Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 9

SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 1996 THE DETROIT NEWS 9A iH iutwtitwul ti II not Active candidates on the Dais' tot (3): Pat Buchanan, Bob Dole and Alan Keyes. i- Inactive candidates on the ballot (6): Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes. Phil Gramm. Michigan fe VS 5 i Christian Coalition dfr F1 ii 'A t- E-nhi- 1 t. 1 i I Dole praises Forbes' idea on flat tax Associated Press DE PERE, Wis.

Sen. Bob Dole, in a bow to a vanquished rival, said Saturday he's looking "possibly" at proposing a single, flat income tax system similar to that championed by failed presidential candidate Steve Forbes. In a Reagan-Lincoln Day luncheon in northeast Wisconsin, Dole also sounded some of the same themes of his remaining major GOP opponent, Pat Buchanan, saying America should worry about competition from foreign trade, and mentioning the former commentator by name in a complimentary way despite Buchanan's continuing attacks on Dole. "Pat Buchanan has touched a nerve when it comes to people concerned about their jobs, concerned about their future," Dole said. "And we will address that." Dole praised his former rival Forbes, too, saying, "Steve Forbes had a good idea" for a 17 percent flat tax rate.

"We're now looking possibly, possibly at a single rate," said Dole, adding that he would like to ask Americans, however, "if you want to keep your home mortgage deduction" and deductions for charitable contributions, too. "I don't want to help the rich and hurt the poor." "We're going to have a fair system. We're going to have a flatter system." With his eye on the White House, Dole saved his attacks for President Clinton, calling him the biggest tax-er "in the history of the world" and saying the president thinks he has a blank check on government spending. "He wants more money, more money all the time," Dole said, noting Clinton has vetoed Congress' balanced budget plan and has yet to agree on a spending plan. for the soul of this country," Pat Clarence Tabb Jr.

I The Detroit News Buchanan tells supporters Saturday in Clawson. State's Dems trickle in for caucus vote Associated Press Michigan Democrats filed into closed caucuses across the state Saturday to register their support for President Clinton. Clinton's name was the only one on the caucus ballot. The caucuses, open only to people who signed a statement declaring themselves to be Democrats, were more social than political. "It's a good opportunity for people to get together," said Kris Berglund, a Meridian Township trustee in Ingham County.

According to the Michigan party, Clinton received 128 delegates in Saturday's voting. That is in addition to the 2,156 which the Associated Press calculates he already had. That's above the 2,146 delegates needed for the party nomination. Two other Michigan delegates will be unpledged and added by the state central committee. The other 26 delegates Michigan has 156 altogether will be members of Congress and the Democratic National Committee.

They are officially unpledged but all are expected to favor Clinton. There will be 21 alternates. Republicans go to the polls Tuesday. Clinton withdrew his name from Tuesday's Democratic primary ballot, leaving only "uncommitted." The primary results will not count toward deciding how Democratic delegates will vote at the national convention in Chicago this August. Hicnara uugar ana worry layior have withdrawn; bod uornan has not actively campaigned in recent weeks.

Where's Clinton? Democrat Clinton took his name off the March 19 ballot. Michigan voters voted for him in Democratic caucuses at 354 sites Saturday. Voters may vote "uncommitted" on the Democratic ballot in Tuesday's primary. What's at stake: 57 Republican delegates. They will be dis- tributed proportionately, although a candidate must get at least 1 5 percent of the vote to qualify for any delegates.

Polling hours: 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday. Contacting Dole: 517-482-2249. Buchanan: 313-283-6170. Keyes: 612-777-1987.

STADIUM Continued from Page 1A husband, David Snead, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools. "If people are going to go around and hold this against me, maybe they ought to wait and see what happens with the stadium in the end," she said. As for her husband, McPhail said: "He's a former coach and thinks we should do whatever it takes to keep the Tigers in town." Politically, McPhail's departure from her longtime supporters shouldn't affect her "one iota," said Mario Morrow, a Detroit political consultant. "She's showing she's her own person," he said. "She's a good attorney, and her stance could very well raise some eyebrows." Bill Dow, spokesman for the Tiger Stadium Fan Club, said members plan to hit the airwaves with some radio ads over the weekend, asking voters to approve Proposal which would prohibit the use of city money for the stadium.

A nonbinding Proposal seeks approval of the funding for the stadium, which also will be funded with $145 million from the Tigers and $55 million from the state. The club has argued for preservation of the current stadium and said city money could be better spent elsewhere. "It's difficult," Dow said. "We dont have the type of money they have to get the message out." Hitch, meanwhile, has emerged on the airwaves as the clock ticks down to the election. mobsters' every move over the past two decades.

"The federal government in the last 20 years has spent tens of millions trying to prosecute these people," Zuckerman said. Both the Michigan State Police and Detroit Police had special units during the 1960s and 1970s devoted solely to tracking organized crime members. "We took pictures at every wedding and every funeral," said Hal Berriman, Bellville chief of police and former organized crime investigator for Detroit Police and a combined group that included city and state police. "You could tell who was where in the organization by how much respect they were accorded at events like that." Increasing numbers of drug crimes and violent offenses forced law enforcement officials to shift their attention away from the La Costra Nostra. "We could no longer afford to have teams working exclusively on organized crime," said Michigan State Police Capt Chris Hogan, who heads Southeastern Michigan's Criminal Investigation Division.

"Drugs became more of a problem." Still, Hogan said it would be short-sighted to dismiss the current indictments as insignificant or to think that those charged committed victimless crimes, even though some of those named as witnesses themselves ran smalltime gambling operations. "The people named in this indictment were involved in a large criminal enterprise, and violence has been a part of their past," he said. "They're involved in multi-million gambling schemes. A few have been associated with drug trafficking on a very large scale. "In illegal gambling, normal peo ple can lose, can rack up debts of tens and thousands of dollars." There is a cultural war going on POLITICS Continued from Page 1A campaign by giving him an upset victory.

"What we really need in Michigan is to reignite this campaign and start our momentum rolling up hill," said Buchanan, who is near mathematical elimination from the race. "Then maybe well show Bob (Dole) something bad in the California primary a week from Tuesday." Dole spent Saturday campaigning in Wisconsin and Illinois, which also have primaries Tuesday. In Michigan, meanwhile, a cadre of supporters traveled by two buses to rallies in six communities. Both candidates close out their Midwest campaigns Monday in Michigan, playing to the constituencies they've nurtured throughout the race: Dole will speak to a Lincoln Day dinner of mainstream Republicans in Grand Rapids; Buchanan will attend a church rally in Taylor. Despite Buchanan's flagging campaign, Christian Coalition members took heart from an address by Ralph Reed national executive director and founder of the Christian Coalition.

"We have not yet won the political battle, but we have won the moral argument," Reed said to "amens" from the audience. "What we say to the liberal, pro-choice agenda is you have failed and now it's our And that's what the election is about." Themes during the three-hour rally included returning to school prayer, ending abortions, halting medical and other benefits to homosexual couples, and putting the brakes on an intrusive gov Corrado), Peter Jack Corrado, Peter Anthony Corrado, John Batista Scia-rrotta, John Michael Jarjosa, Norman Nerses Bagdasarian, Paul Joseph Tocco, Thomas Kenneth Lehnard and Frank Bert Whitcher. They are all free on bail. Mounting evidence Defense attorneys have spent the past several days decrying the investigation and proclaiming their clients' innocence, but they won't get a peek of the government's evidence for another 10 days. "We haven't seen a stitch of evidence yet," said attorney William Bufalino II, who represented several of the defendants in hearings last week.

In pre-trial conferences scheduled for March 26, prosecutors must reveal much of the evidence they plan to use, including search warrants and what they turned up, listings of the locations and targets of wiretaps that resulted in evidence, and explanations of other physical evidence, such as DNA tests, bank statements or other records. Trials may not begin for more than a year as defense attorneys comb through wiretap transcripts and other government evidence. As an example of the breadth of the federal investigation, agents have compiled some 700 hours of wiretapped conversations from a bug in the car of one defendant, Nove Tocco, Bufalino said after meeting informally with federal officials last week. Nove Tocco, called a mafioso "soldier" by agents working the case, is mentioned throughout the indictment as one of the Detroit area mob's principal street enforcers. Working with others, Nove Tocco allegedly shot out the windows of a Detroit numbers runner's business in 1992, built bombs and otherwise intimidated bookmakers into paying protection money, according to the ernment.

In half-hour speeches in Claw-son and Kalamazoo, Buchanan punched all those buttons and more. In Clawson, he called the abortion industry an "evil empire" that should be fought even if he loses the nomination. He denounced the exorcising of religion from public schools and said the founding fathers would have had three words for those who want to ban Bibles from classrooms: "Lock and load." "There is a cultural war going on for the soul of this country," he said. "The issue is about making this God's country again." In Kalamazoo, Buchanan reiterated his opposition to NAFTA and a new World Trade Association and to the "massive and intrusive" buildup of the federal government. He also performed a wickedly funny impression of President Clinton.

"You know how he gets those tears in his eyes? How he says 'I feel your Then he bites his lower lip?" Buchanan asked, biting his own lip and pouting. "Elect me," Buchanan said, and Clinton will really "feel the pain." David Dyer, 45, a service representative of Ferndale, was among those cheering Buchanan at the Christian Coalition rally. "I don't think he can pull off the nomination for president, but he can influence the party" Dyer said. "He speaks for the middle-of-the-road conservatives like us who want to see family values and the spiritual end of things that are in decline." Syndi Hughes, 33, a homemak-er from Rochester Hills, agreed: "He's out there for me, for my kids and grandkids. He has a solid indictment.

But Bufalino claims Nove Tocco's only business is fast food he owns two restaurants in Mt. Clemens. Building a case Successful cases against organized crime in the past have been built around the federal Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, enacted in 1970 specifically to target the mob. The Detroit case is no exception, with nine of the people indicted facing RICO charges, which helps explain why some of the allegations in the indictment go back to 1966. To convict a person under RICO, federal prosecutors must show that "(Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act) takes more work to prove, but if done right, it's impossible to defend." G.

Robert Blakely Author of RICO act defendants engaged in a wide-spread conspiracy of organized criminal activity. The result is prosecutors don't need to focus on individual homicides or acts of extortion, said G. Robert Blakely, the University of Notre Dame law school professor who wrote the RICO act. "The jury gets to see an organization the way as it really is not just one illegal act. They get the whole picture," said Blakely, who was a Justice Department attorney under then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and a member of the 1967 Presidential Crime Commission.

"(RICO) takes more work to prove, but if done right, it's impossible to defend." Mob informants and electronic surveillance are important parts of Christian moral base. He's my voice." Glenn Clark, executive director of the Michigan Christian Coalition, said the rally turnout exceeded his expectations: "It was our first public event and it shows how people of faith are responding to our message." The coalition does not endorse candidates, but its leaders, including Clark, said they'll vote for Buchanan. Pat Anderson, aide to Michigan Secretary of State Candice Miller and co-chairman of Dole's Michigan campaign, attended the rally. "Buchanan's going to get some votes. He's got a message," Anderson conceded.

"Pat Buchanan is a tremendous orator on social issues where he and Bob Dole agree." Jeffrey Montgomery, president of Triangle Foundation of Detroit, which represents gays and lesbians, was another of the noncon-verts. "We're here because we know the very direct connection between his style of rhetoric and violence and hate activities against many minorities," said Montgomery, who was given a free pass by rally organizers. "Buchanan is worse than a child playing with matches because he understands the dangerous impact of what he says." After the Clawson rally, Buchanan lunched on a hot dog onions on the side at National Coney Island in Royal Oak. "We had a packed house, and everybody was pretty favorable to him," said manager Greg Lambert, 20, who will vote for Clinton this fall. The owner picked up the tab for about 60 dogs; Buchanan left a $60 tip.

a RICO prosecution, Blakely said. "You get a turncoat and some collaborating wiretaps you get some very compelling testimony," Blakely said. "That's how you can bring down the mob." U.S. attorneys in New York used that combination to convict Gotti in 1993, using the testimony of Salva-tore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, Gotti's closest aide. Last year in Philadelphia, federal prosecutors used the testimony of a hit man turned informant to bring down the crime family headed by John Stanfa.

Evidence obtained from wiretaps and electronic bugs alone or relying only on testimony of a former mob member is not enough to get a conviction, lawyers say. It is the combination of the two that ensures victory. "A wiretap only gets what's between A and and a bug only gets what's in the room. And the recordings can be garbled," Blakely said. "You really need someone who was on the inside to put it all together." But mob informants are usually not the most credible witnesses.

"They're not lawyers or priests; they're criminals, too," Blakely said. "Juries won't believe them unless there is some other evidence to back up what they say." Jacobs, the NYU professor, said mob members know that by testifying against their former partners, they not only escape jail time, but also avoid retribution from those they've turned against. "They know it's possible to survive betrayal," he said. "The government will give them a new identity, and they'll be fine in witness protection." Convincing the jury If prosecutors want to make the charges against the local men stick this time, they'll have to do better than the Wolverine Golf Club gam Sea how they run GOP candidates in Michigan All times and events are tentative. TODAY Buchanan: Chicago.

No Michigan appearances planned. Dole: Chicago and Wisconsin. No Michigan appearances planned. MONDAY Buchanan: 7:15 p.m.: Rally at Gilead Baptist Church, Taylor. Dole: 7 p.m.: Lincoln Day Dinner, Grand Rapids.

MOB Continued from Page 1A Federal prosecutors in Detroit have refused to reveal what witnesses and evidence they plan to use in the case against reputed crime boss Jack Tocco and 16 of his alleged lieutenants, but law professors and former U.S. prosecutors speculate government attorneys will rely on one-time Mafia members to testify against their former cronies and secretly tape-recorded conversations. "You've seen so much success prosecuting organized crime because they're starting to testify against one another," said Richard A. Rossman, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1980 to 1981, who is now in private practice.

"That's why there's been so much activity. They're difficult cases without direct witnesses." The crime family In recent years, top-ranking organized crime figures in New York and Philadelphia who had previously eluded conviction were convicted after mob informants testified. The 57-page grand-jury indictment unsealed Thursday in Detroit described a 30-year legacy of sometimes-violent Bhakedowns of bookies, infiltration of Nevada casinos, murder plots, numbers rackets and loan sharking. The US. Attorney's Office in Eastern Michigan called it the largest case federal agents had worked since the 1993 murder conviction of John Gotti, former head of the New York City's Gambino crime family.

In addition to Tocco, of Grosse Pointe Park, others indicted includ- ed: Anthony Joseph Zerilli, Anthony Joseph Corrado, Anthony Joseph Tocco, Vito William Giacalone, Anthony Giacalone, Paul Corrado (son of Anthony Corrado), Nove Tocco, Paul Corrado (son of Dominic bling case, a six-year investigation in which the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors went after what they alleged was a multi-million-dollar gambling ring operated from a Mt. Clemens golf club. Only two of the 14 men and women charged with gambling offenses in the case were convicted; two others pleaded guilty before the trials began. Defense attorneys familiar with 1993 Wolverine case said jurors were confused by complex charges and garbled tapes of wire taps that included cryptic names and undecipherable lists of numbers. "We haven 't seen a stitch of evidence yet." William Bufalino II Attorney representing several of the defendants Detroit attorney Richard Zuck-erman, a former U.S.

prosecutor in Detroit who successfully prosecuted Anthony Giacalone for tax evasion in 1976, said prosecutors this time have a more compelling case than in the Wolverine prosecution. "Wolverine was based on gambling offenses," Zuckerman said. "I dont think juries the significance of gambling offenses anymore. "The nature of the charges in this case are far more significant than simple gambling. It will be easier to get the jury's attention." Tracking mobsters If the prosecution does not prevail against Tocco and his alleged lieutenants, it won't be for lack of law enforcement resources.

State, local and federal law enforcement agencies spent millions of dollars and countless surveillance hours tracking alleged Detroit-area.