Minkow Can’t Use Police Witness, Judge Says

In a stinging setback for the defense, a federal judge ruled Thursday that Barry Minkow’s lawyers cannot introduce testimony from police that his ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company was infiltrated by organized crime.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian also ruled that Los Angeles Police Detective Mike Brambles cannot testify that the businessmen Minkow alleges were beating and threatening him are known associates of the Genovese, Bonnano and Colombo crime families.

The judge issued his rulings over defense lawyer David Kenner’s protests that Minkow, 22, has emerged as a liar in the eyes of the jury because of the prosecution’s constant attempts to portray him as one.

“The government, in my view, has very artfully, very, very artfully, through the presentation of its case, conditioned the jury to think he had a history of lying,” Kenner declared.

“You’re lucky Mr. Minkow is not Pinnochio,” the judge replied curtly.

Through 11 days of testimony that concluded Thursday, Minkow defended himself against charges that he staged an elaborate fraud at ZZZZ Best by inflating sales figures by tens of millions of dollars with made-up jobs supposedly repairing flood and fire damage to high-rise buildings for the company.

Minkow blamed the plot on a series of purported organized crime figures, including the late Jack Catain Jr., who he said engineered the fraud and forced him to act as a “front man.”

Minkow said their constant threats and beatings caused him to begin vomiting blood and fear for the safety of himself and his family.

Kenner had sought to designate Brambles, a longtime organized crime investigator who headed the ZZZZ Best probe for the Los Angeles Police Department, as an expert witness on organized crime to buttress Minkow’s allegations that these men were, in fact, Mafia associates.

Without Brambles’ testimony, he said, the jury will have only Minkow’s word to determine whether his fear of the men was well-grounded, giving him no choice but to comply with their demands.

“What I am facing is to have had a man on the stand who has testified to things, who is perceived to be a liar,” Kenner said. “If I can’t put this type of evidence on, I have no ability to defend myself and my client (against) the very clever and very competent setting up by the government of my client as a man who cannot be believed.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. James Asperger argued strongly against allowing Brambles to testify about organized crime infiltration of ZZZZ Best, contending that it would be comparable to allowing FBI agents to testify about their own investigation of Minkow.

“He’s trying to have Detective Brambles testify about how bad the Mafia is,” Asperger said. “You really can’t put the Mafia on trial.”

Tevrizian said Brambles’ testimony would have no relevance in the jury’s determination of whether Minkow was actually threatened and beaten.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday.