The Mob at Shea..

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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/311000p-266052c.html

 

 

Mets worker held in 360M gamble plot

 

BY SCOTT SHIFREL, ADAM RUBIN and DAVE GOLDINER

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

 

 

Dominick Valila, the head groundskeeper at Shea Stadium, was accused yesterday of helping run a Mafia gambling ring.

 

Shea it ain't so: A Mets groundskeeper allegedly helped run a $360 million Mafia gambling ring, taking bets right inside the stadium.

Head groundskeeper Dominick Valila was charged yesterday with booking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bets - including some placed by Mets clubhouse manager Nick Priore, sources said.

 

"Anybody who made bets who we could possibly identify would be a witness," said one source familiar with the case, suggesting that the bettors would not be charged.

 

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown stressed that no players or other Mets staffers have so far been identified as placing any of the 2,000 bets a day that flooded the ring, which was tied to the Bonanno crime family. "But we have a lot of records to go through," said Brown, a die-hard Mets fan.

 

Betting is banned at major league ballparks and players caught gambling would face disciplinary action. A spokesman for Major League Baseball said the commissioner's office and the Mets will launch their own probe to root out gambling at Shea. "The allegations are disturbing," said Patrick Courtney, the spokesman.

 

Valila, who allegedly used the code name Pepsi, said he had been suspended without pay by the Mets, but denied all the charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

 

"I've been around here for 20 years," said Valila, 39, of Floral Park, L.I., who counts David Cone and other Mets greats among his friends. "I've never heard of anybody taking bets. This will all be recanted."

 

Priore, who was not charged, could not be reached for comment. He worked for the Yankees for many years before moving across town to Shea.

 

Prosecutors and NYPD investigators said the ring operated two wirerooms in Queens and an Internet site in Costa Rica, handling bets on baseball, football, horse racing and other sports. Valila allegedly accepted bets on Mets games, but only on the team to win, a source said.

 

The alleged ringleader was Christopher Bruno, 34, of Bethpage, L.I., who was caught on an FBI tape bragging that he was "the Osama Bin Laden of gambling." One investigator said the ring paid a monthly "five-figure" tribute to jailed former Bonanno acting boss Anthony Urso, delivering the cash to his girlfriend's apartment.

 

When Bruno was picked up by cops, he had a 4-carat diamond ring wrapped in a one dollar bill in his pocket that he said was a present for his fiancée. She was among those arrested yesterday.

 

Other accused bookies include Bruno's brother, Thomas, 32, a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm decimated by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; Peter Neiberg, 42, owner of the Midwood Funeral Chapel; and William Hartnett, 41, owner of Tir Na Nog, a midtown restaurant.

 

The Mets issued a statement backing the probe and ordered players not to talk about it. "We were told to zip it," one Met said, before the team beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-6. "They gave us strict, strict orders," added another player.

 

Brown praised the Mets for cooperating fully with the probe, which led to charges against 36 people.

 

Fans at Shea yesterday said they were upset at the mere whiff of illegal betting at Shea.

 

"It brings down the name of the Mets and its bad for baseball," said Matt Zaroovabli, 18, of Great Neck, L.I.

 

Crystal Gilmore said the allegations were just as damaging, whether they involved a star player or just a groundskeeper. "For me, the Mets is the Mets," said Gilmore, 38, of Newark. "If you've got any part in the organization, you've got to be responsible."

 

With Kate Meyer

 

It's strike two in Amazin' shamin'

 

The mob and the Mets, together again?

 

The Mafia gambling bust is the second time in a year the Amazin's have been mentioned in the same breath as organized crime.

 

Mets reliever John Franco's name came up last year in an FBI report that claimed he palled around with several high-ranking members of the Bonanno crime family and even invited some into the Mets clubhouse before games. Franco left free tickets for games for his Bonanno buddies, according to a source familiar with the documents.

 

That mob family is the same one that has alleged ties to the gambling ring said to have operated in Shea Stadium.

 

Franco left the Mets after last season and is pitching for the Houston Astros. He could be called as a witness in the murder trial of Bonanno captain Vito Rizzuto, dubbed the "John Gotti of Montreal."

 

Franco refused to comment on the specific allegations and insisted he "has lived my life in a respectable fashion."