Patterson may help mobsters 'Clown,' 'Little Jimmy'
LIKE CALABRESE SR. | Court: Co-defendant should get new trial for antics
Drug-dealing gangbanger Aaron Patterson once registered voters and protested police brutality in his role as community activist.
Now, he might be helping "The Clown" and "Little Jimmy" -- two old-time Chicago mobsters who want a new trial after convictions leave them looking at life behind bars.
On Tuesday, a federal appellate court ruled that a man who was on trial with Patterson in 2005 should get a new one because of Patterson's antics during the case -- which included, on different occasions, gesturing at the jury, yelling out and knocking two lawyers to the ground.
The decision bolstered attorneys for mobsters in the Family Secrets mob case. They also want a new trial for their clients, saying they didn't get a fair one because of the antics of one defendant, mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr.
"It's a substantial step forward," Rick Halprin, the attorney for Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, said of the appellate decision.
Calabrese Sr. allegedly threatened the life of a prosecutor on the case, Markus Funk, during Funk's closing argument.
"You are a f - - - - - - dead man," Calabrese Sr. allegedly said, in a comment heard by some jurors.
Calabrese Sr. also loudly disputed the closing argument of another prosecutor, Mitch Mars.
"Dem are lies," Calabrese Sr. yelled out as Mars spoke to jurors.
Before those comments, Calabrese Sr. repeatedly made faces during trial.
The judge in the mob case never questioned the jury privately to see if Calabrese's actions had biased them against him or other defendants.
"That's part of the problem," said Marc Martin, the attorney for Chicago mob boss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello.
Marcello did not want to be on trial with Calabrese Sr.
"We did not want to be in the same courtroom with Frank Calabrese Sr., let alone have any sort of association with him through examination by counsel," Martin wrote, calling Calabrese Sr.'s testimony in his own behalf on the witness stand "ridiculous."