Court documents reveal the people who allegedly helped Giorgianni run a network that drew on legitimate prescriptions to obtain thousands of pills for illegal sale over the course of a year will plead guilty in federal court.
Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni is led in handcuffs by federal agents after being arrested on corruption charges Sept. 10, 2012.
TRENTON –Five of Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni’s co-defendants in an alleged painkiller-dealing ring have struck plea deals with the government, ramping up the pressure on the 63-year-old convicted child molester who faces 13 counts of indictment in the drug case and a separate public corruption probe alongside Trenton Mayor Tony Mack.
Court documents reveal the people who allegedly helped Giorgianni run a network that drew on legitimate prescriptions to obtain thousands of pills for illegal sale over the course of a year will plead guilty in federal court. It won’t be clear until a trial if the government will compel them to testify against Giorgianni as part of their deals, Giorgianni’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto said.
Despite the co-defendants’ impending guilty pleas and the courtroom confession by Charles Hall III last month that he helped Giorgianni solicit bribes and deal pills, Ballarotto was not concerned for his client.
“It’s not the number of cooperators, it’s the quality of what they have to say,” he said yesterday.
Giorgianni, his longtime companion Mary Manfredo, and seven others were arrested Sept. 10, the same day Mack was taken from his city home in handcuffs. Trenton resident Anthony DiMatteo was indicted on pill dealing charges with Giorgianni and Manfredo on Thursday.
“An indictment is from a grand jury of 23 people. Twelve of 23 have to decide there is a scintilla more — a scintilla more — than mere suspicion to have a trial,” Ballarotto said. “The indictment is no evidence of guilt whatsoever.”
The court papers show that Hamilton residents Carol Kounitz, Stephanie Lima, and Giuseppe Scordato, Trenton resident Mark Bethea, and Atlantic City man Eugene “Raheem” Brown have all signed agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office where they will plead guilty to information counts in the case. The resolutions that will allow those pleas to be presented in court are being drawn up, and court-ordered delays have paused the indictment process in the meantime.
Ralph DiMatteo Sr. was not indicted Thursday, but his one-month continuance says he needs extra time because of a medical condition.
Defendants in a federal case can face enormous pressure from the potentially heavy prison time the charges against them carry. There is no parole in the federal system, and defendants spend nearly all the time they were sentenced to behind bars. That can persuade some men to bargain with prosecutors, Ballarotto said.
Federal authorities have painted Giorgianni — also known as “the Fat Man” and “Mr. Baker” — as the man in charge of the pill scheme, introducing Hall to the idea of using legitimate prescriptions to get potent drugs that they could sell on the street.
Kounitz, Lima and Brown would also allegedly obtain prescriptions for the painkillers, along with Hall. Hall would collect all the pills and take them to JoJo’s Steak House, operated by Manfredo in a building owned by Giorgianni. There he would allegedly drop them off with Manfredo or Giorgianni; Bethea and the DiMatteos would then arrange for their sale.
With a usual price of $10 a pill, each bulk sale would net Giorgianni about $1,200 when complete, according to the FBI. Hall would be given the money and then allegedly provide a kickback to Giorgianni of between $200 and $300.
Giorgianni was recorded by Hall talking about Roxycontin and Percocet, both painkiller pills that can be highly addictive.
Just two weeks after Giorgianni and Mack were arrested, Fishman called illicit use of prescription pills statewide an “epidemic” during a news conference in Newark.
In the indictment, the federal government said the pill ring operated from May 2011 to July 2012 in Mercer and Essex Counties. Giorgianni, Manfredo and DiMatteo were indicted on allegations they conspired to make a pill pickup and drop-off in July 2011 and distributed pills between July 25, 2011 and Aug. 3, 2011.
Giorgianni and DiMatteo also allegedly accepted at least 100 pills that Hall had used a prescription to obtain in early September 2011, then made arrangements to distribute them. Giorgianni and Manfredo schemed to obtain the pills in January 2012, according to another count, and distributed pills again in April 2012 after Hall dropped off a shipment at the steak shop, a separate count claims.
The final count against Giorgianni alone says he possessed a pump-action shotgun and three semi-automatic handguns despite being a convicted felon. He was not indicted for the handgun found inside the steak shop that prosecutors said had an obliterated serial number.
FBI agents gleaned their leads at the same time they were investigating the federal corruption case against Giorgianni and Mack. The two complaints charging Giorgianni in each case were signed by the same FBI agent, but Mack was not charged in the drug case.
Giorgianni was a staunch supporter of Mack’s during a first, unsuccessful run for mayor in 2006. When Mack geared up to run again in 2010, Giorgianni was one of his earliest donors.
Giorgianni will be appearing in court soon to enter a plea, which Ballarotto said will be “not guilty.” Ballarotto did not, however, rule out Giorgianni eventually taking a plea deal in the cases against him.
“It’s possible,” he said. “It’s always possible.”
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.