THE GOVERNMENT TARGETS WRONG PEOPLE

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PRIVATE EYE GOSSIP
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Vinny Parco

The government in its quest for convictions sometimes targets the wrong person and convicts innocent men and women. Case in point. Jabbar Collins had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was accused and convicted of gunning down Abraham Pollack, a local landlord during a botched robbery. Mr. Collins claim in his lawsuit that Asst. District Attorney Michael Vecchione suppressed evidence at the trial that would have exonerated Mr. Collins .The D.A. threatened a drug addled witness and coerced another to give false testimony. Mr. Collins was released from jail after 15 years. If he had a good P.I. he might have avoided this travesty of justice or…….see the rest of this column. Patrick Bombino a well known private eye was arrested recently for impersonating a federal agent. Not true. He was getting information helping his client and the D.A. wanted to stop him Eventually charges were dismissed. In a recent trial of a known Gambino associate, the name of John McNally surfaced as someone who allegedly laundered money for a Joe Watts. John is an outstanding private eye and was a hero cop. He caught the infamous “Murph the Surf” who stole the Star of India from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was not charged. In the book “Confessions of a Mafia Boss” Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso tried to become an informer. He was not allowed to testify because he would have shot down the government’s case against John Gotti. He knew that Sammy “the Bull" Gravano dealt in drugs ( with him) and testified at John Gotti’s trial that he didn't. John McNally knew that Gravano killed 43 people not 19 that he stated on the stand. Gaspipe found out through his paid FBI agent that the Feds were going to arrest John McNally to shut him up. He did not testify and was not arrested. Eight years ago I was tracking down witnesses for a defendant charged with a car case in Staten Island when I started to get witnesses who admitted that they lied to the Grand Jury and when I tracked down evidence withheld from the case I was arrested for Intimidating a witness in the 4th Degree and trespassing ( on public property) Case was dismissed and they effectively stopped me from continuing by getting 31 orders of protection from the witnesses . Of course most of these witnesses were later interviewed and they had no knowledge of this. Case was dismissed against my client a few years ago and there is a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against the Staten Island District Attorney, NYPD, Department of Motor Vehicles, various inspectors, police officers, false witnesses and a few attorneys who violated ethics rules. Sometimes the bad guys get all the breaks and it is frustrating to law enforcement but we expect them to play by the rules so when we do get convictions they stick. In many cases that I have handled where the defendant was later found innocent, he had a bad attorney or a public defender who was overworked and did not care. Many private eyes are telling me about cyber crimes. Men and women are meeting potential mates on the Internet via social networking sites. Many of the people are liars or exaggerate who they are. One women was conned by her “lover” into giving him money so he could invest it and was taken for $50,000. Smart people have been hiring private eyes to verify the information that's put out there. The sites do not check out these people thoroughly these dating sites are only interested getting your money. Be careful how you use these sites.

Remember, not only the government is watching you, so is Vinny Parco!