Jurors don't reach verdict after first day of deliberations in trial of former Nassau Det. Hector Rivera, who is accused of helping the Bonanno crime family
A federal jury in Brooklyn began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial former Nassau County detective who prosecutors say "sold his badge to the Bonanno [crime] family."
Hector Rosario, 51, a 15-year veteran of the police department, stands accused of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice for tipping off mobsters who were under investigation for running illegal gambling parlors on Long Island.
He was fired by the Nassau County police department in August 2022, after his charges were unsealed.
Prosecutors said that Rosario spent about a decade running interference for a Bonanno crew, orchestrating fake raids on backroom joker poker parlors in Valley Stream, Lynbrook and Merrick run by Gambino and Genovese crime families and feeding sensitive investigative information to organized crime members.
The jury on Tuesday sent two notes to the judge since beginning deliberations just before noon. They asked to listen to two recordings of Rosario during a conversation with Bonanno associate Salvatore Russo, who prosecutors say, was his entry into organized crime.
For his service, Rosario got paid sporadically — $8,000 during a spurt of activity, and $1,500 a month at other times, according to trial testimony.
"The defendant, Hector Rosario, is a corrupt cop who sold his badge to the Bonanno family," Brooklyn federal prosecutor Sean Sherman said Monday during closing arguments. "And then he lied to cover it up."
He faces five years behind bars for lying and 20 years for interfering with an FBI probe that led to the conviction of eight Bonanno crime family members, if convicted of the crimes.
Over the weeklong trial, the Brooklyn federal jury heard testimony from a Nassau County District Attorney detective, an FBI agent and several mobsters now cooperating with prosecutors.
The panel also saw a note from Russo’s auto body shop stationary with the address of a confidential informant who had been working with federal authorities. The mobster testified that it was Rosario’s handwriting.
Bonanno soldier Damiano Zummo, 51, who ran a Long Island crew testified that he approved a scheme to have the former detective burst into Sal’s Shoe Repair, a front for a Genovese gambling spot in Merrick, to intimidate them into shutting down.
"He’s a street guy," Zummo, who currently awaits sentencing for conspiracy to deal drugs, racketeering and money laundering, said on the witness stand. "He’d break the law if he had to."
Rosario’s defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that the former detective never knew that federal investigators were looking into his crime family associates and therefore was not trying to interfere with the illegal gambling investigation.
"These men have always been motivated by their own wants and needs," defense lawyer Kestine Thiele said in her closing.
Rosario’s alleged mafia job came to a halt in 2022 when FBI agents showed up at his Mineola apartment with evidence that he had been moonlighting for the mob.
Special Agent Orlando Tactuk told the jurors that Rosario denied knowing Zummo or ever having been to Sal’s Shoe Repair. Even after seeing the evidence and hearing the recording, Rosario declined to change his story.
Deliberations continue on Wednesday.
A federal jury in Brooklyn began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial former Nassau County detective who prosecutors say "sold his badge to the Bonanno [crime] family."
Hector Rosario, 51, a 15-year veteran of the police department, stands accused of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice for tipping off mobsters who were under investigation for running illegal gambling parlors on Long Island.
He was fired by the Nassau County police department in August 2022, after his charges were unsealed.
Prosecutors said that Rosario spent about a decade running interference for a Bonanno crew, orchestrating fake raids on backroom joker poker parlors in Valley Stream, Lynbrook and Merrick run by Gambino and Genovese crime families and feeding sensitive investigative information to organized crime members.
The jury on Tuesday sent two notes to the judge since beginning deliberations just before noon. They asked to listen to two recordings of Rosario during a conversation with Bonanno associate Salvatore Russo, who prosecutors say, was his entry into organized crime.
For his service, Rosario got paid sporadically — $8,000 during a spurt of activity, and $1,500 a month at other times, according to trial testimony.
"The defendant, Hector Rosario, is a corrupt cop who sold his badge to the Bonanno family," Brooklyn federal prosecutor Sean Sherman said Monday during closing arguments. "And then he lied to cover it up."
He faces five years behind bars for lying and 20 years for interfering with an FBI probe that led to the conviction of eight Bonanno crime family members, if convicted of the crimes.
Over the weeklong trial, the Brooklyn federal jury heard testimony from a Nassau County District Attorney detective, an FBI agent and several mobsters now cooperating with prosecutors.
The panel also saw a note from Russo’s auto body shop stationary with the address of a confidential informant who had been working with federal authorities. The mobster testified that it was Rosario’s handwriting.
Bonanno soldier Damiano Zummo, 51, who ran a Long Island crew testified that he approved a scheme to have the former detective burst into Sal’s Shoe Repair, a front for a Genovese gambling spot in Merrick, to intimidate them into shutting down.
"He’s a street guy," Zummo, who currently awaits sentencing for conspiracy to deal drugs, racketeering and money laundering, said on the witness stand. "He’d break the law if he had to."
Rosario’s defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that the former detective never knew that federal investigators were looking into his crime family associates and therefore was not trying to interfere with the illegal gambling investigation.
"These men have always been motivated by their own wants and needs," defense lawyer Kestine Thiele said in her closing.
Rosario’s alleged mafia job came to a halt in 2022 when FBI agents showed up at his Mineola apartment with evidence that he had been moonlighting for the mob.
Special Agent Orlando Tactuk told the jurors that Rosario denied knowing Zummo or ever having been to Sal’s Shoe Repair. Even after seeing the evidence and hearing the recording, Rosario declined to change his story.
Deliberations continue on Wednesday.
