DePalma described as an abusive, controlling father

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

DePalma described as an abusive, controlling father

Timothy O'Connor
The Journal News

NEW YORK - Growing up Gotti? Fuhgeddaboutit. Try growing up DePalma.

The son of convicted Scarsdale crime family capo Gregory DePalma says he moved to Ohio to escape the criminal reach of his Gambino father.

But it wasn't far enough.

In letters to the judge who will sentence him, Michael DePalma and his mother, Teri, rip the aging gangster for leading the son into trouble.

"Michael has a heart and soul," Teri DePalma wrote in a letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, "unlike his father who is devoid of any heart and soul."

Michael DePalma, 44, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen cars from his father and faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced next week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Gregory DePalma, 74, is serving a sentence of more than 12 years following his racketeering conviction by a jury in June. The DePalmas were among 32 reputed leaders, members and associates of the Gambino crime family charged last year in a racketeering case that centered on Gregory DePalma's Westchester-based crew.

The younger DePalma and his wife, Charlene, describe the veteran mafioso as an abusive and controlling tyrant. Their letters are contained in a package of pre-sentencing filings meant to persuade Hellerstein to impose a sentence of probation rather than prison.

Growing up in Yonkers, Michael DePalma told his friends that his dad, reputedly a made member of the Gambinos since the late 1970s, was a jeweler. He was terrified of his father, Charlene DePalma wrote. Gregory DePalma thought his son was "weak and too sensitive," she wrote. When Michael and Charlene DePalma returned home from their honeymoon in 1986, they were greeted not with hugs, but with a slap, Charlene DePalma wrote.

"I watched him hit Michael in the face as he stepped out of the car," she wrote. "Then his dad started screaming at him. Michael did not say a word."

In his own letter to the judge, Michael DePalma said he and his wife waited until his father was imprisoned in 1998 to flee to a small town in Ohio. Michael DePalma got a job for a telecommunications company and settled in to life in middle America.

"I could not have been happier," he wrote.

But he grew increasingly agitated as his father's release date approached in early 2003, his wife wrote.

His father reached out for him in 2004, offering him a 1995 BMW and 1990 Cadillac Fleetwood as gifts. Gregory DePalma told his son the cars were not stolen.

But aware of who his father is, the younger DePalma knew "in his heart" the cars had been pilfered, his lawyer, Louis Cherico wrote. Michael DePalma said he had severed all ties to his father since his arrest.

"I should have known better than to believe him and accept the vehicles," Michael DePalma wrote.

Reach Timothy O'Connor at tpoconnor@lohud.com or 914-694-3523.