[clevfan]

Police arrest brothers in suburban Philadelphia gambling ring

5/31/2006, 11:57 a.m. ET
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
The Associated Press


NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - An increase in beatings led to a gambling investigation and bookmaking charges against the son-in-law of late Philadelphia Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Joseph Vito Mastronardo Jr., who is married to Joanna Rizzo, was charged with bookmaking and conspiracy, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said. His brother John Mastronardo also was charged with similar counts, Castor said.

Castor said the brothers were expected to plead guilty, but not as part of a plea agreement. They each face a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison, he said.

Investigators stumbled into a wider gambling probe after police in Souderton said they saw an increase in beatings that they believed were connected to a gambling ring.

Investigators recently searched the Mastronardo brothers' homes and a car and came away with more than $2 million in cash, Castor said.

Joseph Mastronardo's lawyer, Dennis J. Cogan, did not immediately return a message left at his office.

Mastronardo, who was convicted in 1987 on federal gambling charges, once ran a gambling operation that grossed $50 million a year, according to a 1990 report by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.