Merlino must return to prison for four months

Former Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino's new gig as maitre d' and host of a Boca Raton, Fla., restaurant that bears his name will have to wait four months.

That's the sentence a federal judge gave Merlino, 52, on Friday for violating terms of his supervised release on a 2001 racketeering conviction.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick ruled that Merlino violated the terms of his release in a June 18 meeting at a Boca Raton cigar bar with John Ciancaglini, his former captain in the Philadelphia Mafia, and a codefendant convicted with him in the racketeering trial.

But Surrick denied the prosecution's request for what could have been more onerous punishment: an extended period of supervised release monitored by federal probation officers.

"By now, Mr. Merlino should know what needs to be done," Surrick said. "If he's going to get back in the activities that brought him where he is, he'll again be facing justice."

Whether Merlino has turned his back on his former life in the city's Cosa Nostra crime family is an open question.

Defense attorney Edwin Jacobs insisted that Merlino has and said there was no evidence otherwise.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Troyer said Merlino remained involved even while he was serving his three years of supervised release in Florida.

One fact is certain: Organized crime investigators are still looking at Merlino.

Testifying Friday, Broward County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office Detective Richard Olson, a member of a regional FBI organized crime task force, said agents had been surveilling Merlino since at least August 2011, shortly after he was released from his 14-year prison sentence.

The judge would not permit Olson to be questioned about the subject of that investigation and Troyer said afterward that he could not comment.

Merlino apologized to Surrick for not telling his probation officer of the meeting with Ciancaglini at the newly opened Havana Nights Cigar Bar & Lounge in Boca Raton, an encounter that he termed accidental.

He said that at the time Merlino's wife, Deborah, and a daughter were planning to move to be with him in Boca Raton, but that his daughter did not want to relocate.

"I had a lot on my mind and [reporting the contact] just slipped my mind," Merlino told the judge.

Surrick gave Merlino 30 days to surrender to a federal prison to be designated.

Merlino declined to comment as he was led into the U.S. Marshals Service office to be processed.

Once released, Merlino will begin working at Merlino's, a restaurant named after him and featuring Italian recipes by his mother.

One of the eatery's prime investors, Boca Raton millionaire Stanley Stein, testified Friday that the restaurant will open Nov. 7 and that Merlino will be an employee, serving as maitre d' and host.

Stein, who said his parents were from South Philadelphia, said he did not meet Merlino until about two years ago in Florida and did not know about his past.

"He became like a son to me," Stein told Surrick.

Stein said that when he was diagnosed with cancer, Merlino paid for a priest to say Masses for his recovery.

"What I've observed here today just puzzles me," Stein said.

Questioned by Troyer, Stein acknowledged that in advance of a hearing this month and also for Friday's hearing, he flew Merlino from Florida in his private jet and put him up at the Four Seasons hotel in Center City.

Afterward, Stein declined to comment on Merlino's sentence but said it would have "no impact" on the restaurant's opening.