Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Reputed Mobster Pleads Innocent to 71 Charges
Reputed mobster Robert Paduano pleaded innocent Thursday to charges that he hired gunmen to rob rival drug dealers of cocaine in an attempt to corner the Orange County drug market.
The 340-pound mortgage broker, clad in a black sweat suit because jailers did not have a prison jump suit large enough to fit him, entered his plea in a Santa Ana courtroom to 71 counts of robbery, extortion, false imprisonment, burglary and drug trafficking.
Superior Court Judge Myron Brown ordered Paduano, 44, to stand trial on the charges May 11.
Following the arraignment, defense attorney Alan May said his client is a victim of “guilt by association.”
May said that Paduano, who was included on a 1978 list of suspected organized crime figures compiled by the state attorney general’s office, is “socially acquainted” with several reputed mobsters, including Peter J. Milano, the alleged boss of the Southern California Mafia.
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