BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
He’s a real a pee brain.
An ailing Bonanno capo was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison for violating his supervised release by meeting with fellow gangsters after he underwent surgery to repair his plumbing.
John Palazzolo, 77, was being treated for a condition that rendered him unable to stop urinating, sources said, but that didn’t keep him from gallivanting with fellow Bonannos.
“It’s rather astonishing that a person in your medical condition would be engaging in meetings with persons who may be involved in organized crime activities,” Judge Nicholas Garaufis lectured in Brooklyn Federal Court.
“I’m astonished that you would put those interests ahead of your health,” Garaufis added.
Palazzolo walked gingerly in the courtroom and requested a private conference at sidebar with the judge to explain his medical condition. At one point he gestured like he wanted to show the judge something, and Garaufis appeared to tell him that was not necessary.
“I have absolutely no comment on his medical condition,” defense lawyer Flora Edwards told the Daily News later.
Palazzolo was arrested last March for violating the condition of his supervised release, which prohibits him from associating with any members of the Mafia.
He was hobbling down the home stretch of his three-year term of supervision after serving nearly a decade behind bars for participating in the 1991 rubout of Bonanno mobster Russell Mauro. Palazzolo lured the victim to a social club, cleaned up the gore from the crime scene and got rid of the corpse.
“It’s rather astonishing that a person in your medical condition would be engaging in meetings with persons who may be involved in organized crime activities,” Judge Nicholas Garaufis lectured in Brooklyn Federal Court.
With only a few months left of supervision, Palazzolo apparently threw caution to the wind last spring when he was allegedly promoted to street boss of the crime family, according to court papers.
A confidential source leaked information that Palazzolo was meeting with former consigliere Anthony Rabito at the Nevada Diner in Elmhurst, and a bunch of Bonannos at the Trattoria 35 in Bayside, court papers stated.
U.S. Probation Officer Lawrence Goldman told the judge that he had repeatedly counseled the geezer gangster to stay straight.
“I tried numerous times to beat it into his head, no pun intended, to stay away from organized crime figures,” Goldman said in court.
“Had he only heeded my instructions and the directions of the court, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
Palazzolo, who looked pale and drained, declined to make a statement in open court.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez said the sentence was adequate given the mobster’s serious medical issues.
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