By Frank Donnelly | fdonnelly@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A longtime mob informant, found guilty for his role in an arson on Staten Island committed by gangsters he informed on, has had his conviction vacated, according to a published report.
A federal appeals court ruled the trial judge should have allowed into evidence a secret tape recording in which his FBI handler said Volkan (The Turk) Mergen had done nothing wrong with regard to the January 27, 2006 fire, said a report in the New York Post.
Mergen told the agent he had participated in the arson, against the FBI's instructions, because he feared for his life if he backed out, according to the report and the decision handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Mergen, a former Gambino crime family associate, had been serving 12 years in a federal prison.
Prosecutors had praised Mergen for helping take down numerous Gambino and Bonanno crime family members. Between 2001 and 2006, he made more than 275 secret recordings, court documents say.
"Mergen's service was fruitful: He sometimes submitted so many recordings to the FBI that the agency could not keep pace," said court papers.
However, the FBI broke ties with Mergen after the arson.
Mergen had told FBI agents about the plan in advance and was instructed not to involve himself, said prosecutors.
But he contended he couldn't back out without exposing himself as a snitch, said court papers.
The Fire Department extinguished the blaze and the home owner suffered a heart attack, court documents state. Those papers don't specify where on Staten Island the fire occurred.
The trial judge dismissed as hearsay a tape recording in which an FBI agent said he didn't believe Mergen had done anything wrong on the night of the arson, said the report.
The judge had erred in refusing to allow the tape into evidence, the appeals court determined.
"Prior inconsistent statements offered for impeachment, are, by definition, not hearsay," the appeals court said.
In a 2010 trial, Mergen was convicted of driving to New Jersey to get the gasoline used in the arson and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2012 on that charge and several other convictions.
The appeals court ordered that Mergen be retried on the arson-related conviction.
However, the panel dismissed other convictions for drug distribution, attempted robbery and firearm possession, offenses which had occurred years before the arson, because the statute of limitations had expired.
Before his arrest, Mergen was credited with helping to crack the 2005 murder of Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey at the old Kreischer Mansion in Charleston, said the report.
McKelvey was stabbed and drowned in a pond on the grounds before his body was chopped into pieces and discarded. Joseph Young, 29, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life on 24 racketeering counts, including the murder.