Parking Plot

Parking Plot

By Francis X. Gilpin

Associate Editor

Tampa attorney Michael D. LaBarbera didnit care for how opposing counsel from two local white-shoe law firms were characterizing his client.

So LaBarbera asked a Hillsborough County judge to order attorneys from Carlton Fields PA and Trenam Kemker Scharf Barkin Frye OiNeil & Mullis PA to watch their language when referring to the owner of Prestige Valet Inc., a Tampa company that parks automobiles for guests at hospitals, hotels, restaurants and other public facilities.

Specifically, LaBarbera wrote in a 2002 legal motion, the opposing counsel should stop making iimproper and intentionally prejudicial statementsi in court about ithe principle [sic] stockholder of the plaintiff being in Federal custody, being associated with refuted [sic] Italian crime families in New York, New Jersey or organized crime in general.i

LaBarberais efforts to protect his clientis reputation, while laudable, will be a lot tougher from now on. Last summer, a federal grand jury in Tampa named John Edward Alite in a four-count racketeering indictment.

The indictment contends Alite, vice president of Prestige Valet from 1996 until 2002, has worked for Ronald J. iRonnie One Armi Trucchio, a reputed captain in the Gambino crime family, since the 1980s in an illicit enterprise that engaged in murder, drug dealing, extortion, loan sharking and robbery in Florida, New Jersey and New York.

Alite, 42, formerly of Voorhees, N.J., was arrested on Thanksgiving eve in Rio de Janeiro by FBI agents and Brazilian police. The Tampa indictment was unsealed a few days later.

A childhood friend of John iJuniori Gotti, Alite grew up in the Howard Beach section of Queens, N.Y. That borough of New York City is where his palis late father led the Gambino family during the late 1980s and 1990s. Alite had been living in Brazil on an expired tourist visa for nearly a year, authorities say.

If Alite had any inkling that the FBI was after him, it might have been due to the Prestige Valet lawsuit that LaBarbera filed on his behalf in Tampa.

Prestige Valet claims its former president, Louis J. iDukei Mendel III, voided a non-compete agreement so that another ex-employee, Michael D. Malatin, could open a competing valet service while Alite was in federal prison on a weapons charge.

Filed in the summer of 2001 and still unresolved, the lawsuit provides a peek inside the FBI investigation of Alite and Prestige Valetis current president, Terry L. Scaglione, 39, of Tampa, who was also named in the Gambino indictment.

But documents filed in the lawsuit and elsewhere also suggest that Malatin and Mendel might not be the ideal victims of organized crime for federal prosecutors to present to a trial jury.

On the lookout

iMike was so deathly afraid of this guy named Johnny Alite,i a former Malatin business associate testified at a deposition last May.

The witness, James Midili, was the first employee hired at Healthcare Parking Systems Inc., a company Malatin formed after Mendel purportedly voided the non-compete at Prestige Valet. Midili testified that Mendel and Malatin liked to know when Alite was in Tampa.

iIf he was in town,i Midili recalled, iDuke would always let Mike know so Mike could be aware. And Mike was, from what I understood, pretty scared of Mr. Alite.i

Alite came to the notice of New York police in 1989 when he, young Gotti and a third man were arrested on charges of beating up three patrons of a Long Island bar in a brawl.

In 1996, court records show, Alite was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge in New Jersey on a charge of being a felon carrying firearms across state lines.

Following his release, Alite was arrested again in 2000 on bribery and fraud charges. Authorities say Alite helped smuggle Antonio Parlavecchiois sperm past guards and out of a Pennsylvania federal prison so the reputed New York mobsteris wife could become pregnant through in vitro fertilization. Alite went back to prison for another three months in 2001.

At a deposition two years ago, Malatin told Prestige Valet lawyer LaBarbera that a telephone call from Alite had made him fearful.

iHe did most of the talking,i Malatin recalled, iand it was threatening.i

iWhat did he say?i LaBarbera asked.

iWell,i Malatin replied, ihe said that he would o that he wanted to kill me, and that he was going to rape and, quote, f---- my wife, and slit her throat.i

Malatin attributed Aliteis anger to his decision to resign from Prestige Valet at the end of 1997.

iDid you report that telephone conversation to the authorities?i LaBarbera asked.

iYes, I did.i

iWho did you report it to?i

iThe FBI,i Malatin told LaBarbera.

After disclosing that he taped subsequent calls from Alite for the FBI, Malatin requested a recess. When the deposition resumed, Malatinis then-lawyer, Thomas P. Barber of Carlton Fields, informed LaBarbera that his client would provide no further testimony about Alite.

Barber, a former prosecutor who has since left Carlton Fields for a gubernatorial appointment to the county court bench, told LaBarbera that he had contacted the FBI during the break. The U.S. Attorneyis Office in Tampa called back to ask Barber to stop LaBarberais interrogation.

That same day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay G. Trezevant put his request in writing to Barber and Jonathan J. Ellis, an attorney at the time with Broad & Casell PA who represented Mendel.

All in the family

Trezevant was heading the Tampa portion of a sweeping U.S. Department of Justice probe into the Gambino family.

The New Jersey State Commission on Investigation reported last year that the Gambino family has between 150 and 200 members, plus up to 2,000 associates. They are concentrated around metropolitan New York City and Philadelphia, and in New England, Florida, Nevada and California.

Law enforcement officials believe the Gambinos are currently headed by Peter Gotti, Junior Gottiis uncle. Last month, a federal jury in Manhattan found Peter Gotti guilty of ordering an unsuccessful attempt on the life of gangland informant Salvatore iSammy the Bulli Gravano.

The Gambino family has roughly 20 crews, each of which is headed by a captain, or caporegime. However, only about 10 of those crews remain active, according to the New Jersey commission.

Back in Tampa, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Herbert J. Baumann Jr. endorsed federal prosecutor Trezevantis call for restrictions on pre-trial discovery in the Prestige Valet lawsuit regarding members of Trucchiois Gambino crew.

In a court filing, Trezevant claimed that LaBarbera was making ithinly veiled attemptsi on behalf of Alite and Scaglione to idiscover facts about the United Statesi ongoing federal criminal investigation of Prestige Valet Inc. and others.i

LaBarbera complained at a Jan. 7 hearing before Judge Baumann that he cannot get copies of Malatinis taped conversations with Alite because of objections from Trezevant.

iThey arenit even saying who their witnesses are,i LaBarbera griped about Trezevant and his colleagues at the U.S. Attorneyis Office.

Baumann was unmoved and further blocked LaBarbera from getting his hands on Malatinis personal and business bank records after 1998. LaBarbera believes those records might provide further proof that Malatin lured customers away from Prestige Valet.

LaBarbera is already prohibited by judicial order from further questioning of Malatin or Mendel about Trucchiois Gambino crew.

Alite remains in South America, awaiting extradition back to the United States, and couldnit be contacted by GCBR.

LaBarbera and Edward J. Page, who has replaced Barber as Malatinis legal counsel, declined comment, as did Trezevant.

Ronald J. Cacciatore, a Tampa attorney who is expected to represent Scaglione in the Gambino case, would only speculate that the Prestige Valet-Healthcare Parking Systems civil litigation could be why the feds pursued his prospective client in criminal court.

iThe government came in and interfered,i Cacciatore told GCBR. iItis always good to have the government on your side when youire being sued.i

Nevertheless, LaBarbera claims Prestige Valet has a legitimate beef with Malatin. After Malatin organized Healthcare Parking Systems, LaBarbera says gross receipts at the new company went from a few thousand dollars in 1997 to more than $4 million a year by 2001.

Court records show Malatin, 34, of Tampa, was making $100,000 a year by 2000.

Help for a startup

As the name implies, Healthcare Parking Systems concentrates on handling automobiles at medical centers.

While Alite was incarcerated, according to LaBarbera, Mendel not only let Malatin slip out of the non-compete but tapped the Prestige Valet bank account to cover startup costs for Healthcare Parking Systems. For instance, LaBarbera says Prestige Valet paid for envelopes, letterhead and stationery that Malatin needed to get his company off the ground.

Malatin had joined Prestige Valet in 1996 and one of the first customers he brought in was St. Anthonyis Hospital in St. Petersburg. But St. Anthonyis then-security chief, Chuck Figaro, disliked the idea of Prestige Valet working at adult-only businesses, too.

At the hearing earlier this month before Judge Baumann, Malatin lawyer Edward Page introduced an affidavit. In it, Figaro states that a Catholic hospital couldnit knowingly employ a parking company that also worked at strip joints.

LaBarbera says Malatin solved that problem by coming up with Healthcare Parking Systems as a trade name for Prestige Valet. Malatin later used the same name to incorporate his own business, according to LaBarbera.

Court records show Malatinis initial valet customers included St. Anthonyis and the Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, as well as hospitals in Tampa, Sarasota, Venice, Orlando, Gainesville, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio.

James Midili went to work for Malatin at Healthcare Parking Systems after graduating from the University of Florida in 1997. The two young men became so close that Midili was best man when Malatin got married for the first time.

Midili testified that Malatin moved aggressively against another Tampa company, Seven One Seven Parking Services Inc., to grab the valet contract at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. Midili claims a Seven One Seven Parking employee told him that St. Anthonyis Figaro helped Malatin get the Shands deal. Figaro couldnit be reached for comment and a GCBR telephone call to St. Anthonyis security office went unreturned.

Seven One Seven Parking co-owners Jason and John Accardi are listed as witnesses by LaBarbera in the Prestige Valet lawsuit. Jason Accardi didnit respond to a telephone message from GCBR.

iFrom what I understood,i Midili told LaBarbera in deposition, iPrestige had St. Anthonyis first, and then somehow Mike came out of it with St. Anthonyis and Healthcare Parking Systems.i

Midili and Malatin eventually had a falling out. Ironically, the spat was over Midiliis desire to start his own valet service.

The testimony from Midili in the Prestige Valet case did nothing to help Malatinis cause. Midili claims Malatin told him all about Duke Mendel getting him out of the non-compete at Prestige Valet.

iI guess the owner of Prestige got in some trouble or whatever and he was put in jail,i Midili told LaBarbera under oath. iAnd this guy named Duke was put in charge of Prestige. And he told me that he had actually had Duke write him out o or make his non-compete agreement with Prestige disappear so he and Duke could be free to possibly open Healthcare Parking Systems.i

Mendel, who has been dropped as a defendant in the lawsuit, cannot recall if Prestige Valet had non-compete agreements with its workers, according to LaBarbera.

While claiming to feel no ill will toward Malatin, Midili did admit he had talked with Terry Scaglione, who ultimately took over Prestige Valet from Alite.

iI think we might have gotten talking about, a little bit about Johnny because I was a little curious to find out a little more about this Johnny Alite character, because I heard Mike talk about him so much,i Midili replied to a question from Thomas Barber.

iI think I mentioned to Mr. Scaglione that Mike used to tape his phone conversations,i Midili added. iHe would tape them in case Johnny would call because he was always worried about being threatened by Johnny, and I think he started working with the FBI or something like that, and I told Mr. Scaglione about that.i

Informant becomes defendant

Scaglione has his own history with the FBI. At a detention hearing last month in Tampa, Trezevant revealed that Scaglione was an FBI informant during the 1990s. Scaglioneis late grandfather used to be a key overseer of illegal gambling in Tampa for the Trafficante crime family.

Trezevant also disclosed that Scaglione had accompanied a gun-toting associate on a 1996 visit to a business competitor, who was urged to refrain from bidding on a commercial contract.

Mendel ran into legal trouble himself while operating Prestige Valet in Aliteis absence.

In 1998, state beverage agents arrested Mendel, 38, of Odessa, after raiding a rave club he operated in Ybor City. But the charge, maintaining a building where illegal drugs were being sold, was thrown out after state prosecutors and the beverage agents missed a court deadline.

State authorities obtained an $11,650 civil judgment against Mendel in 2003 after he failed to pay regulatory penalties and costs in connection with the nightclub investigation.

By then, Mendel had filed bankruptcy. Mendel attorney Jonathan Ellis, who now works at Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLPis Tampa office, argued the debt discharge that his client obtained from U.S. Bankruptcy Court precluded Prestige Valet from pressing any claims. Through Ellis, Mendel declined comment.

Ellis says Alite knew Mendel had declared bankruptcy in 2000, before the lawsuit was filed.

To counter that claim, LaBarbera submitted a list of witnesses for a bankruptcy hearing that would be familiar to the FBI. Besides Alite and Scaglione, LaBarbera listed Pasquale J. Andriano of Woodhaven, N.Y., and Michael Malone of Floral Park, N.Y., as having information of value for the proceeding. The two men, both 28, were identified as members of Trucchiois crew in the Gambino indictment in Tampa.

Trezevant refuses to say if Malatin will be a witness at any of the upcoming trials of the Gambino defendants.

If Malatin is, however, LaBarbera interjected an ominous note for federal prosecutors into the Jan. 7 proceeding on the Prestige Valet lawsuit.

Prior to Barber taking the Hillsborough judgeship, he told LaBarbera that Malatin would have to clarify his pre-trial testimony in the lawsuit. Barber declined comment. Malatin misspoke under oath, LaBarbera says Barber told him, out of fear of Alite.

iSignificant portions of his deposition were not truthful,i LaBarbera told Judge Baumann.