NO LIE; BARNEY STAYS IN JAIL

By Jerry Capeci

A party of FBI agents, bearing razors and a court order, dropped in on Liborio (Barney) Bellomo for a nice warm chat at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.

During the brief visit, which wasn't particularly social, they turned the reputed acting boss of the Genovese crime family into a skinhead. (right)

They shaved his head and helped themselves to some hair from his legs and arms. The agents were looking for lithium, a psychoactive drug that a jailhouse informant said Bellomo had taken to help him pass three polygraph tests in July and August.

Bellomo contends the lie detector results showed he had nothing to do with the 1991 gangland slaying of Ralph DeSimone, a convicted drug dealer, and should be released on bail while he awaits trial for that and other racketeering charges. Sophisticated hair-testing procedures could detect the presence of lithium after three months. Bellomo took the first lie detector test two months ago and the third six weeks ago.

With confident smiles, the agents carefully packed the hair samples in plastic bags and left.

The tests came back negative, however, and, with a two-week stubble on his head, Bellomo (left) appeared in Manhattan Federal Court on Oct. 9 - hopeful that he would go home with his wife, four children and dozens of other relatives and friends who showed up for moral support. It was not to be, however.

Prosecutor Nelson Boxer argued that the negative results did not rule out the possibility that Bellomo had ingested lithium.

Through his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, Bellomo offered to take another polygraph test, supervised by the FBI and Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan. "And he will give blood, hair and urine samples before the test," said Brafman.

While he was at it, the lawyer ripped Boxer and the FBI for relying on anonymous prison sources and then ignoring their own test results after no lithium was found.

Kaplan reserved decision, but left no doubt which way he was leaning. He nodded in agreement to virtually everything that Boxer said, and seemed to find fault with everything Brafman said, even when his arguments seemed to make sense.

For example, when Kaplan noted that lie detector test results had never been admitted into evidence in a federal trial, Brafman countered the FBI often gave lie detector tests to determine truthfulness, and that state courts and the Bureau had previously relied on the same experts Bellomo hired.

And besides, this was a bail hearing, Brafman said, not a trial, and his client's friends and relatives were willing to post $2 million, and he was prepared to wear an ankle bracelet monitor and remain confined to him home.

Then Kaplan wanted to know why Bellomo was asked only about the murder and not his reputed Mafia rank.

Brafman said Bellomo was remanded without bail on the murder charge, not for being an acting crime family boss. And, said Brafman, even Bellomo's reputed mob superior, the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family, was free on bail. Brafman never mentioned his name, but Vincent (Chin) Gigante (right) is charged with eight murders, and free on $1 million bail.

No matter, the judge said, it was Bellomo's mob rank that would probably keep him in jail.

Brafman and Bellomo's extended family left shaking their heads, while Boxer and the FBI agents were grinning from ear to ear.

Kaplan is expected to rule on the bail application this week. Bellomo is scheduled to stand trial with 18 other reputed mobsters and associates in February.