Bar’ brawl: Former Bronx DA blasts law group’s new prez over ‘mob ties’
By DOUGLAS MONTERO, MITCHEL MADDUX and LEONARD GREENE
Last Updated: 1:03 AM, September 18, 2012
Posted: 12:48 AM, September 18, 2012
A former Bronx district attorney revived a 25-year-old feud yesterday by resigning from the borough’s Bar Association to protest the rise to president of a rival he accused of having mob ties.
In a fiery letter to Bronx Bar Association members, Paul Gentile says he wants out of the legal group as long his political enemy, Michael Marinaccio, remains in charge.
Gentile served as Bronx DA for 18 months between 1987 and 1988, then butted heads with Marinaccio during a bitter election fight against Marinaccio’s law partner, Philip Foglia.
N.Y. POST: SPENCER A. BURNETT
LEGAL FIGHT:Former DA Paul Gentile has quit the Bronx Bar Association over old foe Michael Marinaccio’s (above) rise to president.
ROBERT KALFUS
LEGAL FIGHT: Former DA Paul Gentile (above) has quit the Bronx Bar Association over old foe Michael Marinaccio’s rise to president.
Gentile, 69, said then — and maintains to this day — that Foglia and Marinaccio have ties to the Genovese crime family, and that Marinaccio’s ascension to president of the Bronx bar is a stain on the organization.
“Foglia’s partner and close friend, Michael Marinaccio, did everything that he could do to deliver the office of the Bronx District Attorney to the mob,” Gentile claimed in the letter.
“Having failed at that effort, Michael Marinaccio now seeks to deliver to the Genovese crime family the office of President of the Bronx Bar Association.”
Gentile claims wiretaps from then-Manhattan DA Robert Morgentheau’s office revealed that Foglia’s campaign was being underwritten by the Genovese family.
Later, Marinaccio, 60, served as a defense attorney for Genovese boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante.
But Marinaccio, who threatened to sue Gentile for slander, said his old nemesis is just using an old grudge to sabotage his tenure as president. Marinaccio took over the bar’s top post in July and is scheduled to be formally installed Thursday.
“This is not a popular uprising,” Marinaccio told The Post. “This is a bitter man. What he’s doing is an effort to embarrass me, my family and this organization with baseless charges that have been debunked before.”
Gentile was appointed DA by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo after DA Mario Merola died in 1987.
It was during Gentile’s heated campaign for a full term that he dropped the bombshell on Foglia that FBI wiretaps had linked Foglia, a former Bronx prosecutor, to organized crime figures.
But Gentile beat the mob-ties drum so loudly that it eventually led to his own downfall.
Cuomo and then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani put pressure on Gentile to step down for using FBI reports for political purposes.
Gentile did not quit his post, but dropped out of the race, admitting he was “a terrible politician.”
The race was eventually won by Robert Johnson, who is still the Bronx DA.
During the contentious primary fight, Giuliani defended Foglia against charges that he leaked confidential information to the mob.
A year later, Foglia joined Giuliani on campaign stops during his first run for mayor.
Foglia and Giuliani did not immediately return calls for comment. Marinaccio said he and Foglia are no longer law partners but remain friends.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/
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