The three defendants—attorneys Lee Hymowitz and Michael M. Freeman of Manhattan and real estate developer Stevenson Dunn—were found not guilty after a three-week trial in the Eastern District and two days of jury deliberations.

The 2011 multi-defendant indictment also had ensnared Wendell Walters, an assistant commissioner at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to accepting $2.5 million in bribes and taking other benefits. Walters, still awaiting sentencing, testified for the prosecution in the recent trial. All other defendants have pleaded guilty.

Though prosecutors argued the kickbacks were disguised in a retainer agreement for a contractor who testified at trial for the government, the attorneys’ defense insisted the retainer at issue, containing about $100,000, was used for lawful services.

Freeman was represented by Gerald DiChiara and Nicholas Pinto. In an interview, Pinto said he was “glad justice was done. Mr. Freeman is anxious to move on with his life.” Hymowitz was represented by Maurice Sercarz and Robert Caliendo of Sercarz & Riopelle. Robert Anthony Evans, Jr. of the Law Offices of Evans and Al Shabazz represented Dunn.

“I couldn’t be more happy than I am right now,” Sercarz said in an interview, noting that he, Hymowitz, Freeman and DiChiara worked together almost 40 years ago in the Legal Aid Society. Sercarz called the case the “most emotional case I ever tried. I represented somebody I knew for all that time, as did Mr. DiChiara. I can’t tell you how hard this was.”

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cristina Posa and Anthony Capozzolo appeared for the prosecution.

Ex-Broker Acquitted on Most Mutual Fund Charges
By Riva D. Atlas and
Reed Abelson
Published June 10, 2005

“Roland G. Riopelle, a former federal prosecutor who practices law at Sercarz & Riopelle, said Mr. Spitzer was responsible for a sweeping overhaul of the mutual fund industry, through agreements and settlements with executives and companies.

“’He’s accomplished a hell of a lot long before this case went to the jury,’ he said.”

For Scrushy, Vexed Jury Could Still Give Verdict
By Reed Abelson
Published May 30, 2005

A Syle that Connected with Hometown Jurors
By Reed Abelson and John Glater
Published June 29, 2005

“Some lawyers said they thought the strategy might have helped the defense. ‘Those efforts that he [Scrushy] made, going on TV down there in Alabama and all the rest, must have helped him,’ said Roland Riopelle, a former prosecutor and now a partner at Sercarz & Riopelle in New York.”

For Scrushy, Vexed Jury Could Still Give Verdict
By Reed Abelson
Published May 30, 2005

A Syle that Connected with Hometown Jurors
By Reed Abelson and John Glater
Published June 29, 2005

“Some lawyers said they thought the strategy might have helped the defense. ‘Those efforts that he [Scrushy] made, going on TV down there in Alabama and all the rest, must have helped him,’ said Roland Riopelle, a former prosecutor and now a partner at Sercarz & Riopelle in New York.”

New Plea Bargain Limits Could Swamp Courts, Experts Say
By Adam Liptak and Eric Lichtblau
Published: Sept. 24, 2003

If Attorney General John Ashcroft’s new directive limiting the use of plea bargains in federal prosecutions were enforced to the letter, legal experts said, the criminal justice system would soon face a crisis.

The directive, which was issued on Monday to all federal prosecutors, requires them to charge defendants with “the most serious, readily provable offense” in every case and, with some exceptions, not to engage in plea negotiations thereafter.

“This clearly gives Attorney General Ashcroft a certain political soapbox he can stand on to say he’s tough on crime and won’t put up with local prosecutors pleading their cases out cheap,” said Roland Riopelle, the chairman of the Criminal Advocacy Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Lawyer Objects to Pot Ring Wiretap
By David Gurliacci
Published: April 12, 1990

“’This is an extraordinary intrusion into privacy, especially for a case involving marijuana – extraordinary,’ said Maurice Sercarz, a New York City lawyer representing Gregory Antonakos and his wife, Melody.

“’After all, they weren’t suspects in any violent behavior,’ or any sales of hard drugs like cocaine or heroin, Sercarz said. ‘The most intimate conversations between a husband and wife could be overheard.’”

No Mercy for Celeb Money Manager
By Josh Grossbert
Published: Feb. 8, 2001

“Giacchetto’s lawyer, Roland Riopelle, maintained that his client had already burned through the money.

“’There isn’t a pot of gold out there,’ said Riopelle.”

6 Former Workers at a Day Trading Firm Are Acquitted
By Jenny Anderson
Published May 11, 2007
“‘There was no clear prohibitions on conduct here,’ said Roland G. Riopelle who represented Robert F. Malin, the president of A.B. Watley.”

Acquittals for Squawk-Box Seven
By Robert E. Kessler
Published May 11, 2007
“Roland Riopelle, the attorney for defendant Robert Malin, 42, of Manhattan, the former head of the firm, said … ‘[t]he government was courageous in bringing the case, the defendants were courageous [in fighting] the case, and the jury was courageous in acquitting them.’”

By Chad Bray
Published May 11, 2007
“Roland Riopelle, a lawyer for Mr. Malin, said the case was a tough one for the government to bring, saying it was the first trial involving charges under the fraud statutes enacted as a result of the Sarbanes-Oaxley legislation.  ‘The jury did the right thing,’ Mr. Riopelle said.”

Volpe Is Acquitted in NYSE Case
By Chad Bray

FEDS’ FUTILITY
Front-running prosecutions lack conviction
By Roddy Boyd
Published October 12, 2006

‘VENDOR-BRIBE’ DETECTIVES ACQUITTED
By Laura Italiano
Published June 27, 2006

2 Detectives Acquitted in Bribery Case
By Jennifer 8. Lee
Published June 27, 2006

Charges Against Defendant in Brink’s Holdup Dropped
By Edward Hudson
Published January 29, 1982

“[The District Attorney] said outside the courtroom that the information helpful to Miss Rosahn’s case provided by her defense lawyer was gained in ‘dozens and dozens of hours of interviews of witnesses’ whom the defense supplied. All of this, he said, ‘convinced me she did not rent the van.

“Judge Miller ordered the indictment dismissed after a brief hearing attended by Miss Rosahn’s Attorney, Maurice Sercarz.”

More Brink’s Charges Dropped
By R. Clinton Taplin
Published January 29, 1982

“’The circumstantial evidence, the eyewitness, and the handwriting show that Ms. Rosahn was not at the car rental that morning,’ said Ms. Rosahn’s attorney, Maurice Sercarz. ‘I think justice was done.’”

Stewart’s Celebrity Created Magnet for Scrutiny
By Jonathan D. Glater
Published: March 7, 2004

“Prosecuting someone famous can help to change behavior, though, and appeals to prosecutors seeking favorable media attention, said Roland Riopelle, a former federal prosecutor who practices at Sercarz & Riopelle in New York.

“’The government is in many cases quicker to pull the trigger on a public figure than a private citizen, and I think Martha Stewart was a victim of that,’ Mr. Riopelle said. ‘The truth is, quite honestly, it’s all more exciting and it creates all the more press.’

“As a result, he concluded, ‘They’re more likely to charge a prominent person for a piddly crime than they are an ordinary Joe.’”

Fraud Trial Begins
By Timothy O’Conner
Published April 22, 2004

“Segreti’s lawyer, Roland Riopelle, assailed Harnisch during opening arguments, saying he had cut a deal with the government to save himself. Harnisch, he said has a history of getting caught committing crime and then bailing himself out by point fingers at others.

“’Mr. Harnisch is a career criminal hiding behind the protection of a law license and a deal with the government,’ he said.”

Mob is Accused of Bilking Consumers of $200 Million
By William K. Rashbaum

“Maurice H. Sercarz, said yesterday that he had not yet seen the indictment because his client will not be arraigned until next week. ‘From what we know, this is a patchwork of old allegations, none of which are true, and we look forward to an early trial date and quick exoneration …,’ he said.”

John Gotti’s Crew Makes a High-Tech Killing
Cyber-Age Goodfellas
By Tom Robbins
Published February 18-24, 2004

“’The only cramming going on in this case is that the government has taken two civil investigations in disparate industries and they are cramming this case into the structure of an organized crime indictment,’ said Maurice Sercarz.”

Mother, 35, Acquitted of ‘Kidnapping’ Sons in Custody of Father
By Max. H. Siegel
Published: November 16, 1978

“Maurice H. Sercarz, a Legal Aid Society lawyer who won Mrs. Eller’s acquittal Tuesday night after a weeklong trial, said his client had told him she had run off with her children in frustration over the long delays her efforts to regain custody were encountering in the courts.”

Find Mother Not Guilty in Custody Kidnapping
By Robert Lane
Published: November 16, 1978

“At her trial, the woman’s attorney, Maurice H. Sercarz, said his client had chosen to flee because she felt she had been wrongfully denied custody …”

By: Mark Hamblett

The unconstitutional admission of eight plea allocutions at a criminal trial has led a federal appeals court to vacate the murder and racketeering convictions of three alleged organized crime members.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday said that the prosecutors should not have been able to introduce plea allocutions by non-testifying co-conspirators against Guiseppe Schifilliti, Philip Abramo and Stefano Vitabile at their 2003 trial.

The use of the allocutions, the court said, ran directly contrary to the instruction of the U.S. Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), where the Court said the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause is violated by the “admission of testimonial statement of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.”

The tree defendants were alleged members of the New Jersey-based Decavalcante organized crime family who were convicted before Southern District Judge Michael Mukasey. They were sentenced to life in prison.

With the government conceding on appeal that it was error for the court to admit the allocutions under Crawford, and the defense objecting to the admissions at trial, but not on Confrontation Clause grounds, the Second Circuit reviewed the admission under the “plain error” standard.

Under that standard of review, the analysis boiled down to whether the “substantial rights” of the defendants were affected, wrote Judge Dennis Jacobs in United States v. Riggi, 06-1280-cr.

“Here, the plea allocutions undoubtedly prejudiced the jury and influenced their verdicts,” Judge Jacobs said. He was joined on the panel by Judges Guido Calabresi and Robert Sack.

Judge Mukasey, who is now the U.S. Attorney General, had given limiting instructions to the jury that the plea allocutions were to be considered only for establishing that a particular racketeering enterprise or conspiracy existed, and were not to be use dot prove that any defendant was a participant.

But the Second Circuit said the limiting instructions were not enough to mitigate the constitutional violation.

Judge Jacobs said “prejudice arose from the sheer number of plea allocutions admitted to prove” the nine different conspiracies alleged in the case and that “many of the conspiracies were overlapping such that evidence of one tended to support the existence of another.”

The circuit was also concerned, Judge Jacobs said, that “the detailed content of the plea allocutions corresponded to elements of the crimes charged against defendants, potentially boosting the government’s proof in those areas.”

The panel also took note of the “prejudicial spillover” of the allocutions, which it said was “manifest in the alignment of the verdicts.”

“The jury convicted on every substantive count supported by a plea allocution; and where no plea allocution was offered in support of a substantive count, the jury acquitted,” Judge Jacobs wrote.

The government argued on appeal that the lower court’s error was harmless because the evidence of guilt was overwhelming.

But the circuit said that, while there was other evidence, the government’s case “consisted primarily of cooperating witness testimony, which, even viewed in the light most favorable to the government, contained inconsistencies and contradictions.”

And Judge Jacobs noted that the government leaned heavily on the plea allocutions on summation, “attributing to them undue probative value and significance.”

Roland Riopelle of Sercarz & Riopelle represented Mr. Schifilliti, who along with Mr. Abramo and Mr. Vitabile, was tied to the 1991 murder of Decavalcante captain Louis LaRasso through the plea allocution of coconspirator Anthony Rotondo.

Mr. Riopelle said the decision could make a big difference for his client as the government prepared for retrial or plea negotiations.

“I would think that, in particular for Mr. Schifilliti, I thin the substantive homicide count was very difficult for the government to prove even with the guilty plea allocution,” Mr. Riopelle said. “And while the Second Circuit did hold that there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury, this is a case where a retrial of that count might well come out in Mr. Schifilliti’s favor.”

Inga Parsons of Marblehead, Mass. Represented Philip Abramo.

Sanford Talkin of Talkin, Muccigrosso & Roberts represented Mr. Vitabile.

“We’re very happy with the decision,” Mr. Talkin said. “The lawyers worked together very hard on this and we look forward to getting back to the Southern District to see what happens in the case.”

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John M. Hillebrecht, Miriam Rocah and Katherine Polk Failla represented the government.