Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:
:    
:  

: She stole my heart and $1.2M, says alleged mobster
: Sunday, May 15, 2005
: BY RALPH R. ORTEGA 
: Star-Ledger Staff 
: He is a mobster, according to authorities, a known associate of the Genovese crime family, recently accused of running a gambling den in Somerset County. 

: She is a successful lawyer with political ambition, a candidate for Jersey City Council, and recently the city's corporation counsel. 

: He is 59, a guy of medium heightwith a thick chest, a slight paunch, jet black hair and a New York accent as dense as the Lower East Side. He looks (and sounds) like a fleshy Harvey Keitel, out of place in his cluttered ranch on a backcountry road in Hunterdon County. 

: She is 35, as pretty as she is petite, a regular guest on Court TV. She has a husband now, a young son and is busy campaigning for a June 14 election. 

: He says, "She took everything I had. She didn't have 2 cents when I met her." 

: She says, "I am embarrassed I ever knew a person like Anthony Scaffidi." 

: This is their love story turned bad, the tale of an odd couple, now at odds -- make that war. 

: Anthony Scaffidi is suing Karen DeSoto for $1.2 million, saying she persuaded him to sign over all he had to her to avoid government forfeiture. 

: "I worked all my life. I ran my businesses, and I gave it all to her. She cleaned me out," Scaffidi said. 

: DeSoto countersued for personal injury. She wants Scaffidi's suit, which she calls the "ravings of a lunatic," thrown out. 

: "It's all fabricated, all lies to extort money out of me," DeSoto said. 

: But there is one thing they may agree on. Both of their lives changed the day 19-year-old Karen DeSoto walked into the Clinton Point Inn, where Anthony Scaffidi was a partner, looking for a summer job as a waitress. 

: 
: THE BACKGROUND 

: Scaffidi came from Manhattan, where his family ran a garbage hauling and demolition business. He took over thecompany and expanded into New Jersey, and was soon swept up in a state probe of mob control of waste management. 

: In 1983, Scaffidi had pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree charge of conspiracy. He had been an officer in the New Jersey Waste Trade Association, whose president, Carmine Franco, was an alleged soldier in the Genovese family. 

: Scaffidi and his company, Metro Disposal, were forced to pay $200,000 in fines and court fees. He did six months in jail, and was banned from working in the trash industry in New Jersey. 

: In 1997, Scaffidi pleaded guilty to a charge of contempt, when he was snared along with eight other reputed Genovese members for trying to muscle back into the trash industry. 

: Then Attorney General Peter Verniero said the trash-hauling business "was essentially rigged by members of the crime family ... who managed the industry for a fee." 

: Scaffidi said he was guilty only by association. 

: "It was an industry problem. I didn't do anything illegal," he said, denying he was involved in organized crime. "It's just the business. Anyone who's ever gone into it -- they think you're in the Mafia." 

: But earlier this year, Scaffidi was arrested again, this timefor allegedly running video poker inside the Raritan Boroughsocial club. On March 22, Scaffidi and three associates were charged with fourth-degree gambling counts. 

: Lt. Mark Doyle, who heads the State Police Intelligence Bureau, said Scaffidi was again working for the Genovese clan. 

: Scaffidi also was charged with third-degree drug possession after cops said they found cocaine in his pants. His arrest came aftera yearlong investigation that netted more than 50 people on gambling and drug charges. He was indicted by a grand jury on May 5 and faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted. 

: But Scaffidi said he is innocent, and again stressed he is not connected with organized crime. 

: "If I was so related to the Mafia, would I be broke?" he said. 

: 
: THE CLAIMS 

: Karen DeSoto was on break from Cook College at Rutgers University in 1989 and needed a job. She returned home to Hunterdon County, applied at the Clinton Point Inn, and within two months, was dating the co-owner. 

: "She's short and she's cute. She was a nice-looking girl," said Scaffidi, who was divorced when he met DeSoto. 

: But what did she see in a man twice her age? 

: According to her psychotherapist, whose opinions were part of her court papers, Scaffidi became a "father figure," to the sensitive young woman. The therapist noted DeSoto was vulnerable because she was young and had practically raised herself from the age of 16 after her parents divorced. 

: "She wrote poetry (and) he was a tough, streetwise, hard-nosed sort of guy," wrote Ann Picardo of Pottersville. 

: "I seen she had problems, and I helped her out right from the beginning, right from the get-go," Scaffidi said. 

: Scaffidi said he moved her into an apartment he had in Woodbridge, then into a Bridgewater house, supported herand put her through law school at Temple University. 

: "Whatever she needed, she had. She had everything from lynx coats to diamond rings. She had it all," Scaffidi said. "She lived like a queen." 

: Then, Scaffidi said, he even became her first client. 

: Around the time of his second plea deal in 1997, Scaffidi said he was worried the feds would begin seizing his property. He said DeSoto gave him this legal advice: "Sign everything into my name and they won't be able to touch it," Scaffidi recalled her saying. 

: In his lawsuit, Scaffidi said he took that advice because the couple were engaged. (Testifying in a deposition, DeSoto denied they were ever engaged.) 

: Scaffidi said he gave DeSoto a five-carat, $20,000 diamond engagement ring he bought in Manhattan, and she accepted it. 

: But that wasn't all. 

: Scaffidi's lawsuit claims he transferred to DeSoto, at no cost, a 25 percent stake in the former Max's Tomato Pie restaurant in Bedminster, now called Tuscany Bistro. He claims he signed over property in Tewksbury, where he said he and DeSoto had planned to build the log cabin home of their dreams, complete with deer antlers on the walls. 

: Scaffidi also said he funded the purchase of beachfront property in North Carolina bought by DeSoto to protect his assets. 

: There were other transfers, his lawsuit claims, including the titles to a Mercedes-Benz C280 and Porsche 928, valued together at $55,000, and stocks worth $125,000. He also gave her access to safe-deposit boxes at two banks. 

: Scaffidi said those boxes contained $200,000 in cash, rare U.S. and Italian coins and jewelry he had stashed away over the years, including a pendant with a diamond from a ring worn by his deceased father. 

: "These are the kinds of things she could be disbarred for," said Scaffidi's civil lawyer, Christina Thomas of Bloomfield. "This is an attorney, using her skills as an attorney, to steal from her client." 


Optional Link URL:  
Link Title:         
Optional Image URL: 

 

Hoboken Guide

Featured Link Featured Listing Advertising Program Business name, Web Site Link and a brief description or motto – runs for one month in the Page (or Pages) of your choice. Sales Associates Wanted! GET NJ seeks sales associates to market ads on a commission basis. For more information, e-mail your resume and contact information to sales@getnj.com – Be sure to mention the area of New Jersey and/or the market segment that you plan to serve. GRAVE ROBBER Jersey City Computer Repair 297 Griffith Street, Jersey City, NJ - 201-798-2292 - In the Heights just off of Kennedy Blvd. - Very close to Journal Square and Union City, just five minutes away from Hoboken, Downtown Jersey City, Newport, the Waterfront, Secaucus, North Bergen and Weehawken - Tech support for The Jersey City Mayor's Office during the administration of Bret Schundler - PC repair - Tivos, too!, upgrade, hardware install, software install, data recovery, spyware removal, virus removal, replace hard drive, replace motherboard, copy files from notebooks, backup information from dead laptops Wanted! Used Computers! Used computers bought and sold. Located in Jersey City, NJ - convenient to the Hoboken 2nd Street Light Rail stations and the Journal Square PATH subway station. E-mail graverobber@verizon.net with an itemized list (description) of what you have for sale and the price. Pickup in the New York City Metro area -- minimum 10 units. Secure, guaranteed data removal is available.

For All Sorts of Unique New York City Information, Visit GET NY!