Wrongful conviction draws lawsuit against U.S.

Exonerated in 2001
Salvati, 72, and Limone, 74, were exonerated in 2001 after the Justice Department documents were released. Greco and Tameleo died behind bars before being exonerated.

The case is being tried without a jury before U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner.

On Thursday, attorneys for the men and their families, said the problems were rooted in a 1960s FBI policy of protecting informants’ identities at all costs.

Days before Deegan was shot in the head in a Chelsea alley, FBI wiretaps caught Barboza and Vincent “Jimmy” Flemmi asking a Rhode Island mob boss for permission for the hit. Informants later told FBI agents that Barboza, Flemmi and three other men were responsible. FBI agent Paul Rico, who handled top echelon informants, listed Deegan as among seven people killed by Flemmi.

“The Deegan murder was literally surrounded by information that Jimmy Flemmi was one of the killers,” said Michael Avery, who represents Limone and Tameleo’s family.

FBI called ‘masters of this prosecution’
But the FBI had recently recruited Flemmi as an informant and believed he would provide valuable information for years, McGuigan said. And when Barboza agreed to testify, he told the FBI he would never say anything to implicate his friend Flemmi, McGuigan said.

The FBI did not share any of this evidence with the state, Avery said, making the FBI “masters of this prosecution.”

In his testimony in the Deegan case, Barboza implicated Limone, Salvati and Greco because of personal grudges, and Tameleo because an FBI agent wanted to arrest him, according to attorney Juliane Balirro, who represents Limone.

The FBI had at least 20 descriptions of the Deegan murder that conflicted with Barboza’s testimony, but did not share them with prosecutors, she said.

Barboza was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after the Deegan trial, and later moved to California as the first participant of the federal witness-protection program. He was shot to death in San Francisco in 1976.

Lipscomb, the Justice Department attorney, said Barboza was subjected to more than six days of intense cross-examination during the trial, which included questions about Flemmi’s possible involvement and accusations that he switched who was involved.

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