Prosecutors drop home gambling charges
DANIEL TEPFER
Article Last Updated: 07/25/2008
connpost.com
BRIDGEPORT — Charges were dropped Thursday against a Trumbull man who, with his father, had been accused of running an illegal gambling operation from their home and two gas stations.
State prosecutors nolled charges of illegal gambling and possession of gambling devices against Joseph Buzzanca Jr., 22. His father, 52-year-old Joseph Buzzanca, was granted accelerated rehabilitation on the same charges.
The two men, of Nuthatch Hill Road, are owners of the Buzz's gas stations in Bridgeport and Branford.
Under a nolle, the state can bring up the charges within 13 months or they are automatically dismissed. Under accelerated rehabilitation the defendant doesn't plead guilty to the charges, but is placed on two years probation. If he commits no other crimes during the probation the charges are dismissed.
As a condition of the nolle, the younger Buzzanca agreed to contribute $5,000 to the state victims' fund.
"Both father and son are happy with the ultimate outcome of their cases," said Frank Riccio Jr., the Buzzancas' lawyer.
Last September, a task force of local police officers and FBI agents began investigating a tip that the senior Buzzanca was running the bookmaking operation at his home and gas station, Buzz's Mobil on East Main Street, in Bridgeport. Police said the task force used a confidential informant to place several bets with Buzzanca, under surveillance, on professional football games and other sports events. The informant was instructed by Buzzanca to make and receive payments on the bets at the gas station. On Oct. 1, the task force raided both Buzzancas' home and the gas station.
Officers entering the house found the senior Buzzanca sitting on a couch in the basement, holding a cordless telephone and on his lap was a spiral notebook filled with notes about bets, police said.
Officers and agents subsequently searched the junior Buzzanca's bedroom and found gambling records, police said.
In June, John Bell, 55, of Ridge Road, Stratford, who worked for the Buzzancas at their Bridgeport gas station, was convicted by a federal jury of attempting to kill a Trumbull police officer in a shootout during the raid on the gas station last October.
Bell was shot in the right arm and left wrist after he fired at officers. He faces 20 years in prison.  |