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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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5-3-02 Prosecution: Courtroom duo 'like fire and ice'.
Fri May 3, 6:16 AM ET Edward Iwata, USA TODAY The elite prosecutors expected to wage battle with Arthur Andersen in Monday's trial in Houston have tested their mettle in the Mob and crack-gang wars that swept New York City through the 1990s. Andrew Weissmann and Samuel Buell, named to the Justice Department's Enron task force earlier this year, have taken on some of the highest-profile, organized-crime cases in recent memory. Weissmann, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, prosecuted Vincent ''The Chin'' Gigante, boss of the Genovese crime family, and other top members of the Gambino and Colombo families. Buell, an assistant U.S. attorney with the Justice Department's organized crime strike force in Boston, tackled Asian and Jamaican drug gangs in New York in the mid-1990s. Both worked closely with Leslie Caldwell, the San Francisco prosecutor heading the Enron investigation in Houston, when Caldwell was a prosecutor in New York. ''They're extremely tenacious, extremely articulate and extremely shrewd,'' says Mark Ressler, an attorney at Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman and a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn. ''Their gang work with dangerous defendants in high-pressure cases has steeled them for anything.'' Justice Department officials have declined to talk about the Andersen trial, and the two prosecutors declined to comment this week. It's also unclear whether Buell or Weissmann will take the lead in the case. But former colleagues say they make a strong courtroom duo, like fire and ice. Weissmann is a hard-nosed, streetwise prosecutor who excels at persuading criminal defendants to ''flip'' against their cohorts. His most famous cooperating witness: Sammy ''The Bull'' Gravano, the former Mafia leader who helped the Justice Department convict John Gotti, the famed ''Dapper Don'' who ran the Gambino clan. Weissmann worked closely with Gravano on the Gigante case and other investigations and trials of Mafia figures. Buell is a cagey legal tactician, very methodical and well-organized. He builds his criminal cases step by step, leaving no leads unchecked, before pouncing on defendants. ''As a prosecutor, Sam's a killer in a Brooks Brothers suit,'' Ressler says. Both boast blue-chip legal backgrounds. A former Fulbright fellow, Weissmann earned his law degree at Columbia Law School in 1984 and a bachelor's degree in history at Princeton University in 1980. In one of the largest securities-fraud cases ever, Weissmann last year prosecuted Robert Catoggio, co-founder of Hanover Sterling & Co. and three other brokerage firms, for running a stock-manipulation scam that cost investors $150 million. Buell studied law at New York University, graduating 10 years ago. He also earned a bachelor's degree in history at Brown University. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he worked for the Covington & Burling law firm in Washington on asbestos-related insurance cases and other complex civil litigation. In a 1996 case, Buell prosecuted Brooklyn gang leader William Mora and four other men for shootings, bombings and arsons in a bloody drug war against a rival crack gang. Mora was given 11 life sentences in prison. In another New York trial, Buell took down four members of the Taiwanese Boys gang on extortion charges. The gang had beaten and forced owners of restaurants, nightclubs, gambling dens and massage parlors to make thousands of dollars in monthly payments to them. Barring a last-minute settlement, legal watchers anticipate courtroom fireworks between the Justice Department and Arthur Andersen's attorneys: former star prosecutor Rusty Hardin of Houston and lawyers for Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, a prestigious law firm based in Chicago. While some believe early trial dates tend to hurt federal prosecutors, who typically need more time to construct their cases, others predict the Justice Department prosecutors will be ready to rumble. ''They're the best that Justice has to offer,'' Ressler says. ''These guys are gonna show up Monday ready to play.''
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