United States v. Scafidi

993 F. Supp. 313, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11703, 1997 WL 535833
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 30, 1997
DocketCivil No. 97-2495; Criminal No. 88-00003-15
StatusPublished

This text of 993 F. Supp. 313 (United States v. Scafidi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Scafidi, 993 F. Supp. 313, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11703, 1997 WL 535833 (E.D. Pa. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

VAN ANTWERPEN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

On November 19, 1988 Salvatore Scafidi was convicted by a jury in a major mafia trial of RICO, RICO Conspiracy and illegal gambling business pertaining to lotteries (numbers), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c), (d) and 1955. The jury specifically found him guilty of eleven RICO predicate acts consisting of one murder, one attempted murder, seven extortions, and running two illegal gambling businesses. Post verdict motions were denied. United States v. Scarfo, 711 F.Supp. 1315 (E.D.Pa.1989). Subsequently, Mr. Scafidi was sentenced to a forty year term of imprisonment on May 3, 1989. Mr. Scafidi appealed his conviction, United States v. Pungitore, 910 F.2d 1084 (3d Cir.1990); it was affirmed and his petition for certiorari was denied. 500 U.S. 915, 111 S.Ct. 2010, 114 L.Ed.2d 98 (1991).

On April 11 and 16,1997, eight days before the new statute of limitations period expired pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Mr. Scafidi filed the instant petition for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He claims error in that (1) he did not knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waive the conflicts of Attorney Robert Simone; (2) his attorney, Christopher Furlong, provided ineffective assistance by not raising this issue on appeal or at the time; and (3) the government failed to disclose “favorable and inculpatory evidence” that implicated Mr. Simone in criminal activity. We do not agree. As the facts of this ease have been much discussed by this court previously, see Scarfo, 711 F.Supp. 1315, we will not repeat ourselves.

II. DISCUSSION

A Waiver of Conflict

Mr. Scafidi’s first argument is that “his waiver of a potential conflict of interest regarding the lead Counsel, Mr. Simone, was not knowingly, voluntarily, or intelligently made.” Memorandum in Support of Petition I (“Memorandum I”), at 3. He states his belief that the government was pursuing an indictment against Mr. Simone at the time of his trial, and he should have been advised of this conflict. Further, the conflict was so severe that he could not possibly have waived it in a manner consistent with the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 3-4.

Unfortunately, Mr. Scafidi’s argument neglects one crucial point: Mr. Simone was not his attorney at any point relative to this trial. Rather, Attorney David Chesnoff represented Mr. Scafidi briefly on the matter of bail. On September 8, 1988, during pre-trial motions, it became apparent that Mr. Scafidi lacked the means to continue employing Mr. Chesnoff as his attorney. He therefore asked the court to appoint Attorney Christopher Furlong to represent him. We then colloquied him in open court as follows:

THE COURT: I’ll ask if Mr. Scafidi would come forward at this time with his proposed new attorney. Good afternoon, sir. You’re asking that I appoint this gentleman who’s standing next to you to represent you in this trial. Is this correct?
MR. SCAFIDI: That’s correct.
THE COURT: All right. Has anybody threatened you in any way to get you to do this?
MR. SCAFIDI: No, sir.
THE COURT: Or promised you anything to get you to do it?
MR. SCAFIDI: No, sir.
THE COURT: You’re doing this of your own free will?
MR. SCAFIDI: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: And, as I said to the other two people that were up here and I’m certain you heard what I said to them, as a matter of common sense, if you had a lawyer who had been representing you a month or two ago, that lawyer would have had more time to prepare than this gentleman’s going to have today. Now that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t be adequately prepared, but certainly as a matter of common sense, he would have more time [315]*315for preparation. You understand that, don’t you?
MR. SCAFIDI: Yes.
THE COURT: And, you nevertheless wish to have this gentleman represent you and wish to have me appoint him today, Is that correct?
MR. SCAFIDI: Yes.
THE COURT: And, you feel he can adequately represent you in this matter?
MR. SCAFIDI: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: All right. I’ll ask counsel, do you feel you can adequately prepare for this trial and represent this gentleman?
MR. FURLONG: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: All right. I am going to indicate that the Government is to also provide you with all discovery as of today’s date.
MR. FURLONG: Fine.

Transcript, September 8, 1988 at 23-24.

On September 9, 1988 the government raised the issue of a possible conflict of interest between Mr. Simone and his client, Mr. Nicodemo Scarfo. As discussed in open court on that day, Mr. Simone had been implicated by the cooperating witnesses in the extortion of Mr. William Rouse, a charged offense in the instant trial. In addition, a number of the photographs that the government planned to introduce as evidence included Mr. Simone, and one of the cooperating witnesses would testify that Mr. Simone was present during the discussion of one of the RICO predicate act murders. Transcript, September 9, 1988 at 44-47. Following this discussion, and following an extensive colloquy, Mr. Scarfo waived these conflicts in open court. Although Mr. Seafidi states in his petition that he waived these conflicts as well, Memorandum I at 2, this is not borne out by a review of the transcripts; nowhere do the transcripts reveal a colloquy between this court and Mr. Seafidi on the conflicts of Mr. Simone, or the nature of his representation.

It is inescapable that Mr. Seafidi “cannot even assert a conflict of interest impeding Simone’s representation of [him] because Simone represented only • Scarfo. While Simone may have figure prominently in formulating and presenting the unified defense, that does not mean that he enjoyed an attorney-client relationship with very appellant in this case.” United States v. Pungitore, 910 F.2d 1084, 1143 (3d Cir.1990). For this reason, it is hornbook law that regardless of the conflicts that Mr. Simone may or may not have had, Mr. Seafidi was not in a position to waive them because he was not Mr. Simone’s client. Id. Indeed, there is no evidence that Mr. Seafidi ever employed Mr. Simone as his lawyer. Therefore, the question of whether or not this waiver was knowingly, voluntarily, or intelligently made in a manner consistent with the Sixth Amendment is moot.

Consequently, as the Third Circuit pointed out in the direct appeal of this ease, a more appropriate challenge relevant to Mr. Simone’s conflicts of interest would be that Mr. Seafidi’s attorney should have moved for severance. Pungitore, 910 F.2d at 1143.

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Bluebook (online)
993 F. Supp. 313, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11703, 1997 WL 535833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-scafidi-paed-1997.