Records Request: Anthony Casso (Kings County District Attorney's Office)

Dear “T. McElwee”

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your December 21, 2020 email, in which you seek records pursuant to New York Public Officers Law, Article 6, sections 84 et seq., the Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”). Unfortunately, your request cannot be fulfilled for two reasons. As an initial matter, your request cannot be fulfilled because, based upon the information that you provided (defendant’s name, date of birth, date of death and US Bureau of Prisoners Register Number), no records could be identified by this Office’s Case Tracking system that may be responsive to your request, and the Freedom of Information Law requires this office to provide only those records which are reasonably described, i.e., described in a manner which permits the records to be readily located by this office. See Public Officers Law § 89(3).

Second and, more importantly, it is noted that Mr. Casso was prosecuted by the Federal authorities in Brooklyn (the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York) rather than by this Office (which is charged with prosecuting crimes under State and Local Law), and the Freedom of Information Law does not require this office to obtain records elsewhere if they cannot be located within our files. See Public Officers Law § 89(3); Badalamenti v. Office of DA Nassau County, 89 A.D.3d 1019 (2d Dep’t 2011); Lewis v. Hynes, 208 A.D.2d 731 (2d Dep’t 1994). Accordingly, your request for such records should be directed to that agency or its parent, the United States Department of Justice.

You may appeal from this determination within thirty days by writing to: George B. Forbes, Esq., FOIL Appeals Officer, Kings County District Attorney’s Office, 350 Jay Street, 20th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. ADA Forbes is copied on this e-mail.

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Sincerely,

Douglas O’Connell
Paralegal Supervisor
FOIL Records Access Officer
(718) 250-4742

Kings County District Attorney's Office
FOIL Office
350 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

December 21, 2020

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

Records relating to or mentioning the organized crime figure Anthony Casso, listed with known identifiers and affiliations listed below:

Aliases: "Gaspipe" and "Gas,"
Date of birth: May 21, 1942
Date of death: December 15, 2020
First 5 digits of SSN: 057-56
US Bureau of Prisoners Register Number: 16802-050
Known affiliation: the Lucchese Family of Cosa Nostra (alternate spelling "Luchese" Family)
Reported rank: Made member; known to have served as a captain and consigliere; held final rank (before apprehension) of underboss.

Anthony Casso is noted by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons as deceased (please see attached PDF) and therefore privacy interests are diminished; as the subject is a well-known and prolific career criminal and leader of an organized crime family, the public interest in release of the records is strong.

To speak to scope of a search for records: Casso was a known target of law enforcement from the time of his becoming an "upper echelon" or "administration" of the Lucchese Family in 1986 until his apprehension in 1993; after 1993, Casso has spoken with various prosecutors at various times to speak about associates as well as homicides he committed or ordered. This request seeks all investigative records relating to or mentioning Casso, from 1986 to present, regardless of whether Casso is the target or a cooperating witness.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

T. McElwee

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