Judge Got Bum Rap For 'Biased' Remark

THERE'S a few people out there who owe Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein an apology.

Weinstein was excoriated two weeks ago when he proclaimed at a sentencing of three Colombo family killers that a "large part of the young Italo-American community ... should be discouraged" from becoming mobsters.

Weinstein recalled that during the trials of acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena and two capos, "accomplice witnesses detailed how young, impressionable males in the Italian-American community have been lured into the destructive life of these mobs before they are able to recognize the better opportunities available to them."

Criticisms came from people like Bill Fugazy, chairman of the Coalition of Italo-American Associations, who blasted the judge for a "ridiculous choice of words" that smeared "an entire ethnic group." He demanded an apology.

The next day, a stung Weinstein amended his remarks, noting that only "a miniscule percentage" of Italian Americans were gangsters. Fugazy and many callers to Gang Land were pleased by the judge's clarification.

At the time, Gang Land was pondering a new record we received a few months ago by wanna-be rapper Lou (Big Lou) Ferrante, who sang rhyming praises to John Gotti.

In his rap, Ferrante describes former U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney as a drunk, lead prosecutor John Gleeson as someone who "wears lingerie and high-heel pumps," and Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano as a "punk rat."

The record, which includes real sound bites of Gotti lawyer Bruce Cutler and TV reporter John Miller in the background, favorably compares Gotti with John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

And about halfway through his rap, Ferrante compares Gotti to Jesus Christ:

Sittin' in a cell is the cross he's carryin'
No blinkin' eyes, no beads of sweat.

I played the song a few times in disbelief, then tried hard to forget about it. But the record remained on a dining room server -- with Gotti's angry stare filling the room -- and this ridiculous rap would just not go away.

While it's not selling like hot cakes, there have been far too many sales of "Justice Not Found: The John Gotti Story" to suit a lot of people, including Fugazy.

At Liberty Records in Ozone Park, for example, manager Joe Chavez reports sales of "over 100 copies in the last two months," to youngsters, mostly male and mostly Italian-American.

Adam Shrem, owner/manager of the Music Stop in Gravesend, reports that during the same period, he sold "maybe 40 or 50 pieces." Shrem said record buyers were "boys, mostly Italian."

"Those are big numbers," said Fugazy, who sounded a lot like Weinstein as he went on. "This is wrong. Parents should make sure their children don't buy it. I don't want young kids thinking that Gotti is a martyr sitting in jail. This is terrible."

Fugazy conceded that the Gotti rap records sales indicate that maybe Weinstein was right, but he declined to back off, explaining that Weinsteins's remarks "singled out" Italian-Americans.

"Unfortunately," said Fugazy, "too many youngsters of all ethnic backgrounds use criminals as role models. We should all strive to stop that."

Neither Ferrante nor Freedom Records returned calls to Gang Land.

It's a safe bet that many fans of Ferrante's record - the youngsters both Fugazy and Weinstein were talking about - took part in the well-orchestrated protest that turned into a minor riot at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on June 23, 1992, the day Gotti got a life sentence.

One of the protesters was Paul Orena, youngest son of the acting Colombo boss, who was in prison awaiting his own trial for murder and racketeering - the trial that led to his conviction, a life sentence, and Weinstein's remarks.

Early that morning, Victor Orena told his son in a monitored telephone conversation to attend the Gotti rally.

"Be careful," the elder Orena cautioned. "And make sure you introduce yourself to Joe Butter (Gotti associate Joe DeCicco) so he knows you were there."