Opinion ID: 654592
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Locascio

Text: 42 Locascio challenges the district court's disqualification of attorney George Santangelo, arguing that the district court abused its discretion in disqualifying Santangelo. Santangelo was disqualified for much the same reasons as Cutler: (1) because Santangelo was house counsel to the Gambino Crime Family; and (2) because Santangelo could conceivably become an unsworn witness if he represented Locascio.
43 On January 6, 1992, thirteen months after Locascio's indictment, Santangelo filed a notice of appearance on behalf of Locascio. The government quickly moved for disqualification. The motion was argued on January 17, 1992 and granted four days later. United States v. Gotti, 782 F.Supp. 737 (E.D.N.Y.1992). 44 The district court began by reviewing the evidence presented by the government that Santangelo was house counsel to the Gambino Family. The court noted that Gravano was expected to testify that, after arraignment, Gotti had stated to him that Gotti was going to assign Santangelo to represent either Gravano or Locascio. Gravano was also expected to testify that Gotti controlled the actions of attorneys answerable to him, in the interests not of the individual clients but of the Gambino Family. The court found that this testimony would support the inference that Santangelo was answerable to Gotti, which was probative of the charged RICO enterprise. The court also reviewed intercepted conversations presented by the government that supported Gravano's allegations that Gotti controlled Santangelo. The district court concluded: 45 Santangelo's relationship to Gotti and to Gotti's associates is properly the object of proof by the government in its case in chief. But, as with Cutler, ... Santangelo cannot present himself as counsel for the defendants when his relationship to those defendants is itself an issue under the consideration of the jury. His presence at counsel table could readily serve as a signal to the jury that the court discounts the government's proof on this point--that the court does not believe this evidence. Moreover, Santangelo could not argue against the existence of the charged RICO enterprise without becoming an unsworn witness. 46 Id. at 741.
47 We have already discussed the applicable law on the issue of counsel disqualification. See supra Sec. I.A. Locascio offers the same arguments that we rejected in our discussion of the disqualification of Bruce Cutler. Simply put, Locascio recharacterizes the record and disagrees that the government proffered evidence to the district court that merits disqualification of Santangelo. 48 As in our discussion of Cutler's disqualification, we review the district court's rulings only for an abuse of discretion. Wheat, 486 U.S. at 163-64, 108 S.Ct. at 1699; Stewart, 870 F.2d at 856. Here, the district court specifically found that Gravano's testimony and the intercepted conversations substantiated the argument that Santangelo was house counsel. This raised two serious conflicts of interest: first, that Santangelo's previous representations of Gambino Family members would be used to prove the existence of the enterprise; and second, that his loyalty to Locascio would be compromised by his relationship to Gotti. These findings were supported in the record, and Locascio's recharacterization of the record does not compel us to reverse them. 49 As discussed previously, Locascio's Sixth Amendment concerns are not the only interests at stake here: the district court has an independent duty to protect the integrity of the judicial process, and the government has its own fair trial interests that should not be unnecessarily impaired so that Locascio can enjoy the services of ethically compromised counsel. This is especially true in these circumstances, since Locascio suffered no prejudice from the disqualification of Santangelo. Although actual prejudice is not determinative of the propriety of a disqualification, it is worth noting that this is not a case where an attorney worked on a case for months only to be disqualified on the eve of trial. Santangelo filed his first notice of appearance on January 6, 1992, and was disqualified fifteen days later. Locascio cannot argue this disqualification impacted his ability to prepare for trial.