It would be hard to call Angelo DiMatteo a chip off the old block.

His father, Luca, 59, (right) is a longtime Colombo capo, an ally of Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, the acting family boss who awaits trial for racketeering and murder for the 1987 slaying of a 78-year-old Administrative Law Judge and three other mob murders that year.

The father is currently detained as a danger to the community. He recently pleaded guilty to extortion and racketeering charges in a plea deal that will cost him four years in prison. The boss, Cacace, 62, (left) is scheduled for trial next year. He faces life and is the lone defendant – there were 14 in the case – who has not pleaded guilty. 

At the age of 35, however, the only black mark against Angelo DiMatteo is a one time assault last year on a Brooklyn man who owed his father money.

He had very little time, however, to be a hoodlum. Until very recently, Angelo worked seven days a week, driving a garbage truck on week days and a New York Daily News delivery

truck on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights to support his wife and three young kids, aged five, three and six months.

Two months ago, when he was arrested in the assault, he was able to maintain his day job as he awaited trial for punching out and bloodying his victim. But he lost his Daily News job because he was prohibited from leaving his Long Island home at night.

Three weeks ago, however, when he pleaded guilty to assaulting the debtor, he was able to return to work for The News, not as a truck driver, but at the newspaper’s New Jersey printing plant earning $600 a weekend under an unusual ruling by a Brooklyn Federal Court Magistrate Judge.

Over the objections of prosecutors, Judge Joan Azrack relaxed DiMatteo’s house arrest restrictions to enable him to earn a “few mortgage payments” for his wife and three young children before he reports to prison next year. He faces between 27 and 33 months.

Noting that DiMatteo had abided by his prior restrictions, and would not be

driving around unsupervised but working “in a fixed location” at the Daily News plant, Azrack said she saw no reason to prevent him from returning to work, where he would be subject to spot checks by authorities to “confirm that he’s there.”

Assistant U.S. attorneys Patricia Notopoulos and Michael Warren argued against it, citing longstanding allegations that the Colombo family had sway over Daily News routes. FBI documents identify Colombo associate Armando (Chips) DiCostanzo as a former News driver who was implicated in distribution scams.

Pressed by Azrack, Notopoulos conceded she had no “evidence whatsoever” of any improprieties by DiMatteo vis-à-vis his employment by The News, but still had a “reservation … in the back of my mind.”

DiMatteo’s lawyer Flora Edwards effectively eliminated any reservation in Judge Azrack’s mind by noting that her client had applied for The News job five years ago, and got it only two years ago, suggesting that if the Colombos controlled the Daily News routes, “he wouldn’t have waited three years to get a job.”

The upcoming holiday season will be bittersweet for the DiMatteo family, what with Angelo confined to his home when he’s not working and Luca housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The situation for their codefendant Carmine Baudanza, (left) a Colombo associate who celebrates his 62d birthday on Christmas day, is a bit more complicated, but somewhat less bittersweet than it might have been, following Baudanza’s plea to gambling charges in the case.

Baudanza, who supervised a Brooklyn gambling location for the elder DiMatteo, could receive as little as eight months – with four of those months served at home – when he is sentenced early next year by Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson.

But he should be able to celebrate his birthday and exchange Christmas presents with all his relatives, including his brother and his son, both reputed mobsters with whom the feds would rather not have Carmine associate.

The Baudanza family tree has branches in both the Colombo and Luchese families, according to court records. Carmine’s brother Joseph is a reputed

Colombo capo. Carmine’s son John is a reputed soldier in the Luchese family. At various times since his indictment, Carmine has been prohibited from seeing them.

Judge Johnson (right) lifted the restriction that prevented Carmine from seeing son John early on, but the prohibition against visiting with his brother Joseph still remains in effect, with exceptions that must be approved in advance by the prosecutors.

At Carmine’s pleading, however, lawyer Corey Winograd argued that the complex process involving letters back and forth between him and the prosecutors, and then to the judge, or magistrate judge, were extremely burdensome and often too time consuming to conclude in time to allow them to attend the same family function, should be eased.

Under prodding by Magistrate Judge Azrack, prosecutor Notopoulos agreed to permit a simple notice by Carmine’s attorney to suffice.

“We are happy,” Winograd told Gang Land, “that Carmine will be celebrating the holidays, not only with his son, but also with his only brother.”