Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Boca’s ‘Skinny Joey’ signs plea deal
Racketeering trial of reputed mob boss ended with hung jury
Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino — the reputed Philadelphia mob boss who moved to Boca Raton — has inked a plea deal just weeks after his racketeering trial ended with a hung jury.
Merlino, 55, who relocated to South Florida years ago, has insisted he quit his life of crime. He spent time at a Boca restaurant that bore his family name: Merlino’s.
But things took a turn in 2016, when he was arrested on health care fraud charges. After the case ended in a mistrial in February, Merlino’s lawyers and prosecutors have reached a plea agreement, according to a court document filed late Wednesday.
The terms of the agreement aren’t yet available. Merlino’s change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for April 27.
Merlino’s lawyer, John Meringolo, declined to comment. Prosecutors did not comment.
Prosecutors had alleged that instead of retiring, Merlino muscled his way into gambling and health insurance schemes run by crime
families on the East Coast. The court case began when the feds arrested 46 men up and down the East Coast on charges they said read like “an old-school Mafia novel.”
The men were accused of being part of an organized crime network that involved the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Bonanno families and Philadelphia major crime families. Their businesses included gambling, selling tax-free cigarettes and collecting illegal debts, the feds said.
On Feb. 20, after three days of deliberations in Merlino’s case, the jury wrote the judge a note stating: “We the juror(s) have continued deliberating and are at a continued impasse. … Unfortunately, we will be unable to come to a consensus on any of the four counts.”
After the mistrial was declared, Merlino told reporters: “Thank God for the jury.”
Merlino, who reputedly beat three murder raps, has been convicted in federal court twice before: a 2001 conviction for racketeering and a 1990 conviction for theft.
He also has prior New Jersey court convictions for violating the casino control act and assault in 1998 and 1984, respectively.
When authorities made dozens of arrests in 2016, they considered the indictments a major strike against the so-called East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise.
But the cases were dogged by problems.
Two FBI agents who worked on the investigation did not keep a cooperating witness’s text messages, failed to keep adequate notes about some of their debriefings and did not file investigative reports, court records show.
Both agents were disciplined and suspended for several days after an internal investigation.
Questions also were raised about the conduct of one of the main informants, who worked undercover on the case for the feds.
Those problems led prosecutors to sweeten some of the plea agreements they offered most of the suspects. One of the harshest punishments was seven years in federal prison but several defendants were sentenced to just the one day they served when they were arrested, followed by probation or house arrest.
If Merlino follows through with his plea deal, it would be the first time he pleads guilty to a crime.
Merlino moved to Boca Raton when he was released from federal prison in 2011 after serving most of a 14-year sentence for racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling.
The restaurant Merlino’s did business on Southeast First Avenue for a few years but has since closed. Mer- lino told court officials it was owned by a group of investors. He served as the maitre d’ because his criminal record banned him from obtaining a liquor license, authorities said.