There have been more than a few setbacks and embarrassments recently in the sensational year-old murder indictment against former FBI supervisor R. Lindley DeVecchio, (right) who is accused of helping his mob mole wipe out his enemies.

Last month, a female investigator for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office was forced to resign after carrying on with an informer in the case. The investigator was so head over heels for the turncoat that she even hatched a plan to bear a love child with him while he was an inmate at a federal prison, sources said.

Two weeks ago, the chief of the office’s Rackets Bureau, Noel Downey, the prosecutor who spearheaded the DeVecchio investigation, jumped ship – resigning to take a better paying position with the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Then last week, Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach ordered the prosecution team to establish that its case was not tainted by information it obtained from testimony that DeVecchio gave under a grant of immunity from prosecution.

And unlike most pre-trial defense motions, the burden of proof will be on prosecutors to demonstrate that they did not – directly or indirectly – use any immunized testimony by DeVecchio to convince a grand jury that the ex-agent was involved in four murders from 1984 to 1992 that were ordered or committed by Colombo capo Gregory Scarpa. (left)

Reichbach ordered the entire prosecution team to submit sworn statements that they did not read DeVecchio’s testimony about his dealings with Scarpa,

who served as the former G-Man’s top-echelon informer, or use the fruits of his testimony to obtain an indictment.

During a spirited session, the judge also questioned a request by lead prosecutor Michael Vecchione (left) to postpone the trial until this fall, after his vacation.

The issue of a trial date arose when Reichbach scheduled a May 15 pre-trial hearing to determine whether prosecutors had improperly used DeVecchio’s prior testimony, thereby tainting the investigation, and subsequent indictment.

If he found no improprieties, the trial would follow immediately, said Reichbach.

Vecchione, the lead prosecutor in the ongoing bribery trial of Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson, objected, citing a busy workload as well as his vacation. Reichbach put off a final decision on the trial date, noting, however, that he was inclined to set an early one since a codefendant charged in one of the slayings had been detained for a year.    

When Vecchione said that a bail package could be worked out so the defendant, John Sinagra, (right) could be released, Reichbach said he was disturbed

that Vecchione, who had insisted since last March that Sinagra was a danger to the community, had changed his mind, apparently to accommodate his desire for a vacation.

Reichbach told Vecchione to call Scarpa’s longtime common-law wife, Linda Schiro, to testify as a witness at the May 15 hearing. Schiro, the linchpin of the prosecution’s case, has told the grand jury that DeVecchio assisted Scarpa in four murders, including Mary Bari, 31, (left) a former comare of a top Colombo mobster.

Other likely witnesses include an author, Peter Lance, and a controversial forensic analyst, Angela Clemente, two self-styled DeVecchio gadflies who have read all of his testimony at three federal proceedings. The former agent’s lawyers, Douglas Grover and Mark Bederow, contend that Lance and Clemente have tainted the investigation of their client.

Lance, who was an invited guest at the news conference at which District Attorney Joe Hynes announced the indictment last year, claims he has given an assistant district attorney and an investigator considerable assistance during the DA’s probe.

DeVecchio’s lawyers say that Clemente, whose help was credited by Vecchione at the news conference, “pressured” Schiro numerous times since 2004 to testify against DeVecchio and tainted the prosecution.

For all the bad news, the DA’s get-DeVecchio team heaved a big sigh of relief last week after a top mob investigator who worked on the case was exonerated by a Staten Island grand jury of any wrongdoing in the death of a next-door neighbor. 

The bizarre case began when Thomas Dades, (right) a retired NYPD detective, confronted a gang of drunks, including a pipe-wielding ex-cop, who arrived at his house after midnight a few days before Christmas. During the fracas, Dades, who had drawn his gun, fell on top on neighbor James Colletta, who was part of the unruly mob. Colletta broke several ribs, but declined medical attention. He died the following morning.

“Unfortunately, his neighbor died in the attack, but thank God that Tommy is an experienced, organized crime detective,” said Dades’s attorney, James DiPietro. “A detective of lesser discipline, being attacked by a gang of drunks would have fired his gun, justifiably. Tommy was able to disarm the situation, without firing his weapon.”

Using information from Genovese turncoat Peter Peluso, the feds raised the stakes last week for 75-year-old capo Pasquale (Scop) DeLuca by adding a murder allegation to a pending indictment that had previously charged him with extortion and gambling. 

In following up on the new accusation, Gang Land has learned that during several tape recorded discussions before Peluso began cooperating, he exonerated Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, a codefendant charged with taking part in the same murder – the 1998 slaying of family capo Ralph Coppola, whose body has never been found.

On September 16, 2003, for example, Peluso, a longtime lawyer and trusted messenger, was heard telling capo John (Buster) Ardito that Bellomo, a former acting boss, “had nothing to do with it. He was away, and didn’t even know what the fuck was going on.”

Two months later, on November 19, Peluso, who represented Bellomo and had visited him in prison, opined: “Let me tell you something, if Barney was out, he would have saved Ralphie… .he would have tried.”

In another discussion about Coppola’s murder the following spring, on May 12, 2004, Peluso reported that Bellomo “don’t even know why … he still don’t know why they clipped him.”

That July, as Gang Land reported last year, during another discussion with Ardito, Peluso would change his tune and recalled a jailhouse discussion in

which Bellomo did approve Coppola’s execution, according to transcripts contained in FBI affidavits and other documents.

But earlier that year, on January 13, Peluso said that Bellomo was on the outs with family leaders who ordered Coppola’s slaying and feared he might be killed by the same mobsters if then-imprisoned boss, Vincent (Chin) Gigante died in prison.

“This guy comes out,” said Peluso, referring to Gigante, “he’s behind Barney. If this guy don’t come out, Barney knows he’s got a problem with the other guys.”

Sources say Peluso has told the feds that Coppola was killed in DeLuca’s social club. His attorney, Michael Marinaccio, was out of the country and could not be reached.

Manhattan federal prosecutors declined to comment on the new charges, or Peluso’s changing tune in the thousands of hours of tape recorded conversations during a nearly four year-long probe.

“I look forward to a trial and having Barney vindicated,” said Bellomo’s lawyer, Barry Levin.

A status conference in the case, which is scheduled for trial in May, is set for next week.