Lied to Jury in Spillone Case, FBI Informant Says

A former FBI informant said in federal court that he lied to FBI agents and made misstatements to a federal grand jury about the business activities of convicted loan-shark Vito Dominic Spillone. He also denied that he had been paid to say so.

The new testimony earlier last week by Johnny Angelo, the informant, shows that “the FBI agents lied to get the wiretaps” on Spillone’s phones in 1981, Richard Sherman, Spillone’s lawyer, said in an interview later. Sherman added that he will use Angelo’s testimony as the basis for an appeal of Spillone’s October, 1985, conviction.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Matt Byrne Jr. denied Sherman’s motion for a new trial and set a Feb. 3 sentencing date for Spillone and the three other men convicted with him.

Spillone, 6 Others Indicted

Evidence gathered through the wiretaps was presented to a federal grand jury that indicted Spillone and six others on loan-sharking and racketeering charges in February, 1984. The defendants were accused of making high-interest loans to gamblers at local card clubs.

“The court’s finding was that the FBI followed the law and did not lie to obtain the court order for electronic surveillance,” said Blair Watson, a special attorney for the U.S. Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force.

In October, 1985, Spillone, 48, of Upland, was convicted by a Los Angeles federal court jury on conspiracy and racketeering charges. Frank Serrao, 56, of Huntington Beach, John Clyde Abel, 41, of Chicago, and Frank Citro, 39, of Las Vegas, were each convicted on one racketeering charge in the same trial. That jury also acquitted three other defendants, including John Barro, owner of Irvine-based Barro’s Pizza Inc.

‘Members’ of Crime Family

The indictment described the men as being “associates and members” of a crime family trying to set up illegal loan-sharking operations in Southern California and Las Vegas.

In a special hearing at which he was the only witness, Angelo told Judge Byrne that he lied to the FBI, but that FBI agents had lied to him in the past so they “were even.”

Angelo, who the FBI says was paid about $70,000 for information on Spillone and others, also said that he feared for his life and claimed to have been shot at a few months ago.

Paid $4,000 by Attorney

Angelo admitted in court that Spillone’s attorney, Sherman, paid him $4,000 about a week after he signed a declaration recanting portions of the testimony that he gave to the grand jury in 1982 and 1983.

Angelo said Spillone owed him the money for a plaster statue of a Madonna by an Italian sculptor.

When Byrne asked Angelo if he would have changed his story had he not been paid the $4,000, Angelo said yes.

Spillone, who was convicted on loan-sharking charges in 1971 and served five years of a 12-year sentence, said in a brief interview that he has never threatened Angelo.

Spillone operates a wholesale food business in South El Monte. He and the other six defendants in the 1985 trial were prosecuted by the government’s Organized Crime Strike Force.