Ali Watkins

But when 6ix9ine — whose real name is Daniel Hernandez — stepped off the witness stand Thursday, he stepped into an uncertain future.

The debacle has all but eviscerated Hernandez’s credibility in rap, where fellow performers have branded him a “snitch.” His safety is similarly suspect; the Nine Trey gang has not historically taken kindly to being double-crossed, and has already threatened to kill him once.

“I knew I was going to become a target,” he said in court. “I knew they were going to try and hurt me.”

Hernandez was in court to testify against two of his former confidantes, Anthony Ellison, 31, and Aljermiah Mack, 33, in a sweeping racketeering and firearms case prosecutors brought against the gang last year. For hours last week, Hernandez walked the jury through the inner workings of Nine Trey, a prison gang with roots on Rikers Island in the 1990s.

In doing so, the rapper may have decimated any remaining goodwill he had left in the rap industry as he became both a punchline and a pariah — the subject of intense online vitriol from his onetime peers, who expressed astonishment at the amount of information Hernandez had provided.

Artists including Snoop Dogg, Future and Lil Durk shared memes or pointed words denouncing 6ix9ine as a snitch, with Meek Mill writing, “Message of the day don’t be a internet gangsta … be yourself!”

Minya Oh, best known as Miss Info, the founder of the hip-hop news website MissInfo.tv and a former host on the rap radio station Hot 97 in New York, called the 6ix9ine saga a “Greek telenovela tragicomedy,” and predicted that he would face a complex conundrum upon being released: Curiosity would be at an all-time high, but within the hip-hop community, so would animus.

“In the attention economy, just knowing that 6ix9ine might open his mouth somewhere is like shipping platinum,” she said. “But nobody with any of their own value will ever stand next to him. So he has to exist in a vacuum and can’t leave his house. All doable things for an artist in 2019 and beyond.”

Labels would be reticent to allow their artists to work with him, Oh added, “But they all think when he gets out of jail, he will be a big draw.”

Hernandez pleaded guilty in January to racketeering conspiracy and eight other charges. He faces a minimum of 47 years in prison. If his cooperation is successful, prosecutors agreed earlier this year to lobby for a lighter sentence.

His utility as an informant has an inevitable expiration date. Ellison’s and Mack’s trial is expected to conclude within days, and it is unclear whether Hernandez would testify in any other potential trials that could stem from the government’s case against Nine Trey.

Prosecutors have indicated he could enter the witness protection program.

Such a path would not be unprecedented. The government has successfully relocated and protected high-profile witnesses in the past; mobsters have started over as bakery owners, and reformed assassins have found new careers as doll salesmen, two former federal law enforcement officials said.

“Despite how connected we are, and the appetite for social media content in this country, there are places where, if this kid gets a haircut and wears normal clothes, no one would know or care who he is,” said Jay Kramer, a former FBI official who worked on organized crime cases.

There is almost nothing in Hernandez’s background that suggests a capacity for discretion, and it is unlikely the U.S. Marshals Service, which runs the witness protection program, would pay for the removal of Hernandez’s signature face tattoos.

The rapper, whose rainbow-colored hair has faded to its natural black, transformed into a thoughtful, conscientious narrator in court. He paused frequently to translate street slang to the jury, and showed disarming flashes of naivete — he asked lawyers to explain large words and requested clarification about questions.

That Hernandez landed in prison because of his affiliation with Nine Trey is less surprising than his reinvention as an informant.

The Bushwick native linked up with the gang in 2017, he said, after his first international tour, in Eastern Europe. At the time, Hernandez’s bizarre mashup of heavy metal and hip-hop was confusing — and compelling — the rap world.

But his style shifted considerably that year, when he returned to Brooklyn and partnered with the Nine Trey gang. His multiplatinum breakout single, “GUMMO,” featured several purported members of Nine Trey in the track’s music video, which went viral.

“That’s what people liked,” he said of the gang affiliation. “It was just a formula, a blueprint that I found that worked.”

Hernandez, who had amassed a gigantic internet following, became a sort of cash cow for the Nine Trey leadership, he said, including Ellison and Kifano (Shotti) Jordan. Both collected tens of thousands of dollars from Hernandez’s performances, he said.

Jordan pleaded guilty to federal firearms charges earlier this year in connection with the case, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Hernandez’s profitability made him a coveted token in the Nine Trey hierarchy, prosecutors said. Ellison and Jordan began warring over control of the rapper’s career, culminating in Ellison allegedly kidnapping and robbing Hernandez last summer.

“I’m pleading with him,” Hernandez said of the incident. “I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m scared. I have a daughter. I have a 3-year-old daughter at home.’ ”

The alleged kidnapping, which was widely covered at the time, would be the catalyst for Hernandez’s unraveling. By November, he had publicly renounced Nine Trey.

“I was tired of being extorted,” he said.

His repudiation was significant enough that the gang began discussing how to punish Hernandez for his disloyalty, according to wiretaps. The threats were deemed credible, and officials with the FBI visited Hernandez to offer him protection, which he declined.

Days later, Hernandez and 11 other reputed Nine Trey members were arrested and charged in the sweeping racketeering and firearms case.

Twenty-four hours later, Hernandez rescinded his previous declination to the FBI. He agreed to testify against his former crew.

This article originally appeared in

Tekashi 69: Can He Disappear After Testifying Against the Bloods?

NEW YORK — For three short days in September, the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was back in his element: blowing up the internet. Abandoning his brand as a professional agitator, the Instagram celebrity became a star witness for the federal government, and testified at length about fellow rappers and his former crew, the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.

Still, he was not the kind of person anyone imagined would someday pull off the highest-profile mob killing in decades.

Comello, a 24-year-old born and raised on Staten Island’s South Shore, is accused of gunning down a Gambino crime family leader, Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, on a quiet street in Todt Hill last week.

The shooting rocketed Comello, an otherwise unsensational young man who was struggling to launch his adult life, into true-crime infamy. But in the days since Cali, 53, was shot 10 times, Comello — as well as his motive — has remained a cipher.

Police have not explained how Comello even crossed into Cali’s orbit, let alone why he allegedly decided to kill him. Comello has no known connection to organized crime, according to law enforcement officials and his friends.

Whatever the motive of the shooting, the Gambino crime family has not historically been a forgiving entity, and officials say Comello faces a threat to his life in prison. He is being held in protective custody in New Jersey, and is expected to be transferred to Staten Island on Monday.

An outlandish twist came this week when Comello, at his first court appearance, displayed symbols and phrases associated with far-right conspiracy theories, scrawled on his palm with a pen. His lawyer said he had become obsessed with such theories in recent months. In February, officials said, Comello had shown up at public buildings announcing he wanted to make a “citizen’s arrest” of prominent liberal Democrats like Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In his only comments since his arrest, Comello was cryptic. “Don’t believe in fairy tales,” he said to a Daily News reporter on March 20, before abruptly ending a short jailhouse interview.

How all of the story’s incongruous pieces — a mob boss, a far-right conspiracy theory, a struggling young man from a middle-class Staten Island home — fit together remains unknown. Yet a fuller picture has emerged of a rudderless person who appeared to take an abruptly ominous turn and had been influenced by conspiracy theories in the dark corners of the internet.

The son of a veteran manager at Bloomberg LP and a construction worker, Comello graduated from Tottenville High School in 2012. He was described by two former classmates as aloof but easily influenced, a teenager who sought approval from popular crowds but was never quite accepted into them.

He experimented in high school with drugs, two former classmates said, and occasionally picked fights while under the influence. According to social media accounts, Comello started a Facebook group in 2011 to discuss prices of marijuana.

But as high school friends matured and moved forward, Comello spiraled downward. By adulthood, his drug habit had escalated into a serious problem. According to three friends, Comello wrestled with drug addiction and popped pills, including OxyContin.

A habitual smoker of Marlboro Reds, he was a regular at Campos deli a few blocks from his family’s home. Didar Janid, a deli employee, said Comello was friendly but had a combative reputation.

“He was a little bit aggressive,” said Janid, 46. “Gradually he was calming down.”

Comello’s mother, Nicole Mucillo-Comello, 51, is a well-established executive overseeing information systems in the Bloomberg organization, where she has worked for 28 years, according to her social media accounts. His father, Alfonso Comello, 54, worked in Staten Island’s construction industry.

Anthony Comello is the middle of three children. His older brother Alfonso, 30, works in construction and was a mason for the New York City Housing Authority until 2016. Comello’s younger sister, Nicolette, 21, attends St. John’s University, according to her social media profile.

On Retford Avenue, where Comello lived with his parents in a spacious, two-story home, he led a quiet existence. He was sometimes seen walking the neighborhood with a friend who lived nearby, neighbors said. Reached by a reporter, the friend declined to comment.

Comello appeared to have odd construction jobs and was often seen working with his father, according to neighbors. The family home had a fleet of pickup trucks, one said.

“I’ve seen his parents numerous times,” said Victor Ujeck, who lives across the street from the family’s home. “Very nice people.”

“I would never imagine he could have done this,” Ujeck said. “I was shocked.”

Law enforcement officials were initially investigating whether Comello had a romantic interest in a female relative of Cali’s.

In an early conversation with detectives, Comello said Cali had told him to stay away from a young woman in the Cali family, police said. Yet neighbors and friends did not recall hearing about a girlfriend or a love interest.

Despite his drug use and intermittent scuffles, Comello had no serious run-ins with the law before this year. Whatever his criminal inclinations, they escalated from bland to bizarre in February, when U.S. Marshals kicked him out of a Manhattan federal courthouse. Comello had entered the building and demanded a citizen’s arrest of local and national political figures, including de Blasio and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The stunt was noticed by the city police and the marshals, who law enforcement officials say put out a bulletin alerting other city institutions to watch for Comello. The following day, he was seen at the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, where officers recognized him. Comello left the property before the situation escalated, but spoke briefly with officers.

“These were rambling statements,” said John Miller, chief of the New York Police Department’s intelligence division. “He wanted to make a citizen’s arrest of Maxine Waters, Congressman Schiff. He blamed Nancy Pelosi and all kinds of other people for stealing the election.”

The motivation for Comello’s February stunt became clearer Monday, when he was arraigned in a New Jersey court. As he entered the courtroom, he raised his open palm, where he had scrawled the letter Q and several phrases associated with the Reddit-born QAnon conspiracy theory.

That baseless theory suggests, among other things, the U.S. government is run by pedophiles and President Donald Trump will overthrow them. It encourages followers not to trust career politicians, particularly Democratic ones.

Comello’s lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said the young man became fascinated with QAnon and other far-right internet narratives involving Trump. Friends and family, Gottlieb said, described a noticeable and recent shift in Comello’s personality as he fell deeper into digital rabbit holes.

In the days since Comello’s arrest, his family has all but gone underground. Attempts to reach his parents were unsuccessful; a neighbor said Wednesday that he had seen the family packing bags and leaving their Eltingville home, and thought they had moved out. At Comello’s older brother’s home, a man said the family did not want to talk. At a separate address listed for an apparent relative, a man told a reporter to “take a walk.”

Cali’s murder was not the Comello family’s first brush with the law. Comello’s older brother, Alfonso, is facing felony assault and burglary charges in Richmond County for an incident in Staten Island in September, charges that he denies and is fighting.

According to a criminal complaint, Alfonso Comello, entered the home of a woman he knew on Sept. 25 with an accomplice, and beat the woman’s face with the handle of a knife. The beating was violent enough to knock out several of the woman’s teeth.

The woman, whose name is redacted in court papers, was tied to a bed as Alfonso Comello rummaged through drawers and demanded money. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Arthur Louis Aidala, said Alfonso Comello categorically denied the charges.

Missing from the Comello family troubles, however, is any obvious connection to Cali.

According to police, Anthony Comello entered Cali’s neighborhood late on March 13 and backed his blue pickup truck into Cali’s Cadillac Escalade, knocking off the SUV’s license plate.

He rang Cali’s doorbell and the two walked outside and exchanged words, according to surveillance video obtained by the police. Comello picked up the Escalade’s license plate, and handed it to Cali. Then he allegedly pulled a pistol and opened fire and fired 12 shots, hitting Cali 10 times. He drove away in his pickup.

Comello’s fingerprints were found on the license plate, police said.

“Something went very wrong here,” Gottlieb said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/nyregion/gambino-comello-mob-bos.html" id="7f174b65-5310-3c42-ade8-2880fea4631f">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — Anthony Comello was known as an aimless young man on his family’s block in Staten Island, where he lived in his parents’ house. He could be helpful, offering during snowstorms to plow the streets with his pickup and to clear snow from neighbors’ driveways. But he also believed in far-right conspiracy theories, had an OxyContin habit and could be aggressive when he was high, people who knew him said.

A Conspiracy Theorist, a Murdered Gambino Boss and a Mystery Motive

This week, that exchange took on new significance. Late Wednesday, the acting boss of the Gambino crime family, Francesco Cali, was shot dead outside his Staten Island home, just six months after Gotti had been released from federal custody.

Police commanders said Thursday that it was too early in the investigation to determine if Cali’s killing was related to Gotti’s release, or was mob-related at all. But one avenue of investigation remains the possibility of an internal war among family associates, former law enforcement officials said.

Cali represented a new chapter in the Gambino family’s history. He was part of a Sicilian faction that took over the family in 2011, when Domenico Cefalu rose to be the acting boss. Both Cefalu and Cali had tapped networks in Palermo, Sicily, for foot soldiers, and they adopted a quieter approach to their business dealings.

Gene Gotti, 72, represented the old guard. He is the younger brother of John J. Gotti, the infamous “Dapper Don” who ran the family until his conviction on murder and racketeering charges in 1992. John Gotti died behind bars a decade later.

A third brother, Peter Gotti, who investigators say became the family’s boss after John Gotti’s death, is serving a life sentence in prison.

Given the era of relative peace among New York’s five major Mafia families, many experts on organized crime have begun theorizing that the killing of Cali might point to a struggle within the family.

If so, it could signal a bloody new chapter for the enterprise, where a rift has festered between the Sicilian leadership of Cali and Gotti loyalists.

“What happened here? I don’t know,” said James Hunt, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York, where he handled the Gambino portfolio. “You’ve got guys recently released. Gene Gotti was recently released. He may think he was the heir to the throne.”

Cali, 53, was drawn out of his house at 9:17 p.m. Wednesday when a pickup truck rammed repeatedly into his Cadillac SUV, which was parked on the street in front of his home.

Security camera video from the Cali house — obtained through a search warrant because the family was not cooperating — showed Cali coming outside and interacting with the truck’s driver, who seconds later pulled out a pistol, police said. The gunman shot Cali six times before speeding off.

Chief Dermot Shea, who runs the Police Department’s detective bureau, would not say whether investigators had spoken to Gene Gotti as of Thursday afternoon.

When Gene Gotti was arrested in the late 1980s, his brother’s enterprise was starting to crumble. The Gambinos’ heroin business was being undersold by the Colombian and Mexican cartels, who could move drug shipments cheaper and faster. And federal investigators were circling.

Gene Gotti was convicted on a heroin-trafficking charge in 1989 and was sentenced to 59 years in federal prison. At the time, he was reputed to be a Gambino captain, officials said.

John Gotti, who eluded convictions in three trials, was finally arrested by the FBI in 1992 and convicted of racketeering, extortion and murder. He was foiled after his underboss, Salvatore Gravano, decided to cooperate with the government.

In recent years, Cali emerged as the heir apparent to a new Gambino generation, becoming the acting boss in 2015, prosecutors said. He was a protégé of Cefalu, and the pair spent the last decade quietly overhauling much of what John Gotti had built, opting for a quiet, reserved approach to organized crime.

“They’ve gone back to the old ways, staying under the radar, no flash,” Hunt, the former DEA head, said. “They got so sick of all the bad stuff from Gotti that they really pulled it in.”

Cali in particular maintained close ties to the Mafia in Sicily, where he had ties through blood and marriage. He filled the family’s decimated ranks with Sicilians, known to be far less flamboyant and showy than their American associates. He quietly cultivated the family’s hold in New York City’s construction and trucking industries, and pulled the clan back under the radar.

Rarely seen in public, Cali avoided the spotlight John Gotti had once sought. He caught only one federal charge — on a racketeering scheme involving the failed construction of a NASCAR speedway in Staten Island — and spent less than two years in jail.

Cali’s shooting is the highest-profile Mafia killing in more than three decades. In 1985, Gambino boss Paul Castellano was shot in broad daylight outside Spark’s Steak House in midtown Manhattan. The hit, authorities said, had been sanctioned by John Gotti, who took control of the clan not long after.

For investigators who have long watched the Gambinos, Cali’s slaying was so brazen that it raised the possibility it was personal vendetta. Mafia assassinations are usually carried out by a team of gunmen in a place far from the target’s home and family — a restaurant, a barber shop, a cafe. The assassins also generally take care to avoid security cameras and use cars and guns that are difficult to trace.

“This is not how usually the mob operates, especially not with a person at this high level,” said Robert Boyce, a former chief of the Police Department’s detective bureau. “That is the primary question, is this a sanctioned hit?”

Killings this high profile, Boyce said, rarely go unanswered.

“There’s a very good probability there will be more violence,” he said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/nyregion/gambino-gotti.html" id="f60c36ed-1068-3aeb-a777-3a20b2a1f963">The New York Times</a>.

A Gotti Was Released From Prison, Then the Gambino Boss Was Killed. Is There a Connection?

NEW YORK — While Gene Gotti was in prison in the 1990s, he hatched a plan with a Gambino family associate: They would keep up a strict workout routine at the prison gym, federal agents learned. They had to stay in shape, Gotti reportedly said, because once they got out, he was going to retake control of the Gambino enterprise.

“We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation,” Barr said. He did not elaborate on what problems he was referring to.

Epstein’s death came just two weeks after he had been taken off suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where he was being held awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, officials said.

Since leaving suicide watch July 29, Epstein had been housed in the Secure Housing Unit, one of the prison’s most secure wings, officials said, and was supposed to have been checked on by guards regularly.

Barr added: “I was appalled, and indeed the whole department was, and frankly angry, to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately secure this prisoner.” He spoke at the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police’s 64th National Biennial Conference in New Orleans.

Barr has asked the FBI and the Justice Department’s Inspector General to launch inquiries into what was happening at the prison in the days and hours leading up to Epstein’s death. Epstein was also found unconscious in his cell last month in what could have been a suicide attempt.

Barr and the Justice Department wanted to know why he was taken off suicide watch just a few days after he was discovered.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened,” Barr said. “There will be accountability.”

The country’s top law enforcement official also said that Epstein’s suicide would not halt the investigation into other people who might have helped him traffic teenage girls for sex. He was charged with sexually abusing hundreds of adolescent girls at his mansions in Manhattan and in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Any co-conspirators should not rest easy,” Barr said. “The victims deserve justice and they will get it.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/nyregion/epstein-barr.html" id="88914cd9-316a-326e-a5d3-f03ee506f1fc">The New York Times</a>.

Jeffrey Epstein Suicide: Barr Criticizes 'Serious Irregularities' at Jail

Attorney General William Barr said Monday that there were “serious irregularities” at the federal jail in New York City where Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who was long dogged by accusations of sexual abuse of girls, was found dead on Saturday morning after he had apparently hanged himself.

He wanted only to arrest him, his lawyer said in new court documents.

The details of what happened next are well known. Comello, 24, arrived at the home of Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, a leader in the Gambino crime family, and lured him outside. The men spoke briefly. Then prosecutors say Comello pulled a gun from his car and shot Cali, leaving him to die in the street.

Comello, an aimless young man who lived with his parents on Staten Island, was arrested three days later and charged with murder.

But court documents filed Friday offered a glimpse into the deeply troubled mind of Comello, who his defense lawyer says was so deluded by internet conspiracy theories that he was determined to conduct a citizen’s arrest of Cali and turn the Mafia leader over to the military.

“He ardently believed that Francesco Cali, a boss in the Gambino crime family, was a prominent member of the deep state, and, accordingly, an appropriate target for a citizen’s arrest,” wrote Comello’s lawyer, Robert C. Gottlieb.

At times, the circumstances of Cali’s demise have seemed so outlandish that they appeared specially designed for these viral times. But a clearer picture is emerging of how the tale’s incongruous pieces — a mob boss, a drifter from Staten Island and a far-right conspiracy theory — may fit together.

Cali’s murder was the highest-profile mob killing in decades, an event so significant that in the days between Cali’s death and Comello’s arrest, speculation surged that a new war was brewing among New York’s five Mafia families.

The reality, according to his lawyer, appears to be even more bizarre: Comello had become convinced that Cali was part of the deep state, a cabal of criminals that conspiracy theorists claim controls the U.S. government. Comello also believed he was a chosen vigilante of President Donald Trump.

“Mr. Comello became certain that he was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself, and that he had the president’s full support,” Gottlieb wrote.

That delusion will be part of a package of evidence that Gottlieb says he plans to submit to the court that prove Comello is not guilty by reason of mental defect. Gottlieb is seeking to have the court place Comello in psychiatric treatment, rather than prosecute him on murder charges. Comello is being held in protective custody as he awaits trial.

Prosecutors in the Staten Island district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Comello took handcuffs with him to Todt Hill on March 13, Gottlieb said, but his plan was foiled when Cali refused to submit to a citizen’s arrest. Instead, Gottlieb said, the Gambino leader reached toward his waistband. Fearing for his life, Comello shot Cali 10 times and fled, Gottlieb said.

QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that originated on internet message boards, played a key role in Comello’s descent into mental instability, his lawyer said. It claims, among other things, that America is controlled by a “deep state,” that prominent Democratic politicians are pedophiles and that John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a 1999 plane crash, is secretly alive and will run for president in 2020.

At Comello’s first court appearance in March, he displayed symbols and phrases associated with QAnon scrawled on his hand in pen. He first discovered the conspiracy theory, Gottlieb said, in the weeks after Trump’s 2016 election.

“Mr. Comello’s support for ‘QAnon’ went beyond mere participation in a radical political organization,” Gottlieb wrote. “It evolved into a delusional obsession.”

Driven by that obsession, Gottlieb said, Comello began early this year to attempt citizen’s arrests of people he believed to be associated with the deep state. In February, Comello twice tried to conduct his own arrest of Mayor Bill de Blasio, including one instance in which he showed up at Gracie Mansion, the mayoral home in Manhattan.

Not long after that incident, Comello sought the help of U.S. marshals at U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and asked that they help him to arrest two California Democrats, Reps. Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff, both of whom he believed were in the vicinity. He was rebuffed.

Both incidents were confirmed by law enforcement officials.

He was also posting and sharing conspiracy theories online that are associated with the far-right, and was engaging with other QAnon believers on the internet, according to social media accounts linked to Comello from around the same time.

Gottlieb identified one of Comello’s accounts, RealAmericasVoice_ on Instagram, in his filing. The page has dozens of memes and written screeds, some that are difficult to decipher, including several posted days before Cali’s death.

One post accuses Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of being a fascist. “Patriot sleeper cells are awake,” he wrote in another. Yet another refers to Bill and Hillary Clinton as “The Clinton Crime Family.”

How Comello came to associate Cali or the Gambino crime family with such theories remains unclear. Typically, the conspiracy group targets Democratic political figures, not the Mafia.

But Gottlieb said he believed Comello had encountered posts online that suggested Mafia figures like Cali were also connected to the deep state.

Gottlieb said Saturday that he was sifting through “thousands and thousands” of messages, posts and forums that he said Comello might have engaged with.

The defense lawyer is also asking a judge to order prosecutors to provide details about anything found in Cali’s home or car when they were searched after the shooting, including whether any weapons were found on or near Cali’s body.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/nyregion/gambino-shooting-anthony-comello-frank-cali.html" id="1adc6fb9-0243-326d-ac9f-8118c09d4fd4">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — As his pickup truck roared toward the Todt Hill section of Staten Island, Anthony Comello had no intention of killing a mob boss.

He Wasn't Seeking to Kill a Mob Boss. He Was Trying to Help Trump, His Lawyer Says.

It was nearly 8 p.m. Wednesday when Lamparello, a 37-year-old graduate student and lecturer on philosophy, entered St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan toting two gasoline cans, lighter fluid and lighters, police said.

Hours before, he had purchased a $2,800, one-way plane ticket to Rome, which was set to depart the next day.

Lamparello was about 20 feet into the church when ushers approached him and said he could not be inside the building with the cans of gasoline, police said. He explained that he was trying to take a shortcut through the iconic sanctuary to reach his van, which he claimed had run out of gas.

Lamparello’s gold minivan, though, turned out not to be out of fuel, police said, and a stroll through St. Patrick’s was hardly a shortcut.

Denied entry, Lamparello left the sanctuary, sloshing gasoline on the floor as he went, police said. He was stopped outside the church by police officers, who noticed the twin gas cans.

The incident came just before Easter and two days after a devastating fire tore through the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Lamparello, who has addresses in New Jersey and in Brooklyn, was taken into custody Wednesday night and questioned by detectives, including officers from the Police Department’s intelligence division and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He was being held on charges of attempted arson and reckless endangerment, senior police officials said.

But Thursday afternoon, he was transported from the Midtown North Precinct to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said, and it remained unclear when he would appear in court.

It was the second church-related arrest this week for Lamparello. On Monday night, he was arrested inside Newark, New Jersey’s Sacred Heart Cathedral after he refused to leave the sanctuary. He told officers the church was a house of God and should be open at all hours before throwing himself on the floor and vowing to stay.

“Said, ‘If you want me to leave, you’ll have to take me out in handcuffs,’” Armando B. Fontoura, the Essex County sheriff, said. He described Lamparello as “very respectful,” if obstinate.

Lamparello was taken to a police station that evening and charged with resisting arrest, defiant trespassing and interfering with the administration of law.

He was evaluated by emergency medical technicians, who found nothing wrong with him, Fontoura said. His mother escorted him that night from the precinct to his parents’ home in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, he said.

It remains unclear what may have driven Lamparello to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday. Police officials would not say what, if any, motive he disclosed to officers.

“There doesn’t appear to be any connection to a terror group,” said John Miller, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.

Lamparello is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the City University of New York. His mother told New Jersey authorities he had an apartment in New York City.

He was a 2004 graduate of Boston College and was listed as teaching courses at Brooklyn College this spring. Police said Lamparello also taught at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

He had written and published a book, “Reason and Counterpoint,” in 2016. His online biography on Amazon.com suggests an interest in questions of religion and higher powers; it said he was working on a book-length project that would wrestle with the existence of God.

At least one of the courses he has taught, Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy, touched on religion.

The course included “such topics as the nature and scope of knowledge, meaning and verification, the existence of God, determinism and free will, the mind-body problem, and the nature of moral judgments,” according to an online course description for Brooklyn College.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/st-patricks-cathedral-marc-lamparello.html" id="7d06a9f6-e8a2-3b24-ac27-2a05c7a73332">The New York Times</a>.

Man Arrested With Gas Cans and Lighters at St. Patrick's Cathedral Is a Philosophy Teacher

NEW YORK — Marc Lamparello’s story seemed off from the start.

It was near 8 p.m. Wednesday when Lamparello, a 37-year-old adjunct philosophy lecturer, entered St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan toting two gallons of gasoline, lighter fluid and lighters, the police said.

Stopped by ushers, he explained he was trying to take a shortcut through the iconic sanctuary to reach his vehicle, which had run out of gas, police said.

Lamparello’s minivan, though, was not out of fuel, police said, and a stroll through St. Patrick’s was hardly a shortcut. Spooked, church security officers flagged police officers as Lamparello turned to leave, sloshing gasoline on the floor.

Lamparello, who lives in New Jersey, was taken into custody Wednesday night for questioning, police said, but has not been charged with any crime. He has had prior run-ins with law enforcement and had previously been arrested in New Jersey for trespassing, the Fire Department said.

His arrest came just before Easter and two days after a devastating fire tore through the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

“His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas,” said John Miller, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. “We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas, and at that point he was taken into custody.”

Lamparello is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the City University of New York. He was a 2004 graduate of Boston College and was listed as teaching courses at Brooklyn College this spring. A philosophy academic, he had written and published his first book, “Reason and Counterpoint,” in 2016.

Lamparello’s history with the church is murky, but his work suggests at least a baseline interest in questions of religion and higher powers. In 2016, his author biography on Amazon.com indicated he was working on a book-length project about wrestling with the existence of God.

At least one of the courses he has taught, Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy, touched on the idea of religion. The course included “such topics as the nature and scope of knowledge, meaning and verification, the existence of God, determinism and free will, the mind-body problem, and the nature of moral judgments,” according to an online course description for Brooklyn College.

<h1>NEW YORK — A trove of lewd photographs of girls, discovered in a safe inside financier Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion the same day he was arrested, is deepening questions about why federal prosecutors in Miami had cut a deal that shielded him from federal prosecution in 2008.</h1>

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Epstein on Monday with sex trafficking, dealing an implicit rebuke to that plea agreement, which was overseen by Alexander Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami and now President Donald Trump’s labor secretary.

The indictment in Manhattan could prompt a moment of reckoning for the Justice Department, which for years has wrestled with accusations that it mishandled the earlier case and has faced a barrage of litigation from Epstein’s accusers. In February, the Justice Department opened its own internal review into the matter.

Attorney General William Barr said Monday during a trip to South Carolina that he had recused himself from the case because Barr’s former law firm, Kirkland &amp; Ellis, had represented Epstein.

Eric Holland, the deputy assistant secretary of labor for public affairs, said Acosta had no comment.

Accusations of sexual predation have dogged Epstein for decades. Until his arrest Saturday, his case had been held up as a prime example of how insulated, powerful men can escape accountability.

Epstein, a hedge fund manager, avoided the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence, largely because of a secret agreement his lawyers struck with federal prosecutors in 2008. His social circle is filled with the rich and famous, including former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew of Britain.

Clinton’s office said in a statement Monday that he knows nothing about “the terrible crimes” connected to Epstein.

In 2002, Trump described Epstein as “a terrific guy,” telling New York Magazine, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

As he unsealed an indictment charging Epstein with sex trafficking on Monday, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, made an appeal to other women who may have been abused by him to come forward.

“They deserve their day in court and we are proud to stand up for them by bringing this indictment,” Berman said.

He declined to say why his office decided to pursue charges against Epstein now, since federal prosecutors knew about his potential crimes in New York a decade ago. Berman said his office had been “assisted by some excellent investigative journalists,” an apparent reference to The Miami Herald’s reporting.

The indictment said that Epstein and his employees engaged in a sex-trafficking scheme, bringing dozens of vulnerable girls, some as young as 14, to his Upper East Side mansion and to his palatial compound in Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.

Epstein, 66, then engaged in sex acts with the young women during naked massage sessions, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash, prosecutors said. He also asked some of the girls to recruit other girls, many of whom prosecutors say were underage, and paid them for bringing in new victims, the indictment said.

“This conduct, as alleged, went on for years and involved dozens of young girls, some as young as 14,” Berman said. “The alleged behavior shocks the conscience.”

Epstein is charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy, and faces a combined maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

Epstein’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said the allegations in the indictment had already been settled in 2008. “To us this indictment is essentially a do-over,” he said. “This is old stuff. This is ancient stuff.”

Epstein, looking disheveled in a navy blue jumpsuit, pleaded not guilty. He stared silently ahead as prosecutors outlined the charges, never glancing at the packed courtroom behind him.

The discovery of the photo trove was detailed by prosecutors as they argued against allowing Epstein to be freed on bail. His wealth and means — including six homes and two private jets — made him a significant flight risk, they said.

“He is a man of nearly infinite means,” said Andrew Rossmiller, a government lawyer.

Prosecutors said they seized hundreds, and possibly thousands, of “sexually suggestive” pictures of nude or partially nude young women and girls during a search of Epstein’s Manhattan town house on Saturday, conducted at roughly the same time the financier was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The cache of photos, some of which were discovered in a locked safe that also contained CDs with labels like “Girl pics nude,” demonstrate the predatory attitude that Epstein continues to have toward young women, prosecutors said.

“This is not an individual who has left his past behind,” Rossmiller said.

In the hours since Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said, several other women contacted them with complaints about Epstein. Some of those accusers had never previously spoken to the government, prosecutors said.

Several of Epstein’s accusers said they were relieved that authorities seemed to be taking their complaints seriously after many years.

“The news of my abuser’s arrest today is a step in the right direction to finally hold Epstein accountable for his crimes,” Sarah Ransome, who said she was forced to have sex with the financier in her 20s, said in a statement read by her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, outside federal court.

Two other women who have said they were abused by Epstein when they were teenagers, Courtney Wild and Michelle Licata, watched the proceedings from the back of the courtroom with their lawyer, Brad Edwards. “I was 14. I had braces on,” Wild told ABC News on Monday.

The charges unsealed Monday mirror those that federal prosecutors had prepared in Miami against Epstein more than a decade ago. In 2005, law enforcement officials there investigated Epstein after the parents of one of his accusers reported an incident to police.

Florida prosecutors had prepared a 53-page indictment accusing Epstein of being a sexual predator. But those charges were shelved in 2008 after an eleventh-hour deal was reached between the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami and Epstein’s lawyers.

The agreement granted Epstein immunity from federal prosecution and let him plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Federal prosecutors arranged for the plea deal to be kept secret from Epstein’s accusers until it was finalized in court.

The deal let Epstein avoid a possible life sentence in federal prison. Instead, he spent 13 months at a Palm Beach jail and was permitted to leave the facility six days a week for work. He was also required to register as a sex offender.

Berman made it clear that his office was not bound by the 2008 agreement that Acosta’s office had negotiated.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Epstein on Monday with sex trafficking, dealing an implicit rebuke to that plea agreement, which was overseen by Alexander Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami and now President Donald Trump’s labor secretary.

Ali Watkins

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