What’s good for the Mafia Cops should also be good for an old-time wiseguy like himself, claims Dominick (Skinny Dom) Pizzonia.

The Gambino capo (left) is looking for the same relief that a maverick Brooklyn federal judge gave the murderous mob-cop tandem of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa last year when he reversed their murder convictions on statute of limitations grounds. 

Like the murders attributed to the ex-detectives, says Pizzonia, 66, the 1992 slayings of a Bonnie & Clyde robbery team and a 1996 gambling operation took place too long ago for jurors to have convicted Skinny Dom of racketeering conspiracy charges in his 2005 indictment. 

In court papers, Skinny Dom’s attorney noted that his client was acquitted of five other so-called predicate acts in the conspiracy, including the only ones that occurred after May 26, 2000 – five years before the indictment was filed – and asked Judge Jack Weinstein to toss the conviction. 

The lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, cited Weinstein’s ruling that the murders the Mafia Cops committed as NYPD detectives were too old, and that their racketeering conspiracy had ended in 1996. Crimes they committed years later when they retired and moved to Las Vegas were not part of the charged racketeering conspiracy, and the conviction must be reversed, the judge ruled. Even so, Weinstein ordered the ex-detectives jailed as dangers to the community while the government appealed his ruling.

“According to the (Pizzonia) jury’s verdict,” wrote Corozzo, the racketeering conspiracy ended in 1996 and was “complete nine years prior to Pizzonia’s indictment … and must ultimately be dismissed” because “federal prosecutions must be brought within five years after the offense has been committed.”

In his motion papers, Corozzo (right) argued that the jury’s guilty verdict was inconsistent with its findings that the specific allegations in the indictment after May 26, 2000 – two loansharking charges – were “not proven” and the conviction should be set aside. 

Prosecutors Paige Petersen and Joey Lipton are expected to argue that the racketeering conspiracy statute does not require prosecutors to prove any specific acts, merely that Skinny Dom was a member of the conspiracy charged in the indictment – the Gambino crime family – after May 26, 2000, and that the jury’s verdict showed that the government had done so.

As if being found guilty wasn’t bad enough, the timing of Pizzonia’s conviction for conspiring to murder Thomas and Rosemarie Uva – Friday May 11 – had other repercussions.

It also prevented a Mother’s Day eve visit that Skinny Dom was planning with his mother Angelina, who is in her mid 90s and resides in an assisted living facility in Jamaica, Queens. In all likelihood, Pizzonia figures, he’ll never see her again. 

Shortly before the jury convicted him – and caused his bail to be revoked – Judge Weinstein had agreed to let Skinny Dom remove his ankle bracelet monitor and leave his home on Saturday, May 12, to visit his mother for about five hours. 

The verdict also ended the electronic monitoring that Pizzonia had agreed to pay for as a condition of his bail. This triggered a request from Pre Trial Services, which oversees bail conditions, that the agency take it on the chin and pay the $133.66 balance that Skinny Dom still owed the company that had kept tabs on him since December, 2005.

The judge (right) had another solution, which he noted in a brief, handwritten order: “Let defendant pay it.”

Meanwhile, as both sides wait for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to schedule oral arguments for the government’s appeal of Weinstein’s Mafia Cops case ruling, Eppolito (left) is in Las Vegas, where he and his wife are set to stand trial for tax fraud in six weeks.

The move to take him to trial in Las Vegas for tax fraud is hard to fathom. Even if Judge Weinstein’s ruling is upheld, Eppolito will face federal drug charges and a state murder trial in Brooklyn. The feds have also charged Frances Eppolito with tax fraud – essentially for simply signing joint tax returns with her hubby in 2000, 2001, and 2002 – and are threatening to bring her to trial along with her husband. This is the kind of thing that doesn’t do much for the U.S. Justice Department’s fairness reputation.  

Still, the prevailing wisdom is that common sense and fairness will ultimately triumph.

Knowledgeable sources say that the case – which has been adjourned six times in the hope of a negotiated plea deal, according to Las Vegas federal court records – should be resolved in a plea deal with Eppolito taking the weight and with Frances getting a pass.

Bonanno wiseguy Nicholas (P.J.) Pisciotti was so bummed out by his own crime family’s reaction to the beating that he gave a Genovese family rival in a bloody brawl triggered by the city’s anti-smoking law that he turned on the mob and cooperated with the feds. 

P.J., whose remarkable, seemingly inexplicable, good fortune with state assault and federal drug charges was disclosed last week by Gang Land, explained the reason behind those dismissals Tuesday by taking the witness stand at the re-trial of onetime acting Bonanno boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano.

Pisciotti, (right) a former acting capo who very grudgingly admitted killing a mob associate during a barroom brawl several years ago, began cooperating in an effort to lessen his exposure to a long prison stretch. But even before he signed up with the feds, he was trying to distance himself from his Bonanno cohorts, he testified.

The reason? Soon after the September 2005 fisticuffs, P.J. learned from a Genovese family cohort that Bonanno family leaders, Anthony (Fat Anthony) Rabito and Nicholas (Nicky Mouth) Santora, failed to back him up at a sitdown

over the incident, and gave their blessings to a Genovese associate who told cops about the punchout.

“I felt betrayed. That was a rat move,” said the 37-year-old turncoat.

Pisciotti, who was somewhat tentative and unsure of himself in his prosecution debut, gave a powerful snapshot of the disarray in the Bonanno family when he told of his induction into the crime family in a hotel ceremony that was presided over by Joseph Massino. (left)

In addition to P.J., and Massino – the first New York Mafia boss to defect – almost every wiseguy whom he named as a participant or attendee of the initiation rites have turned their backs on the mob, including former underboss Salvatore (Good Looking Sal) Vitale, and onetime capos Frank Coppa and Richard (Shellackhead) Cantarella.

Perhaps the most telling illustration of the disorder and confusion that plagues the family came when assistant U.S. attorney Amy Busa asked how his duties changed when P.J. was promoted from soldier to acting capo: “I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said. 

Colombo family gangster John (Sonny) Franzese got a break last week from a federal parole commission examiner who recommended that the legendary wiseguy serve 18 months for his fifth parole violation in the last two decades, Gang Land has learned.

But when you’re 90, even 18 months – about half the time he likely would have gotten for the hour long get-together Sonny had two years ago with other wiseguys at a New Hyde Park pastry shop – could easily be a life sentence.

If Franzese (right) survives his sixth separate prison stretch stemming from the 50-year sentence he received for a 1967 bank robbery conspiracy conviction, he will remain on parole until 2020, just before he turns 103.

Sonny is believed to be the oldest of about 1600 federal parole violators incarcerated under sentencing provisions for pre-1987 crimes, but Tom Hutchison, chief of staff for the U.S. Parole Commission, told Gang Land he couldn’t be certain.

“If he’s not, he’s pretty close,” said Hutchison.

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do – tells the complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall. Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on "Mob Star" in 1985, when we began covering the Gotti story as news reporters.

The first edition came out in 1988, and we finished this new edition three days before Gotti died in June 2002. We added a postscript, and with a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga right up to his time in prison and his death from throat cancer.

The 378 page, full-size book uses eight additional chapters, a prologue and an epilogue to complete the story we began telling (better than any other reporters, we might add!) when we covered the Gotti-orchestrated, midtown Manhattan assassination of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

For the last and best words on Gotti, this is the book to have. It is specially priced at Amazon.com at $11.02, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

The best of Gang Land is available in a book store near you. Or you can pick up a copy of "JERRY CAPECI'S Gang Land: Fifteen Years Of Covering The Mafia" at a special low price from the Godfather of online booksellers, Amazon.com.

The 330-page oversized book includes an index and eight pages of photographs. It is sure to contain a few of your favorite columns, as well as some you may have missed during Gang Land's lengthy run that began in 1989 in The New York Daily News and continues today online and in The New York Sun.

The book's 125 columns chronicle the New York Mafia landscape from John Gotti's heyday in 1989 as the swashbuckling Dapper Don to the remarkable day in 2003 when Gotti's longtime rival Vincent (Chin) Gigante gave up his Daffy Don routine and confessed to having put on a crazy act for three decades.

Amazon.com has it in stock for $12.32  – 35% off the $18.95 list price.