Guilty pleas from ex-con who pledged crime-tips rewards

A tough-talking Philadelphia businessman who made a name for himself by promising hefty rewards to tipsters in high-profile crime cases calmly pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to a weapons charge.

Joe Mammana, 47, of Yardley, Bucks County, was arrested and charged in December with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Federal agents found a loaded handgun in a nightstand by his bed while searching his home for business and tax records.

Mammana's criminal history includes felony convictions for larceny, drugs and aggravated assault, which made it illegal for him to possess guns.

U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond set sentencing for June 11.

Mammana could face seven to nine years in prison.

Mammana also agreed yesterday to cop a plea to a forthcoming information charging him with tax evasion.

The feds said he failed to file tax returns and pay taxes on more than $4.4 million of income between 2000 and 2005.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bresnick said Mammana will probably owe Uncle Sam about $1 million in back taxes.

After the plea hearing, Mammana, wearing a green prison jumpsuit and white sneakers, was handcuffed by U.S. marshals and taken out of the courtroom. He has been in federal custody since last December.

An interested spectator in the courtroom yesterday was Kevin Miles, president of a Columbus, Ohio, crime-stoppers group that sued Mammana last year.

The group claims Mammana had inked a contract with them to pay $50,000 to tipsters who helped solve the murder case of an Ohio State coed and then failed to pay on the pledge.

Miles was later assaulted by a bat-wielding attacker who, he suspects, was connected to Mammama. Mammana has denied any involvement in the attack.

Miles said he had come to Mammana's plea hearing to let Mammana know he wasn't going to be intimidated.

But Miles said there is a larger issue when crime-fighters fail to make good on reward pledges: Crimes might not be solved.

"We had tipsters in Columbus who said, 'Where's the money?' " Miles said. "Nobody's going to believe anybody that ever puts up reward money again," and, consequently, tipsters may be unwilling to share information.

Mammana's reward money did help Philadelphia cops crack two high-profile murder cases in 2005.

Meanwhile, Mammana's egg-processing business in North Philadelphia has been shuttered and 70 workers are without jobs, said Martin L. Trichon, one of Mammana's lawyers.

Asked to explain Mammana's fall from grace, Trichon said: "We're not going to comment now. We'll have more to say at sentencing." *