members from New York and Philadelphia. Licata introduced Ligambi as "acting boss" but spent most of the gathering waxing nostalgic about former friends, associates and adventures.

Prosecutors contended he was part of the mob conspiracy, but didn't charge him with any underlying crimes.

"The lack of evidence against my client was shameless," his lawyer, Christopher Warren, said after the verdict. "There was zero evidence my client was doing anything but sitting around, talking and drinking."

For the first time in nearly a year, Licata got to do the same thing again Tuesday night. About an hour after the verdict, Licata was sipping a Ketel One vodka and soda with his lawyer at DiNardo's restaurant, as he waited for his family to arrive from New Jersey.

"His grandchildren can't wait to see him," Warren said.

Four other codefendants pleaded guilty before the trial and three more are awaiting a separate trial. If or how the verdicts might affect those prosecutions are unclear.



Distributed by MCT Information Services