11-25-2003 -- Fiumara, Tino and DePiro, Stephen -- Sentencings -- News Release

Organized Crime Figure Tino Fiumara Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Assist in Flight of Mob Fugitive

NEWARK - Genovese crime family member Tino Fiumara was sentenced today to eight months in prison for failing to report his contact with an organized crime fugitive charged with murder, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Chief U.S. District John W. Bissell also ordered Fiumara, 62, formerly of Spring Lake, N.J. and now of South Huntington, N.Y., to pay a $40,000 fine. Judge Bissell also sentenced Fiumara associate Stephen DePiro, 48, of Kenilworth, to four years of probation with confinement for five months at a half-way house for conspiring with Fiumara. DePiro was fined $1,000.

An April 2002 Indictment charged each of them with conspiring to be accessories after the fact to Coppola's unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after Coppola was charged with the 1977 murder of John Lardiere; being accessories after the fact to Coppola's unlawful flight to avoid prosecution; and aiding and abetting Coppola's unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. They pleaded guilty on March 21 to conspiracy to commit misprision (failure to report) of a felony.

Coppola remains a fugitive from justice.

Fiumara was intercepted in a court-authorized wiretap speaking with Coppola, and then speaking with DePiro about his conversation with Coppola and about past and future meetings with Coppola. Although both Fiumara and DePiro knew that Coppola was wanted for murder, they conspired to keep information regarding their contact with Coppola secret from the authorities.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Bissell determined the sentences based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, and the defendant's criminal history, if any.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Louie F. Allen, Special Agent in Charge, with developing the case against the defendants.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney O'Connor, of the U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime Strike Force in Newark.

-end-

Defense Counsel:

For Fiumara: Gerald L. Shargel, Esq. New York

and Salvatore T. Alfano, Esq. Bloomfield

For defendant DePiro

William J. DeMarco, Esq. Wayne