$2,000 payoffs alleged in tapes
Ex-Sheriff called 'cheap'
Post-Tribune (IN)
August 2, 1991
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The crime syndicate was paying $2,000 a month in protection money to former Lake County Sheriff Rudy Bartolomei, according to tape recordings obtained by the FBI during an eight-year investigation of gambling in Northwest Indiana.
More than 40 of the tapes obtained at the Taste of Italy restaurant in Calumet City, Ill., were played in U.S. District Court here Thursday.
There also are allegations on the tapes that several members of the Lake County Police Department, including the sheriff, continued to receive money after Bartolomei pleaded guilty to extortion and left office.
Although Bartolomei is mentioned by name, the later comments about payoffs don't specify which sheriff's department or which individuals. The inference, however, is that it is the Lake County sheriff's department.
There was a similar allegation in a pretrial document that the sheriff was receiving kickbacks from the crime syndicate in 1987.
Lake County Sheriff Stephen R. Stiglich, who replaced Bartolomei, said three weeks ago that he wouldn't "dignify" the allegation with a response.
On trial are Dominick "Tootsie" Palermo, 73, of Orland Park, Ill.; Nicholas "Jumbo" Guzzino, 49, of Chicago Heights, Ill.; Bernard "Snooky" Morgano, 54, of Valparaiso; Sam Nuzzo Jr., 45, of Merrillville; Sam "Frog" Glorioso, 48, of Gary; and Peter "Cadillac Pete" Petros, 56, formerly of LaPorte, now of Cicero, Ill.
Morgano, who reports to Guzzino, is the alleged street boss for gambling in Northwest Indiana. Guzzino reports to Palermo, the alleged head of gambling operations in Northwest Indiana and Chicago's south suburbs.
Morgano, on an April 15, 1986, tape, said, "OK, he's givin' me a thousand and I take a thousand a week to the sheriff. No more do I give him two, see 'cause before I used to have to give 'em two. Now he gives me one and I take one off the top. That's where the two thousand comes from.
"I gave, uh, seven hundred to them two coppers," Morgano said, of paying off a "black copper" and a "county copper on the vice squad."
Morgano, referring to Bartolomei, said, "How cheap this guy was. And you know what, he did it all. I'm surprised he didn't steal stationery and sell it ... "
The tapes indicate that Guzzino and Palermo met almost daily at the Taste of Italy restaurant, which is owned by Guzzino's brother, Dominick. Morgano frequently attended the noon meetings. The restaurant is open to the public only in the evenings.
The references to money and collecting money are numerous.
On two tapes recorded April 15, 1986, Guzzino, Palermo and Morgano are talking about Steve Sfouris, to whom they refer as the "Greek."
Sfouris, who also was indicted, fled to his native Greece. He headed up the barbotte operations in Lake County and operated the former Duchess Lounge, a strip joint at Cline Avenue and Interstate 94. Barbotte, a Greek dice game, was the most lucrative gambling venture.
Morgano said, "So he (Sfouris) had a good, uh, he said he had a good week. He said he got two hundred thousand.
"Eleven thousand six hundred dollars from the Greek. He is always behind. This is what I picked up from him."
Chicago attorney Ronald Menaker, representing Guzzino, objected to use of transcripts Thursday morning. Because there were two microphones in the Taste of Italy, different FBI agents monitored each. In one instance they assigned different names to the same voice. In another case they had two interpretations of what one person had said.
Tapes of telephone taps on Morgano's and Anthony Leone's telephones will be played today. Leone, too, was indicted, but has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government.
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