Alleged mobster 'Cheese Man' is released on bail
(George Rizer/Globe Staff)
DiNunzio's North End cheese shop. He will not be allowed to work there while his case is pending.
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff
A federal magistrate freed reputed New England Mafia underboss Carmen "The Cheese Man" DiNunzio on $20,000 cash bail this afternoon but warned him not to violate the strict conditions of his release.
"If you violate ... the remedy can be not only forfeiture of the bond but incarceration," US Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein said during a 15-minute hearing at US District Court in Boston.
DiNunzio, 50, who has been jailed since his May 2 arrest on a one-count federal indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bribery, nodded several times as the magistrate described a litany of restrictions. A massive man who weighs more than 400 pounds and has bags under his eyes, DiNunzio said nothing.
DiNunzio must continue to live in the East Boston house he shares with his mother and sister; wear an electronic tracking bracelet; leave home only for court or visits to his lawyer or doctor; submit to random searches of his home by the FBI; and avoid contact with any potential witnesses or codefendants in his case. He will not be allowed to work at his Endicott Street cheese shop in Boston's North End while on bail.
He is expected to return to his home later this afternoon after posting bail.
He and two associates are accused of paying a $10,000 bribe in September 2006 to an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt Massachusetts highway inspector in a bid to secure a $6 million contract to provide 300,000 cubic yards of loam, a soil mix, to the Big Dig. Prosecutors have played tapes at a court hearing of some of DiNunzio's meetings with the agent and a cooperating witness.
Dein also ordered the release today of DiNunzio's codefendant, Anthony D'Amore, 55, of Revere, on $20,000 cash bail and set similar restrictions. The third man charged in the case, trucking company owner Andrew Marino, 42, of Chelmsford, was released on his own recognizance the day of his arrest.
