Petti Gets 18 Months in Prison for Violating Parole

Chris Petti was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison, after his attorney submitted twenty letters from San Diego “dentists, doctors and lawyers” asking leniency for the reputed mobster for violating his parole in a 5-year-old bookmaking conviction.

The prison term came after federal prosecutors accused the 62-year-old Petti of failing to report income to his probation officer that he allegedly received from a complex money-laundering scheme involving San Diego businessman Richard T. Silberman.

In sentencing Petti, who has been the subject of intense FBI scrutiny for several years, U. S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen suggested that the defendant should have followed the requirements of his probation, which also included paying a $25,000 fine and not associating with known bookmakers and gamblers.

“Mr. Petti, though I sympathize with him somewhat about the extensive surveillance that was going on, could have done something other than what he did,” the judge said.

Petti had faced a maximum term of five years in prison on the probation revocation, but Assistant U. S. Atty. Charles Gorder asked the judge to sentence Petti to only two years.

Influence Is Unclear

What weight, if any, the letters had in influencing the judge to issue a lighter sentence is unclear, because Nielsen refused to release the letters. Oscar Goodman, Petti’s attorney, also declined to provide copies of them.

Goodman said he originally obtained 50 letters of character reference for Petti, but submitted only 20 to the judge.

“They’re from people from all walks of life,” Goodman said. “And they all say the same thing, that Mr. Petti was always a gentleman, was always honest in his dealings and was always very decent to them.”

However, Gorder reminded the judge that the court had twice warned Petti to obey the requirements of his probation, which followed his 1984 conviction in an illegal bookmaking case.

‘Not a Dime’ Paid on Fine

“There’s been no payment on the fine,” Gorder said. “Not a dime. There were no payments, and there were lies to the probation department about his income.”

In two days of hearings, the government attempted to show that Petti received payments from Silberman in a money-laundering scheme.

According to the indictment in the money-laundering case, Silberman, a political fund-raiser and top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was introduced by Petti to an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation posing as a man wanting to hide money for Colombian drug dealers.

Silberman later paid Petti several thousand dollars for connecting him with the undercover agent, the government contends, and Petti never reported that income on his monthly probation reports, nor used any of it to pay back the fine in the bookmaking conviction.

Goodman, however, contended that Petti never actually pocketed any of the proceeds from Silberman, but instead passed the money on to Robert Benjamin, an ex-convict turned government informant who was working with the FBI in building the money-laundering case.

Job Offer Received

Goodman last Friday asked the judge to continue Petti’s probation. He said Petti had received a job offer at the Poma Italian Delicatessen in Ocean Beach, and that Jo Prieto, a longtime friend of Petti who operates a clothing store in Hollywood, was willing to donate $125 a month toward paying off the fine.

He said that, with Petti in jail, the government will receive no money on the fine.

Leonard Poma, owner of the deli, said he was one of the letter writers who asked the judge for leniency for Petti.

“I just told the judge that I’ve known him for 10 years and that I think it’s unjustified he’s getting that kind of treatment,” he said. “He’s a good friend of mine.”

Difficulty in Preparing Case

Goodman also told the judge it would be difficult to prepare for Petti’s defense in the money-laundering case with his client in prison, particularly since there are 6,000 pages of affidavits and transcripts relating to the wiretaps, and 1,000 cassette tapes.

“I really need his help in order to properly defend him,” Goodman said.

However, Gorder, the prosecutor, said a jail setting at the Metropolitan Correctional Center should not hamper the defense.