A Rookie Cop vs. the West Coast Mafia by Tanya Chalupa

Author:Tanya Chalupa [Chalupa, Tanya; Palmini, William G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780882824611
Publisher: New Horizon Press

CHAPTER 19

Front Row Seats

Dick Lewis flew in for the Ettleman and DeVaney preliminary hearing, arriving one day before the proceedings were to take place. He was accompanied by Frank Sexton, the prosecuting attorney on organized crime in the San Diego District Attorney’s office. Palmini met both men at the airport. He instantly liked Sexton, whom he found to be a straight shooter. Sexton had a reputation for being an honest, no-nonsense prosecutor. Palmini took both visitors out on the town in San Francisco later that evening to show them the city’s nightlife as he knew it. They hung out in North Beach, which was home to some of the oldest Italian restaurants in California, started over half a century before by Italian immigrants. Palmini had a special fondness for anything Italian, since his father’s side of the family came from Lucca, Italy. His mother’s side of the family was Italian and Swiss, with their own rich family history in California.

Palmini told the two men about Ettleman’s desire to make deals in their jurisdiction and that he was sitting on information that was useful to them. Lewis and Sexton both expressed interest and it was agreed that Palmini should be the go-between until something concrete developed for them to move on. Since Ettleman was locked down in Palmini’s jurisdiction, it was a good way to start the negotiations. But they made it clear they did not want to deal with any of Ettleman’s lawyers. Sexton, in particular, had an aversion to criminal lawyers.

Palmini was tempted to tell Lewis and Sexton about the CI&I leak, but he had nothing to go on other than Ettleman telling him there was a leak. He did not want to disclose prematurely that Ettleman was trying to make deals with him and John Verner, too. Even as a rookie, Palmini knew that timing was everything; throwing out information needlessly could have the whole thing boomerang on him.

Soon Lewis and Sexton turned to San Diego war stories. And their favorite topic was San Diego boss Frank Bompensiero.

“Do you want to know what a brutal son-of-a-bitch Bompensiero is?” Dick Lewis leaned over his whiskey at an Italian bar off San Francisco’s Broadway. “He had his two thugs bring this union organizer into the kitchen of one of his restaurants, where they pulled down the guy’s pants to his ankles and placed him over one of them steel tables,”

“Yeah, probably the same table where they chopped vegetables earlier in the day,” Sexton interrupted, grinning.

“And then,” Lewis continued without skipping a beat, “The Bomp shoved a cucumber up this guy’s ass for trying to start a union in his restaurant.”

“Ouch.” Palmini looked at Lewis and then at Sexton in disbelief.

“Yeah, he said, ‘Get your ass back to LA and don’t you take that cucumber out of your ass ‘till you get there—or else.’ And this guy was lucky he didn’t have his balls cut off right there on the spot or end up in a grave out in the desert.” Sexton chuckled, nodding his head.

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