By John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former newspaper foreman from Staten Island has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with an alleged conspiracy to obtain a union card for the son of a Colombo crime family underboss.
Rocco Miraglia, 45, of Staten Island, a former foreman at the New York Daily News and an alleged associate of the Colombo organized crime family, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday to a count of mail fraud, as part of a scheme to defraud Hudson News Distributors.
He and four others were indicted in March 2014 in the scheme, which nvolved creating a false work history for Benjamin Castellazzo Jr., then 48, son of alleged Colombo underboss Benjamin Castellazzo, and place him in a job at Hudson News between June 2009 and October 2009, prosecutors allege.
Miraglia was accused of conspiring with Anthony Turzio, then 78, a former employee of El Diario newspaper, as well as Rocco Giangregorio, then 39, and Glenn LaChance, then 50, both business agents for the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union (NMDU).
Miraglia's attorney did not return a message seeking comment. His sentencing date has not yet been set.
Also indicted was Thomas Leonessa, an NMDU member who prosecutors allege held a "no show job" for the New York Post in which he received wages and benefits without performing his required newspaper deliveries from late 2010 until September 2011.
Giangregorio – a Dumont, N.J. man with family ties to Staten Isalnd -- and Turzio have since pleaded guilty to mail fraud, and were sentenced to one and two years probation respectively.
"The judge saw fit to give him a non-jail sentence of probation," said Giangrgorio's lawyer, Joseph Benfante.
Castellazzo pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Aug. 20 and awaits sentencing.
The charges against Leonessa and LaChance are still pending.