Crime figure may get break for talking

SCRANTON - The reputed boss of a northeastern Pennsylvania crime family could get time knocked off the nine-year prison sentence he received yesterday because he is cooperating with authorities in their prosecution of a casino owner.

William D'Elia, 62, was sentenced for witness tampering and conspiracy to launder drug money. With time already served, he could be freed in seven years - or less.

Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduction in D'Elia's sentence if he continued to provide substantial assistance to the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, which has charged Mount Airy Resort Casino owner Louis DeNaples with perjury.

DeNaples allegedly lied to state gambling regulators about his friendship with D'Elia, whom authorities once called a "major player" in organized crime. DeNaples says he is innocent and accuses D'Elia of lying to authorities in a bid to shave time off his prison sentence.

In court yesterday, the silver-haired, 6-foot-3 D'Elia stood before U.S. District Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie and apologized for his crimes.

"At this time, I would like to accept responsibility for my actions and apologize to your honor," said D'Elia. "I hope that I will soon be able to resume my life with my family in a positive, honorable and productive way and care for them once more."

Though he spent more than 20 years under law enforcement surveillance, D'Elia was never charged with a crime until May 2006, when prosecutors accused him of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds through the creation of bogus companies, loans and consulting agreements.

Five months later, prosecutors charged him with trying to arrange the murder of a coconspirator, Frank Pavlico 3d, after D'Elia found out that Pavlico was cooperating with the government.

Pavlico had worn a wire and recorded conversations with D'Elia. He pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced in January to 10 months in federal prison.

D'Elia, of Hughestown in Luzerne County, was originally charged with 18 counts, including solicitation of murder. Prosecutors dropped most of the charges when he pleaded guilty last March.

D'Elia, in leg chains and a brown suit, dabbed his eyes yesterday as his wife and two daughters begged Vanaskie for leniency.

Vanaskie noted that D'Elia continued to commit crimes even after he was initially charged with money laundering. Nevertheless, the sentence was at the bottom range of guidelines that recommended a prison term of between nine years and slightly more than 11 years. Vanaskie said he weighed the seriousness of the charges against the declining health of D'Elia and his wife, and the good deeds described by family and friends.

D'Elia has assisted Dauphin County authorities in their prosecution of DeNaples and DeNaples' priest, the Rev. Joseph Sica.

DeNaples, a wealthy Scranton-area businessman, was charged in January with perjury after a grand jury said he lied to state Gaming Control Board investigators about his relationships with D'Elia, another reputed mobster, and two men connected with a political-corruption scandal in Philadelphia in order to win a slot-machine license for his Poconos resort.

Sica faces a single perjury count for allegedly lying to the grand jury about his ties to the late Russell Bufalino, an organized-crime boss who died in the 1990s. Sica, whose lawyer was in the courtroom yesterday, denies the charge.