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Former Club Mirage Manager Seeks Release On Bail

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2008

  James Cadicamo

TAMPA - A local man charged with participating in a conspiracy as part of the Gambino crime family says he was a victim of extortion.

James V. Cadicamo is asking a judge to reconsider releasing him on bail, arguing the prosecution doesn't have evidence to prove what a prosecutor said at Cadicamo's bail hearing after his arrest in August.

Cadicamo, 33, of Tampa, along with four other men, was charged with participating in a vast racketeering conspiracy under the umbrella of the Gambino crime family. At the same time, John A. "Junior" Gotti was named in a separate, similar indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Tampa.

Cadicamo managed Club Mirage, a city nightclub that prosecutors say was used by the Gambinos to hide the proceeds of criminal activities. He was sued by John Alite over ownership of the club. Prosecutors said Alite was the leader of a Gambino crime family crew that for a time fought to control the local valet parking business.

Alite was named in an indictment in another Gambino case that resulted in convictions for four defendants, including Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, a captain in the Gambino crime family.

Alite fled to Brazil during that 2006 trial, but has since been extradited, but has yet to go on trial.

A prosecutor said during Cadicamo's bail hearing that Cadicamo sent money to Alite while he was on the lam in Latin America.

"What the government failed to advise the court is that if any money was sent to John Alite, it was because John Alite had continuously and repeatedly threatened James V. Cadicamo, and Alite even advised one witness the defense has interviewed that John Alite would have Cadicamo killed," Cadicamo's attorney, Ronald K. Cacciatore, wrote in a motion filed today. Cadicamo "is deathly afraid of John Alite and even advised [FBI] agent Mike Bradley that John Alite had been extorting him and his family for years."

Cacciatore added that there is "scant evidence" for another prosecution allegation, that Cadicamo conspired to beat up or kill Michael Malone, a witness in the Trucchio trial.

The prosecution, the attorney said, "rests its whole case upon the testimony" of Timothy Angelini," who "was always on drugs and therefore never quite sure where he was and what he was doing, and also will show that he has a reputation for telling falsehoods."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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