Masterminds’ Plea Deals: Justice Served?

Drug kingpin ​“White Boy Chris” is spending one-seventh the amount of time his African-American lieutenants will in federal jail.

But not because he’s white, according to Connecticut’s top federal prosecutor. Because he helped the feds make their case.

Yossi Levitin is serving a 22-month federal sentence for running a sprawling mortgage-fraud ring that preyed on poor New Haven neighborhoods — which is only a little more, and in some cases less, time than people he recruited to carry out his scheme, and who pocketed a hundred times less illicit money than he did.

That’s because he had valuable information that he shared with the government so they could put all the bad guys behind bars, according to the top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly.

The cases of ​“White Boy Chris” Morley and Levitin — one involving blue-collar crime, one white-collar crime — put on stark display a tactic that has helped the feds make some of their biggest busts in recent years. No longer are they piecing together a case from the cooperation of low-level crooks. They now go straight to the top, obtaining detailed evidence from criminal masterminds — who then receive not minor, but wholesale reductions in their jail time as a result.

That’s not ​“ideal,” Daly said in an interview on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. But in these complicated conspiracy cases, it’s sometimes the best available option.

Morley’s case was called ​“Operation Bloodline.” A former nightclub owner who grew up in Westville, he was the rare white defendant among 105 arrestees in a takedown of a violent drug-dealing gang. He pleaded guilty and cooperated with the feds, who agreed in turn to file a motion telling the judge what a great job he did cooperating. He faced 14 years in prison based on the offenses he admitted committing. The judge, inspired by the government’s account of Morley’s cooperation and supposed good character, sentenced him to two years. Meanwhile, his impoverished African-American employees, who made a fraction of his money, ended up with 12 and 14 years.

Click here, here and here to read about Morley’s role in that operation, as well as his past insurance and real-estate and bookmaking swindles.

Levitin put together a ring that cooked up fake documents to steal $7 million in mortgage money on some 40 trashed Fair Haven, Dixwell, and Newhallville properties. He pocketed a half-million dollars — and served as the feds’ star witness, giving up all the correction guards and lawyers and others he recruited and directed. The feds even let him rebuild his shady real estate business in the years he fed them information as he awaited trial. Based on the offenses he admitted committing, he faced up to more than eight years behind bars. After hearing about his good works from prosecutors, a judge sentenced Levitin to 22 months. A corrections guard lured into the scheme as a property-purchaser got 28 months; a broker who pocketed $10,000 got five years; lawyers who made as little as $5,000 total on a few closings got between 20 months and two years. Click here, here and here to read about all that.

As Connecticut’s first female U.S. attorney, Daly has overseen expanded and successful prosecution of financial fraudsters, corrupt politicians, sex offenders, and violent drug gangs. She spoke about the tricky business of cooperating with masterminds of those operations, during the interview on ​“Dateline New Haven.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Markle joined the conversation, too.The question on the table wasn’t whether the government should work with cooperating witnesses. The question was how, and at what cost. A partial transcript of the conversation follows:

Mortgage Calculations

WNHH: You get someone who knows a lot about how [a mortgage fraud] ring operates because they were running it. And that person helps you make the case. And in return that person gets a lot less time in jail. How do you decide when to do that?

Daly: Ideally, you would like to have the least culpable person come in and cooperate and give you evidence against others, and then you build the case that way. That’s ideal.

But the reality is that in some cases, particularly in complex white-collar cases, the low person on the totem poll doesn’t know [a lot]. Sometimes … you get somebody who’s more culpable but is on the outside and knows how it works and gives you all the players.

We’ve seen in some of these cases … lawyers, mortgage brokers, people who really should not be doing this, are also involved in the mix.

So law enforcement, in order to make the cases, has to sometimes rely on cooperators. And sometimes it could be someone who’s quite culpable. At the time of sentencing, they will get credit for their cooperation. But at the time of sentencing both the judge and the prosecutor really emphasize the seriousness of the offense is still important. The levels of culpability are also assessed and considered in deciding what the appropriate sentence is.

One case I followed closely involved Yossi Levitin. This was a big [mortgage fraud] ring in New Haven. It had dozens and dozens of houses. Millions of dollars of theft. And he got 22 months. He ran the whole operation. He lined up the correction guards who were buying property on the side. He lined up the lawyers who prepared fake documents.

He made a half million dollars.

There were people there who tried to cooperate with the government; they didn’t have any information to give the government. They were low down. They made $5,000. They got put away for longer [or almost as long].

So It wasn’t just that this guy got his time off. This guy got a fifth or less of the time he could have gone to jail. He started the operation. He ran the operation. He recruited people to commit crime. He made hundreds of times more money than they did. And he got less jail time because he cooperated.

To a layman that looked like such an exaggerated version of how that’s supposed to work. How do you limit that?

Daly: I’m not trying to dodge the question. But that case, our office had a conflict in that case. So I actually did not supervise [the Connecticut-based prosecutors in] that case. It was supervised out of New Jersey. So I cannot really comment on the specifics of the case.

But we work hard in our sentencing memos, in our advocacy before the judges, to make clear the level of culpability and the seriousness of the offense are important considerations for the judge to consider in deciding the appropriate sentence

But at the same time, we do not request a specific sentence …

But you usually recommend … a huge downgrade. The judges [in sentencings] I’ve gone to, including this one, the judge usually follows the prosecutors’ lead.

Daly: Usually we don’t ask for a specific sentence for cooperators. It’s not our policy.

But you agree you’re going to recommend a much lower sentence.

Daly: I don’t mean to parse words here. We don’t ask for a specific sentence. But we explain in detail the nature of the operation and the importance of cooperation in resolving this particular case …. So I understand from a layman’s perspective sometimes…

I definitely understand why you want the message to get out: ​“You’re going to serve less time if you cooperate.” I’m just wondering what happens when it comes to an extreme, when a master crook knows the rules, which this one did… They know they can make more a lot money than everybody else. Get everybody stuck for crimes. Then they can throw everybody overboard, because they’re greedy to begin with. And get dramatically less time. And walk away. It’s almost worth it.

Daly: Again, I can’t comment ion this specific case. But generally I think our experience has been judges have taken into consideration if you’re the leader, you’re the mastermind and put it together, and you give [information on] people who were below you, you’re going to get credit for that. The fact that you’re the mastermind … that’s usually something the judge is going to take them to task for.

They took them to task. They didn’t give them a lot of jail time.

Bloodline

Let me take another case you guys did. It was very successful. Operation Bloodline. There you [and New Haven police] took down the The Bloods, which was at that time considered the leading drug-dealing gang in the Dwight area. They had links to Fair Haven. A lot of people went to jail. There’s a lot of belief it had a longstanding impact on violent crime in New Haven.

There was a guy named ​“White Boy Chris.” Chris Morley. He cooperated with you. He was a mastermind. He hired a lot of underlings. They were all black. He was white. And he ended up again — he got 24 months for running ac rack den. People under him who didn’t have as much information ended up getting five years or more.

Did that feed into the critique that — even though I know it’s not the intention of the federal government — the impact, the effect of how we conduct the drug war, or how we do these negotiations for cooperation, has a racist impact? The white guy who had resources and more power and made more money knew the system better and went to jail for less half the time as the black people with fewer options who he got to sling drugs because he ratted on. How do you address that perception?

Daly:Well, I don’t think his race had anything to do with what happened in that situation…. If he had been African-American, and he been the leader of the pack, he would have gotten the same benefits. I don’t race played any role.

That’s not the way race ends up playing a role. It’s not usually a conscious thing when you guys say, ​“We’re going to help the family.” He grew up middle class. A white guy grows up with more advantages. He can work the system better. … How does a citizen step back and look at what was clearly a racial disparity in how this cameo out?

Daly: In this particular case I don’t think that the fact that Morley was white was the reason he got the benefit. The reason he got the benefit was because he was a substantial cooperator. If he had been African-American, he would have gotten the same benefits.

But he wasn’t African-American. He was the only white guy. And he happened to be the guy who had the resources to both be a better criminal and make more money — he was also involved in real estate — and in knowing how to deal better with prosecutors.

Daly: Well I think dealing with prosecutors has a lot to do with who your lawyer is. Not who the defendant is.

And who has a better chance of getting a good lawyer? The middle-class white guy who runs the operation? Or the street-level black guys he pulls in?

Daly: It’s interesting. I think there’s a lot of misimpression about that. Because I think for instance the federal defenders in New Haven are terrific lawyers. And they’re all appointed lawyers. So it’s not necessarily the case that somebody that comes up with five grand and gets retained counsel is better represented. I mean, I was a prosecutor in New York for 12 years. I had the exact same experience there. The retained lawyers are not necessarily in these narcotics cases the better lawyers. Sometimes the federal defenders … work these cases all the time and are the strongest advocates

So I don’t think money necessarily plays a role in that.

So why do you think White Boy Chris got such a good deal?

Daly: I think that generally what happens is if you cooperate substantially, you get credit. There’s no question about that. I’m just saying the fact that he was white made no difference. If he was black he would have gotten the exact same sentence.

I think in the gangs that we’ve seen, we’ve not seen repeatedly situations where we have a white defendant leading the gang and then everybody else in the gang is black. In fact we have very rarely seen that. I haven’t seen that as a pattern.

In the Levitin case, the ringleader had [defense attorney] Willie Dow. I don’t know you get any better than that. …

Markle (pictured): I don’t want to comment on attorneys. BUt I would add to what Deirdre said. I think if you look at that case, if African_Americans cooperated and gave substantial assistance, that they would have gotten a substantial reduction too. You make it sound like we cooperate with only the non-African American

My point was: You will cooperate with anybody. You will not make a racial test. But in the reality of who has opportunity in society, who is going to be more likely in that situation to give you more information and cooperate and get a good lawyer? Deirdre said they all would have gotten good lawyers. I was saying White Boy Chris had more access to capital. He was running the show. He had more knowledge of how things are run.

Markle: I think the federal public defenders are very well versed in federal court. Sometimes the best attorneys in state court are not the best attorneys in federal court … It is different.

Again, it gets me a little concerned, because I spend so much of my time and I know other assistants do who are doing the drug gang group violence, we spend so much time trying to get people to cooperate. Not only to help us. But to help themselves. You wouldn’t believe the amount of time we devote to that and work closely with defense lawyers.

I’m not questioning the motives of the U.S. Attorney. I was arguing about the way the system works. There was the case of Scott Lewis, who spent 18 years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit.. [An FBI report released in that case] broke down how this group called the ​“Rhode Island Italians,” mafia, were at that time in the early ​‘90s hiring guys in New Haven to run the drug gangs. But they were actually moving the major cocaine. And this black guy [small-time dealer] got set up for the murder [to] settle a drug debt.

So for the outside looking in — I’m sorry if it made you defensive, because it’s not an accusation about the U.S. Attorney taking a different racial approach to people you deal with. But when you look at how the system works, there is a racial disparity in who has more power and how it runs. Who has an ability to work the system. And who gets off more.

Daly: I would just say, and Peter’s been in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut longer than I have, I have not seen groups or gangs that have been run by white men and then African-American men under them.

This was a case above that: Who’s supplying the gang.

Daly: We just have not seen the situation of white defendants cooperating against lower-level African Americans. We just haven’t seen that. And if fact we’ve often seen African-Americans cooperate and get credit for cooperation.

So I don’t want there to be some impression here that only the white guy cooperates and he gets credit. That is not at all the case.

In the Morley case, his attorney was Kelly Barret, who is a federal defenders.

So he did not have a private lawyer.

Daly: Our point is she’s a good lawyer too. And she would be available to anyone.

Click on or save the above audio file to listen to the full interview with Daly and Markle, which included discussion of the U.S. Attorney’s success in cutting New Haven street violence through a program called ​“Project Longevity” as well as of task forces combatting human trafficking, government corruption and financial crime. The discussion on witness-cooperation sentences begins at 33:55.