Opinion ID: 1212404
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Eppolito and Caracappa Begin Dealing Directly With Kaplan and Are Put on Retainer

Text: Although during the initial period of their association Kaplan had seen Eppolito and Caracappa on two or three occasions, he had never been introduced to them, and he dealt with them only through Santoro. In September 1987, while in the company of someone Casso had targeted for assassination, Santoro was killed. Only then did Kaplan reveal to Casso that Santoro was the friend whose cousin was one of the police detectives who were providing them with information. After Santoro's death, Eppolito sent Santoro's widow to one of Kaplan's stores to ask whether Kaplan would like to meet Eppolito directly. Thereafter, Eppolito and Kaplan met in the Santoro home, while Caracappa remained outside, watching the house from a car. Eppolito proposed that he and Caracappa would give [Kaplan] everything that we get on every family, any bit of information we get about informants, about ongoing investigations, wiretaps, and imminent arrests (Tr. 620) in exchange for a retainer of $4,000 per month. [M]urder contracts were to cost extra. (Tr. 621.) Kaplan relayed Eppolito's offer to Casso, who accepted it on the condition that Eppolito and Caracappa work exclusively for us, i.e., the Lucchese Crime Family, and not give any information to members of other crime families. (Tr. 625-26.) For the next several years, Eppolito and Caracappa gave confidential law enforcement information to Kaplan, who relayed it to Casso; and Casso, through Kaplan, paid Eppolito and Caracappa $4,000 per month. When asked at trial what Casso did with the information received from Eppolito and Caracappa, Kaplan testified that if it was information about somebody from a different family, then Casso would pass it to the different families. He'd pass some information to the Bonannos and he passed some information to the Genovese. If it was someone that had something to do with him and they were informants, Casso had them killed. (Tr. 442; see also id. at 165, 665-66 (describing relay by Casso of such information to high-echelon members of the Colombo Crime Family).) Kaplan testified that Eppolito said he liked doing business with Kaplan and Casso because when [Eppolito] gave us information people got taken care of that deserved it, and that in the past he gave information to other people and they never acted on it. (Tr. 657.) Although Eppolito and Caracappa knew they were dealing, through Kaplan, with Casso, Kaplan never told Casso Eppolito's and Caracappa's names. Even in 1992, when Eppolito published an autobiography called Mafia Cop that contained photographs of himself and Caracappa, and Casso told Kaplan he recognized them as the men who had helped Santoro kidnap Hydell, Kaplan refused to confirm that the detectives on Casso's payroll were Eppolito and Caracappa. After Santoro died, Kaplan initially communicated principally with Eppolito. The two had a falling-out, however, when Eppolito sought more money and insisted on meeting Casso, and Kaplan adamantly refused. Thereafter, Kaplan communicated principally with Caracappa. Throughout, the methods used for communications between Kaplan and Eppolito and/or Caracappa were designed to avoid disclosure or suspicion of their association. Kaplan never used his home telephone to contact Eppolito or Caracappa; he used pay phones or cell phones. He purchased cell phones sometimes in his own name, sometimes in the names of others; and at times he had other persons purchase cell phones for him. When calling each other on the telephone, Kaplan, Eppolito, and Caracappa did not use their own names but frequently used the code name Marco. Kaplan's personal telephone book contained the real names of many members or associates of organized crime families; only Eppolito and Caracappa were given coded entriesthe name Marco. Kaplan generally met Eppolito and/or Caracappa in private places, such as their homes late at night when no one was on the street, or at the homes of relatives; or at locations where it would be difficult to identify or overhear them, such as on the shoulder of a busy highway; or in out-of-the way places, such as a cemetery in Staten Island. Kaplan testified that from the beginning of [his] relationship with Mr. Eppolito and Mr. Caracappa, ... one of the goals of the relationship [was] to conceal the relationship. (Tr. 1144.)