Bruce Teitelbaum and Laura Ellsworth [husband and wife], chairs.

Transcription

1 Law 735, Federal Criminal Law Background information on Bruce Teitelbaum, Esq. For 4/22/2013 Bruce Teitelbaum and Laura Ellsworth [husband and wife], chairs. Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium hosts black-tie gala June 15, :00 am Page 1 of 40

2 A frame-up falls apart February 24, :00 am By Milan Simonich / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette MANSFIELD, Ohio -- A real-life version of "The Shawshank Redemption" is playing out in this blue-collar town where the 1994 prison movie was filmed. Federal judges, acting on an unprecedented request from a prosecutor, have freed 16 Mansfield residents from prison because of an undercover drug investigation that turned into a lawenforcement scandal. U.S. Attorney Greg White of Cleveland said their convictions for selling crack cocaine were tainted by an informant who admits framing innocent people. Mr. White does not call the Mansfield defendants innocent, but he says the cases against them were built on lies. He said he had to let them out of prison because they were wrongly convicted. "The government has an obligation to do the right thing. The truth matters," Mr. White said in a recent interview. In all, the discredited drug sting in Mansfield resulted in prosecutions of 26 people. The cases against 23 have been dismissed by judges or have ended in acquittals by juries. This month alone, 15 men came home from prison. Some of them testified last week before a federal grand jury in Cleveland that is investigating how the drug cases in Mansfield spiraled out of control. The Department of Justice appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum of Pittsburgh as special prosecutor in the Mansfield inquiry. Mr. Teitelbaum says he is focusing on drug investigations in which federal and local law officers used a convicted killer named Jerrell Bray as their paid informant. Mr. Bray, 36, says he lied with impunity to implicate Mansfield residents in drug crimes. Worse, he says, law officers, led by a federal agent named Lee Lucas, helped him railroad many of those people into convictions. Mr. Bray pleaded guilty in December to two counts of perjury and five charges of violating the civil rights of Mansfield defendants. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he has agreed to help in the ongoing investigation of the Mansfield cases. By cooperating he could reduce his sentence to 11 years. Page 2 of 40

3 Agent Lucas, a controversial, globe-trotting member of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, oversaw the investigations involving Mr. Bray. Agent Lucas did not respond to requests for an interview. A DEA spokesman in Washington, D.C., declined to comment. FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 2/6/07 Pitt. Post-Gazette B WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette February 6, 2007 Section: LOCAL TAX EVASION TIED TO RUSSIAN ENERGY EX-MONROEVILLE MAN COULD GET PRISON TIME PAULA REED WARD, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE It's a complicated case that involves money earmarked for upgrading Soviet nuclear reactors being funneled to the United States and several other countries, but federal prosecutors believe they will convince a judge that a former Westinghouse nuclear engineer owes the American government more than $5 million in back taxes. But the defense attorney believes that what his client was doing benefitted Russia and must be viewed through the eyes of a man who knew the extent of devastation to the Russian economy in the 1990s as a result of the collapse of communism. Mark M. Kaushansky, 55, of Monroeville, came to this country in 1979 from Ukraine. In September, he pleaded guilty to nine counts, all related to tax evasion. He originally was indicted on 20 charges, accused, along with Russia's former atomic energy minister, of stealing more than $9 million in aid money from 16 different countries that was funneled through the U.S. Department of Energy. This week, a judge will hear evidence regarding the amount of money owed by Mr. Kaushansky. The total of the tax loss will have a significant impact on the sentence he receives. Defense attorney Fred Thieman said the total could mean the difference between prison and home confinement. Page 3 of 40

4 He told Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. that he expected this case to require more "judging" than any he'd ever had. "A lot of assumptions made by the government are perfectly rational, perfectly logical and perfectly wrong," he said. Mr. Kaushansky's co-defendant, Dr. Evgeniy Adamov, is currently on trial in Russia on unrelated charges. He was arrested in Switzerland in 2005, but when American prosecutors tried to extradite him on the tax charges, Russian officials stepped in and argued they should have custody. The Swiss high court agreed, and Dr. Adamov was returned to Russia. Mr. Kaushanksy met Dr. Adamov in 1990, when he served as a translator for the renowned nuclear scientist. The two formed a business relationship, and in 1993 they incorporated a company, Energopool, in Pennsylvania. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, the company never filed any tax returns. A few years later, the men incorporated another company in Delaware. That one did file tax returns. The men, according to Mr. Teitelbaum, used two shell investment companies, with accounts in the U.S., France and Monaco, to divert Department of Energy money earmarked for NIKIET, a Russian nuclear research institute headed by Dr. Adamov. During his opening statement to the judge, Mr. Thieman said that this case is the most "interesting" and "fascinating," he'd ever been involved with. Paula Reed Ward can be reached at pward@post-gazette.com or INDEX REFERENCES ---- Heroin toll in nation climbs June 10, :00 am By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette More than 100 drug users across the country have died from fentanyl-laced heroin over the past two months, including at least two in the Pittsburgh area. The carnage is beginning to rival the largest similar mass poisoning in U.S. history -- a fentanyl ring headed by a law school dropout from Vandergrift named Joseph Martier that was believed responsible for killing at least 200 heroin users along the East Coast in the 1990s. Page 4 of 40

5 With at least 48 overdoses and eight fatalities recorded in Allegheny County over the past week - - and with two of the fatalities having been confirmed as involving fentanyl -- the local death toll soon might approach the notorious "China White" outbreak in the late 1980s, in which 18 people died in Pittsburgh from injecting heroin laced with 3-methyl fentanyl. Both cases have parallels with the current scourge, which has killed scores of drug users in Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere. The China White episode of 1988 is best known in the Pittsburgh area, but it was a relatively small-time operation run by Calgon chemist Thomas Schaefers. He made the fentanyl, which was distributed by Donald Sunkin, a heroin addict from Springdale. The original idea was to sell it in New York, where it would be difficult to trace back to Pittsburgh. But according to federal prosecutors and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the ring members made the mistake of selling an illegal drug in the same region where they made it. In a small market like Pittsburgh, so many deaths generated unrelenting pressure from police. "They got greedy," said Frank Schmotzer, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. "It was expedient to distribute here. They wanted the money fast and they didn't want to wait." While China White was a major story in Pittsburgh, the devastation it caused was mostly local. The Martier operation, on the other hand, was bigger, more sophisticated, more deadly and more similar to what's going on now. It was the largest fentanyl ring ever prosecuted in the United States and perhaps the biggest in the world. The death toll was believed to be more than 200, with some estimates reaching 300. Most of the overdoses were concentrated in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., with clusters spreading down the Atlantic Coast and even into small resort towns. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, a veteran Pittsburgh drug prosecutor who will handle local cases that arise out of the current investigation, said he can't comment on what's happening now. But there are obvious similarities to the Martier ring. "We don't really know because we don't know exactly what's going on here, but it more closely resembles the 1994 fentanyl case than the China White case," he said. Federal agents, police and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reviewing fentanyl-related deaths in many cities, especially Detroit, to try to figure out where the heroin is coming from and where it might have been mixed with fentanyl. Page 5 of 40

6 Last week, drug agents working with the Mexican government shut down a Mexican lab that the U.S. drug czar said might be the source. The DEA was testing fentanyl seized in Mexico to see if it could be linked to U.S. deaths. According to DEA agents, heroin distributed in the United States typically originates in Colombia and then goes through Mexico. Mexico is known for its methamphetamine labs but not for making fentanyl, which might have been introduced in the United States. Fentanyl, a painkiller about 80 times more potent than morphine, can be stolen from hospitals or other legitimate sources, or it can be illegally manufactured, which requires the expertise of a chemist or chemical engineer. Mr. Martier used chemists in two major operations. In 1979, he and Exxon Corp. chemist Christopher Jastrzebski went to jail for conspiring with a biker gang leader to distribute PCP, or angel dust. The ring ran labs in the Laurel Mountains and Shadyside and had a storage facility in Vandergrift. The case resulted in the largest seizure of PCP in U.S. history. While in jail, Mr. Martier met another chemist, George E. Marquardt of Wichita, Kan. The two discussed selling dope when they got out. Mr. Martier was later transferred to another prison, where he met other men who would become his distributors, including members of the Boston mob. When freed from prison in 1986, Mr. Martier moved to Boston and started to buy chemicals to make fentanyl. He backed off when he came under DEA surveillance, but he resumed in He eventually acted as a broker between Mr. Marquardt, who ran a fentanyl lab in Wichita, and two main distributors who sold drugs in New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Mr. Martier directed the ring from Vandergrift and already was suspected of selling fentanyl by the time overdoses began occurring on the East Coast in After building a case with surveillance, wiretaps and informants, DEA agents arrested him at a Blawnox bar in 1993, the day after his East Coast distributor was murdered outside Boston. Mr. Martier pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors and went to prison. He could have received a life sentence, but prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to convince a judge that his fentanyl directly caused 13 deaths in New York. The burden of proof in connecting overdose deaths to specific drug traffickers is high, but prosecutors have done it here recently. Page 6 of 40

7 The federal charge of drug delivery resulting in death was last brought in 2003 against two brothers from Duquesne. They had supplied heroin to a McKeesport woman, who suffered a fatal overdose in Now 56, Mr. Martier was released from prison last year. Authorities don't suspect he's involved in this year's epidemic of fentanyl-related overdoses. "Martier was smart enough not to distribute fentanyl here [in his hometown]," said Agent Schmotzer. "He did that deliberately. He did not want that fentanyl coming back here." Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or First Published June 10, :00 am Laura Ellsworth March 21, :00 am By Joyce Gannon / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette WOMEN AT THE HELM Laura Ellsworth Laura Ellsworth was just a few years out of law school in the 1980s when she argued a case before Judge John Musmanno in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and complained to the judge about how evidence points were developed in Pennsylvania. The judge, who now sits on the state Superior Court, suggested Ms. Ellsworth form a committee to develop a set of Rules of Evidence for the state. She took his advice and eventually chaired the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Rules of Evidence Committee. Her role in helping to create the committee typifies the kind of initiative Ms. Ellsworth, 47, advises for young lawyers. "If you put your money where your mouth is and prove you can do it, you can," said Ms. Ellsworth. Since 2003, she has been partner in charge of the Pittsburgh office of law firm Jones Day. Page 7 of 40

8 A New York City native raised in New Jersey, Ms. Ellsworth didn't aspire to a management job at a law firm. She studied history and Japanese art history at Princeton University before she earned a law degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a specialist in business litigation and complex torts who worked at Buchanan Ingersoll for almost a decade before moving to Jones Day in The firm's Pittsburgh office has 60 lawyers. "It's small enough that there's no real management track; it's like what a classic partnership used to be," said Ms. Ellsworth. "All the partners here have management roles." Ms. Ellsworth said her career has benefited from a strong network of women in Pittsburgh legal circles, including U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose, the late U.S. District Judge Carol Los Mansmann, and Lynette Norton, a trial attorney who is also deceased. The challenges she's faced as a woman in her career have been mostly self-generated, Ms. Ellsworth said. "I want to be there for my community, my family, my clients and my partners." She's had strong support from her firm, which has a strong track record for putting women in management. The managing partners in Jones Day's Tokyo and Washington, D.C., offices are female, as is the administrative partner for the firm worldwide. She is based in Atlanta. Still, the firm is trying to work out issues of part-time, flex hours and telecommuting for its female lawyers, Ms. Ellsworth said, because "the demands of family are particularly hard for women." She is married to Bruce Teitelbaum, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office, and the couple has one son. "I tell young lawyers you can't do it all," Ms. Ellsworth said. "You find the things you love the most and focus your time on those. And ask for help when you need it." First Published March 21, :00 am U.S., Russia discuss nuclear secrets case October 5, :00 am By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan and a delegation of U.S. authorities are in Russia this week to discuss the case against Yevgeny O. Adamov, the former Russian nuclear minister indicted in Pittsburgh on charges of stealing up to $9 million intended to improve nuclear security in Russia. Page 8 of 40

9 Ms. Buchanan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, the lead prosecutor, and agents from the Pittsburgh offices of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI are meeting with members of the Procurator General's Office in Moscow. Mr. Adamov faces charges in the U.S. and Russia. Ms. Buchanan said yesterday from Moscow that "we are discussing various aspects of the case, but cannot disclose the specific nature of the meetings." Switzerland announced Mon- day that it would extradite Mr. Adamov to the U.S. He was arrested in Bern May 2. Russian authorities had said they hoped to try Mr. Adamov rather than risk that he will reveal nuclear secrets to the U.S. Mr. Adamov, who has agreed to return to Russia, has 30 days to appeal the Swiss decision. If the Swiss ruling is upheld, Mr. Adamov will face trial in Pittsburgh with his former business partner, Mark Kaushansky, of Monroeville, a former nuclear power plant engineer at Westinghouse. Mr. Kaushansky's lawyer, Frederick Thieman, said yesterday that his client is innocent. First Published October 5, :00 am FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 4/17/03 Pitt. Post-Gazette B WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2003 PG Publishing Co. April 17, 2003 ECSTASY KINGPIN JUDGED GUILTY LAST OF 40 SUSPECTS AWAITING EXTRADITION And then there was one. TORSTEN OVE, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER With the conviction of Israeli national Ofer Rahamin in federal court yesterday, nearly 40 members of interconnecting Ecstasy rings that distributed millions of pills here and across the country are either in prison or headed there. Only Stefan Stricker, identified by the government as a Dutch Ecstasy manufacturer, is still Page 9 of 40

10 fighting charges. He is awaiting extradition in Amsterdam. After a weeklong trial, the jury took a little more than an hour to convict Rahamin, 40, of New York City, on charges of conspiracy and distribution of Ecstasy. One of his New York co-conspirators, Yuri "James" Pylnev, said Rahamin, known as "uncle," supplied him with about 150,000 pills. Pylnev and other ring members who testified for the government in hopes of getting reduced sentences identified Rahamin as the chief source behind an Ecstasy network run by Oleg Logatchev, a former Penn State University student from Staten Island, N.Y., who laundered drug money through Club Phlo in the Strip District. Logatchev, who lived on Mount Washington, also testified against Rahamin after pleading guilty to funneling Ecstasy into Pittsburgh and into other states, mostly to the rave crowd and students at Penn State, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin and other college campuses. Logatchev was arrested in January 2002 after federal agents and Pittsburgh police raided Club Phlo. His pipeline led to Rahamin, the father of four children -- two in New York and two in Israel. Rahamin insisted he had nothing to do with Ecstasy dealing and said his income came from his job overseeing construction sites for a Manhattan real estate firm. He was far from contrite after his conviction. While federal marshals led him out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he yelled at Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum and the jury gathered in the hallway that he is an innocent man who was unfairly prosecuted. One of his lawyers, Stanton Levenson, had asked the judge to let him go pending sentencing because of the Jewish holiday of Passover. "Come on, Bruce," Rahamin said to Teitelbaum at one point. "Let me celebrate my holiday." But Teitelbaum and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Comber had moved for revocation of Rahamin's bond, a routine procedure, and Senior U.S. District Judge William Standish said he had no choice but to grant it. Rahamin faces up to 15 years in federal prison when he is sentenced July 25. The driving motivation behind the Ecstasy ring was the same as for any drug operation: big money. Ring members, including Rahamin, had so much cash coming in that they tried to buy real estate in Florida to launder some of it. Logatchev's Ecstasy business was so lucrative that he owned seven luxury cars, a $50,000 boat in Florida and a Mount Washington condominium. Page 10 of 40

11 Ecstasy profits are huge. The drug costs maybe a quarter a pill to produce, usually in labs in the Netherlands and Belgium. Wholesalers sell it for a few dollars a pill. Distributors then mark it up to $10 or $15 a pill, and on the street a dealer may sell it for $25 a pill. The case against Rahamin's network began in fall 2000, when a drug dog in Frankfurt, Germany, sniffed out a parcel headed for Indiana, Pa. Inside was a mirror, and behind the mirror authorities found a sheet containing 22,000 Ecstasy pills produced in the Netherlands. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents posed as United Parcel Service employees to make a controlled delivery in Indiana that resulted in five arrests. The intended recipient of the package was Ryan Shank, a known drug dealer in Indiana. Agents determined that his source was Stricker. Before Shank became involved with Stricker, he had been supplied by Logatchev. The investigation of the Shank organization led to the dismantling of the Logatchev network in January 2002, when DEA and Pittsburgh police raided Club Phlo. The drug network didn't end with Rahamin, however. Testimony indicated three other men were above Rahamin -- people known as "Effraim," "Grandpa" and "Nose." Those figures have not been identified. Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or INDEX REFERENCES Nomination of Assistant United States Attorney Bruce J. Teitelbaum for Director's Award Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney Assistant United States Attorney Bruce J. Teitelbaum deserves recognition for 23 years [as of 2003] of outstanding service as an Assistant United States Attorney and, particularly, for his investigative and prosecutive efforts in the dismantling of major ecstasy trafficking organizations which operated in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Teitelbaum joined the United States Attorney s Office in He has prosecuted complex organized crime and narcotics cases throughout his entire career, and is presently the lead OCDETF attorney. During the 1980's, Mr. Teitelbaum prosecuted a series of related large Page 11 of 40

12 scale cocaine trafficking cases which culminated in the prosecution of the Pittsburgh La Cosa Nostra family in As the lead prosecutor in that case, Mr. Teitelbaum is largely responsible for the conviction of nine organized crime members and associates at the conclusion of an eight week jury trial. Mr. Teitelbaum was also tapped to head the China White prosecutions, a series of cases against the corrupt chemist who manufactured the synthetic heroin and the dealers who distributed it. Ingestion of China White caused over 20 overdose deaths in Pittsburgh in the late 1980 s. His career is a shining example of the public good which results from experience, skill and dedication. Over the past 3 and one-half years, Mr. Teitelbaum led the investigation and prosecution of all significant ecstasy trafficking organizations operating in this district. Of the 36 defendants charged, 35 have been convicted. The final defendant, Stefan Stricker, a Dutch national, is pending extradition from the Netherlands. Mr. Teitelbaum worked closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other agencies in developing a successful strategy to dismantle these groups. MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy, is a methamphetamine analog with euphoric effects. It became extremely popular among teenagers and young adults in the late 1990 s. Although considered a party drug, its potential harmful effects resounded throughout the Pittsburgh area when Brandy French, a 16 year old girl, died of an overdose in May, The investigation began in August 2000 when Frank Nagy, a major source of ecstasy in Pittsburgh, was arrested. Nagy agreed to cooperate and identified Sean and William Marszalek as the leaders of an ecstasy distribution organization. The Marszalek organization was distributing ecstasy not only in Pittsburgh, but also in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron and Buffalo. Eventually, all 11 members of the Marszalek organization were convicted and agreed to cooperate against their sources. The Marszaleks had two independent sources. One source was Stefan Stricker, a Dutch national who, according to Dutch police, is closely aligned with a violent Dutch organized crime family. The other source was Oleg Logatchev, a Russian immigrant who headed an ecstasy distribution organization based in Staten Island, New York. In late 2000, German customs officials intercepted three packages containing ecstasy tablets which were being delivered to Ryan Shank, a resident of Indiana, Pennsylvania. After a controlled delivery, Shank agreed to cooperate, along with three other members of his organization. Shank s group had been selling tablets to students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, as well as to dealers in Akron and Cleveland. Shank had also been receiving ecstasy tablets from the Oleg Logatchev organization. Shank was also supplied by Michael and Patrick Maser of Philadelphia, who, in turn, received their ecstasy from Stefan Stricker. Therefore, the separate bust of Ryan Shank and others in Page 12 of 40

13 Indiana, Pennsylvania, also led back to the two major ecstasy sources, Stricker and Logatchev. All ten members of the Maser organization were indicted and convicted. Maser had supplied not only Western Pennsylvania, but also other parts of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The Logatchev organization had supplied ecstasy tablets to State College, Pennsylvania, where Penn State University is located, as well as to Madison, Wisconsin, Baltimore, Maryland, and various locations in Ohio. Mr. Teitelbaum ensured that information, assistance, and offers to supply testimony of cooperating defendants were transmitted to law enforcement authorities in the other states. For instance, in Madison, Wisconsin, 21 individuals were indicted and convicted based, in part, upon assistance from Western Pennsylvania. Search warrants executed in four locations controlled by Logatchev revealed drugs, money and weapons. A Pittsburgh night club, Club Phlo, which had been funded by the proceeds of ecstasy sales, has been seized and forfeited. Through Logatchev's cooperation, cases were built against Yuri Pylnev, his supplier, and Stanislav Lantsberg, the courier between Pylnev and Logatchev. Lantsberg, a member of a Russian organized crime family in Brooklyn, agreed to cooperate and pled guilty not only to ecstasy trafficking, but also to murder and extortion in aid of racketeering (RICO). Mr. Teitelbaum convinced Lantsberg and Pylnev to cooperate. Their testimony was crucial at the trial of Ofer Rahamin, an Israeli national who supplied Pylnev with tablets manufactured in the Netherlands. Rahamin is the major international ecstasy supplier at the top of the Logatchev line of supply. On April 16, 2003, Mr. Teitelbaum convinced a jury to convict Rahamin on all counts. Rahamin will be sentenced in July. Over a year ago, search warrants were executed by Dutch police in the Netherlands at various locations associated with Stricker, based upon information supplied by Mr. Teitelbaum and the DEA. The search warrants resulted in the seizure of 11,500 MDMA tablets, 46 kilograms of hashish, 300 grams of methamphetamine, recipes for manufacturing MDMA, two Uzi firearms equipped with silencers, three handguns, one hand grenade, and large of amounts of ammunition. Stricker is presently incarcerated in the Netherlands pending extradition to the United States. The date of Stricker s extradition is uncertain as Dutch authorities have halted, hopefully on a temporary basis, all extraditions to the United States. It is submitted that it is appropriate to nominate Mr. Teitelbaum for this award now, before Stricker has been convicted, as it may be months or even years until an American trial. During the course of the investigation, Mr. Teitelbaum supplied information to Dutch authorities which formed the basis of wiretaps of Stricker and his confederates. Mr. Teitelbaum also worked with the DEA to conduct pen register intercepts of American accounts being used by Stricker and Maser, which required the development of new internet protocol capturing software. Page 13 of 40

14 Throughout these investigations, Mr. Teitelbaum showed his ability to obtain cooperation from defendants expeditiously, and then use that cooperation against higher targets. He and the agents ultimately were able to charge Stricker and Logatchev, two very significant international sources of ecstasy. It took tremendous skill, hard work and sound judgment to develop the evidence, most of it of an historical nature, necessary to dismantle these organizations. Eight of the defendants have received sentences of nine years or more. Nearly all have been sent to prison. A strong message has been issued that our community will not tolerate trafficking in this new drug which appeals to youth and may appear relatively harmless. Most importantly, the prosecutions led by AUSA Teitelbaum have reduced the amount of ecstasy currently available in the Pittsburgh area to a trickle. One Logatchev organization member testified in court that they had turned Penn State from a drinking school to an ecstasy school. Twenty local prosecutions in State College related to these federal cases, along with the elimination of the Logatchev group as a supplier, have ended the widespread availability of ecstasy at Penn State. The supply of millions of ecstasy pills by Stricker, Logatchev and Nagy through the Marszelak, Maser and Shank groups has been stopped. It is rare to solve a crime problem as effectively as Mr. Teitelbaum and the DEA have done here Mr. Teitelbaum is deserving of the Director s Award based upon that outstanding accomplishment. FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 11/27/01 Pitt. Post-Gazette B WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2001 PG Publishing Co. November 27, 2001 RETRIAL OPENS IN ' 86 SLAYING LACK OF WITNESSES HAMPERS PROSECUTION JIM MCKINNON, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER Authorities say the only living eyewitness to the 1986 shooting of an Orthodox Jew in Squirrel Hill is Steven M. Tielsch, who went on trial for homicide yesterday for the second time this year. If investigators are correct, Tielsch, 39, of Penn Hills, was a passenger in a black sports car that pulled over to pretend to ask for directions from 24-year-old Neal S. Rosenblum on April 17, Page 14 of 40

15 The witness, formerly of Squirrel Hill, said that in time, Tielsch, who did not know he was Jewish, began to trust him. The witness said Tielsch spewed anti-semitic slurs, painted a swastika on his forehead and professed his hatred of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, who also is Jewish, for doggedly pursuing federal drug trafficking charges against him. Then, the witness said, Tielsch implicated himself in Rosenblum's slaying. In opening remarks to a Common Pleas Court jury yesterday, Deputy District Attorney Daniel Fitzsimmons said Tielsch told the cell mate he "hated Jews so much that he, in fact, had killed a rabbi in Squirrel Hill." ---- INDEX REFERENCES ---- FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 7/31/01 Pitt. Post-Gazette B WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2001 PG Publishing Co. July 31, 2001 RINGLEADER PLEADS GUILTY IN DRUG-CHARTER BUS SCHEME TORSTEN OVE, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER When he's done serving his prison term, Vernon Sanders will likely end up back in his native Jamaica. Sanders, 35, of Houston, was scheduled to go to trial in federal court here this week on charges that he supplied cocaine and marijuana for a ring that used leased charter buses to transport drugs from Texas to Pittsburgh and other cities. Instead, he pleaded guilty yesterday, after which U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler told him the Immigration and Naturalization Service might deport him after he gets out of prison. Sanders has no green card and doesn't appear to be in the country legally, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum. Page 15 of 40

16 He won't have to worry about heading home any time soon, however. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Sanders is facing a mandatory minimum term of 10 years. According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Sanders was the Texas connection for another Jamaican, Devon Fitzpatrick Levy, 31, of Knoxville, who acted as the Pittsburgh broker for the drug network. Levy cooperated with agents after his arrest and helped take down the entire ring, identifying Sanders as a main source who helped arrange the transport of cocaine on buses leased from a Houston bus company. The conspiracy unraveled in April when state police in Louisiana pulled over a bus bound for Columbus, Ohio, loaded with 523 pounds of marijuana. The drivers of the bus cooperated with DEA agents and, outside Columbus, happened to spot another bus on the highway which was part of their ring, too. After police pulled it over, the drivers of that bus also cooperated with agents in setting up a controlled delivery at the Microtel Hotel in Robinson Town Centre, where Levy was arrested. Agents used Levy to set up stings for the other ring members at the Best Western hotel in Findlay. They also monitored calls between Levy and Sanders and then arrested Sanders in Texas after searching his house. Most of the other ring members have already pleaded guilty or are scheduled to plead in the next few weeks. Only one suspect charged in the conspiracy has elected to go to trial. Last week, Walter Higgs, 66, of Finleyville, was acquitted by a jury INDEX REFERENCES ---- Page 16 of 40

17 FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 1/26/01 Pitt. Post-Gazette A WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2001 PG Publishing Co. January 26, 2001 JAILHOUSE SNITCH KEY TO TRIAL IN ' 86 KILLING WITNESS'S CREDIBILITY ALREADY QUESTIONED JIM MCKINNON AND MICHAEL A. FUOCO, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITERS To the prosecutor, he is the key to a murder mystery that has gone unsolved for nearly 15 years. To a defense lawyer, he is a "classic jailhouse snitch," willing to lie on a witness stand to get leniency in his own court dealings. The witness -- whose name is being withheld at the request of authorities -- forms the heart of the case against Steven M. Tielsch, who is accused of gunning down a visiting rabbinical student on a Squirrel Hill street April 17, Neal S. Rosenblum, 24, of Toronto, Canada, was shot five times and died later that night. The case frustrated police until February, when they arrested Tielsch, 38, of Penn Hills, based partly on allegations made by Tielsch's former cellmate at the Allegheny County Jail. Tielsch's jury trial began yesterday before Common Pleas Judge W. Terrence O'Brien, after a flurry of last-minute motions. The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Daniel E. Fitzsimmons, told jurors in his opening statement that they should find Tielsch guilty of first-degree murder. Defense attorney James A. Wymard countered that the 14-year delay in charging his client is evidence that prosecutors cannot prove who killed Rosenblum. In one interview, the witness told police that Tielsch hated Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce J. Teitelbaum, who was prosecuting him on drug charges. He quoted Tielsch as saying: "I'd like to see something happen to Teitelbaum like when I killed that priest in East Liberty." ---- INDEX REFERENCES ---- Page 17 of 40

18 FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 11/30/00 Pitt. Post-Gazette A WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2000 PG Publishing Co. November 30, YEARS CAN CHANGE A LOT MIKE BUCSKO, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER In the staid courtroom of Chief U.S. District Judge Donald E. Ziegler yesterday, it was as if the world had turned topsy-turvy. It was in the same courtroom just over 10 years ago that prosecutors secured convictions against nine reputed La Cosa Nostra associates and underlings, including underbosses Charles J. "Chucky" Porter and Louis Raucci. Yesterday, three of the men who helped put Porter behind bars for 28 years were before Ziegler to ask the judge to reduce his sentence. Porter rose in the ranks of the local La Cosa Nostra from a Lawrenceville thug who committed strong-arm robberies to the second-in-command to reputed mob boss Michael Genovese. A different Porter was depicted yesterday. Porter has grown a bit more gray during the past 10 years. A doctor described Porter's weakened condition while in prison -- a loss of eyesight and failing kidneys as the result of diabetes. Porter's four children were in attendance, as was his wife of 19 years, Joyce, 48, who still lives in the $224,000 Penn Hills home she shared with her husband -- which he deeded over to her in The Porters were married in October 1981 at the Holiday House, a former Monroeville nightclub that was under almost constant FBI surveillance as a mob hangout. It was Charles Porter's second marriage and Joyce Plisko's first. Perhaps the person in the most unusual position yesterday was Porter's oldest child and namesake, defense lawyer Charles J. Porter Jr. It was the younger Porter's job to advocate his father's cause. The case should have been a breeze, especially in a case in which the government supported the defense. Page 18 of 40

19 But it was tough for Porter Jr. He managed to maintain his courtroom demeanor until his final argument before Ziegler. Then Porter Jr. was forced to hesitate a few times in mid-sentence to choke back tears that were just beneath the surface all afternoon. Ziegler smiled and told him to take his time. Afterward, Porter Jr. said he never hesitated to represent his father, but he did have some apprehension about how he would handle the case emotionally. "I didn't have any second thoughts about who it was," Porter Jr. said. "I just wondered whether I'd be able to be objective enough and whether I could control my emotions enough." Porter Jr. called two witnesses on his father's behalf -- Dr. Michelle M. Roberts, who testified about diabetes, and Robert Garrity, a former FBI agent who directed the agency's organized crime and narcotics squad before his 1993 retirement. Garrity followed to the witness stand FBI Special Agent Roger Greenbank, the government's sole witness. Garrity and Greenbank spent years tailing Porter and others to gather evidence for a series of organized crime prosecutions that culminated in the Porter case. Yesterday, Garrity and Greenbank were on the witness stand not to bury Porter as they had in years past, but to praise him. Greenbank testified at the behest of Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, one of three prosecutors who tried the case against Porter. It was Teitelbaum who filed a motion last month asking Ziegler to consider a sentence reduction for Porter. And it was Teitelbaum yesterday who told Ziegler that Porter's cooperation should warrant "serious consideration" for a reduced sentence. During the two-month trial in 1990, Porter's family and those of the other defendants showed more than a little scorn for government agents and prosecutors. But yesterday, Teitelbaum and Greenbank spoke amiably with Joyce Porter during a break in the proceedings. Each of the elder Porter's children who were spectators, daughters Linda and Tiffany and son Michael, thanked Greenbank, Garrity and Teitelbaum when the hearing concluded. The trio also got a "thank you" from Glenn Porter, Porter's nephew, who was at the hearing with his brother, Jeff. Glenn and Jeff Porter's father, William, 62, was also convicted in 1990 and is serving a 17-year prison term. Teitelbaum also had a couple of brief conversations with another courtroom spectator, Porter cousin Rocco Viola Jr. Prosecutors 10 years ago accused Viola of paying Porter as a ghost employee to give him legitimate income for his illegal activities. Page 19 of 40

20 A federal jury acquitted Viola, 63, a Cranberry developer, of filing false tax returns in the case in November INDEX REFERENCES ---- FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 11/5/00 Pitt. Post-Gazette B WLNR Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright 2000 PG Publishing Co. November 5, 2000 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE PITTSBURGH MOB? THE STONE IN THE SHOE LOCAL FBI AGENT PLAYS KEY ROLE IN DISMANTLING REGION'S ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY FIRST OF TWO PARTSBY TORSTEN OVE, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER Two summers ago, Roger Greenbank took a drive out to rural West Deer to check the lay of the wooded land surrounding a certain big brown house off serpentine Clendenning Road. Driving by, he saw Michael Genovese riding a tractor in his garden, his shirt off in the sun. "He happened to be facing my direction when the car went by," said Greenbank. "He waved and I waved and that was the end of it." Genovese, the 82-year-old godfather of the Pittsburgh mob, probably thought he was waving to a neighbor, not the relentless veteran FBI agent who helped dismantle his crime family. A decade ago last month, Greenbank and a squad of federal agents and prosecutors crippled the Pittsburgh mob with the convictions of underboss Charles "Chucky" Porter, top lieutenant Louis Raucci Sr. and seven of their associates. The Mafia has limped along ever since, damaged further by age, death and defections. Now its nemesis, the "stone in the shoe" to use a twist on the old mob parlance, has moved on. Greenbank, 52, the Pittsburgh Mafia's most persistent opponent since the late 1970s, left the region last week for a new FBI job in Wilmington, Del., where he'll take on Jamaican mobsters and corrupt public servants. Page 20 of 40