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Ex-N.Y. cops face new murder charges

Former detectives accused of serving as mob hit men

From Chris Kokenes
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two former New York City police detectives accused of being hit men for the Mafia were each indicted Wednesday on another murder charge in the 1986 killing of a jewelry merchant.

The new charges, unsealed Wednesday, accuse Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephen Caracappa, 63, in the kidnapping and slaying of Israel Greenwald, whose remains were found beneath the floor of a garage in Brooklyn this year.

An arraignment on the new charges is expected as early as next week.

The issue of the defendants' bail will be addressed at the arraignment, said Bob Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York.

The updated indictment also charges both former detectives with a count of bribery of a public official, who remained unidentified.

Attorneys Bruce Cutler, representing Eppolito, and Ed Hayes, representing Caracappa, could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

Eppolito and Caracappa, who were each freed on $5 million bail last week, pleaded not guilty in April to charges of murder, drug distribution and money laundering. They are residents of Las Vegas, Nevada, where they were arrested in March.

The original grand jury indictment alleges the men routinely passed confidential law enforcement information to the mob and killed rival gangsters.

As part of the bail agreement, both men are under house arrest at the homes of relatives in the New York area while they await trial, scheduled for September. They are fitted with electronic monitoring anklets.

Each faces nine charges of murder, two of attempted murder and one of murder conspiracy in cases dating from 1986 to 1991.

The government alleges that the men's association with organized crime began in the early 1980s, when they started passing along information to high-ranking members and associates of the Luchese crime family, including Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, a family underboss.

The former police partners are accused of disclosing the identities of numerous cooperating witnesses and compromising several state and federal investigations.

Caracappa was a member of the New York Police Department's Organized Crime Homicide Unit, which he helped found.

Eppolito co-authored "Mafia Cop," describing how he turned away from the "family business" to become what he said was one of the police department's most-decorated officers.

He has had small roles in several films, including the part of "Fat Andy" in Martin Scorsese's 1990 mob feature, "GoodFellas."

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