Frank Calabrese Sr.
Defense attorneys in the Family Secrets case would like a hearing on the alleged threat that mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr. made to a federal prosecutor during his closing arguments.
Calabrese Sr. allegedly said the prosecutor, Markus Funk, was a "f------ dead man," but apparently only the jurors noticed. Weeks after the the jury reached its verdict in the case, one juror came forward to prosecutors to inform them what the juror saw.
Defense attorneys would like a new trial off the threat, arguing it biased the jurors.
But the judge indicated he needed to be convinced that it actually mattered.
After all, Calabrese Sr. did a number of bizarre things during the trial.
There was the time, the judge noted, when Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nicholas, was testifying against him.
Nicholas Calabrese was a mob killer like his brother but decided to flip and work with the feds.
During one portion of Nicholas Calabrese's testimony, he described how he accidentally shot himself in the arm as he tried to kill a man sitting next to him in a car.
Frank Calabrese Sr. openly chuckled at this testimony, the judge noted.
Later, Frank Calabrese Sr., during his testimony from the stand, also called out one of his son's who was sitting in the courtroom gallery but had nothing to do with the case. The son, Kurt Calabrese, quickly left the courtroom.
And during another portion of closing arguments, Calabrese Sr. appeared to rise in his chair and belted out: "Dem are lies!"
So the judge questioned how one more action by Calabrese Sr. would bias the jury.
Did Frank Calabrese Sr. ever use the codename DOUCHE BAG when refering to himself during taped conversations with his half-retarded son Frank Jr.?