Appellate court said original penalty was too harsh

Friday, October 17, 2003

By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Convicted Washington County District Justice Ronald Amati walked out of federal court yesterday in handcuffs and leg shackles, but he'll be a free man as of 5 p.m. today after a judge cut short his prison sentence.

"I've served 28 months in the system," a subdued Amati said in court. "I'm ready to go home."

Amati, who ran an illegal gambling operation out of a coffee shop and tipped off his cronies about impending police raids, won a new sentencing hearing last month when the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said his original 42 months was too harsh.

Senior U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond recalculated the term and came up with a maximum of 33 months.

With time off for good behavior, that meant Amati's new sentence would at most amount to another couple of weeks in federal prison in New Jersey. Instead of wasting taxpayer money in sending Amati back there, Diamond let him go effective today.

Amati is still responsible for paying a $7,500 fine and he'll be on probation for the next two years.

"I'm satisfied that the system has nothing further to gain by additionally incarcerating Mr. Amati," said Diamond, whom Amati had previously blistered for what he said was the judge's bias toward the prosecution at his trial. "I see no purpose that society would gain from an additional two weeks."

Federal marshals took Amati to the Allegheny County Jail for the night.

A self-described small-town braggart who once boasted that he controlled "90 percent of Washington County," Amati was contrite at the sentencing. In addition to playing sports and learning crafts in prison, he said he had done charitable work by helping to tutor and mentor other inmates.

"I would submit to you that he is a changed man," said his lawyer, Efrem M. Grail.

After his conviction in 2001, however, he was defiant.

"The punishment does not fit the crime," Amati said then. "This is overkill."

The appellate court agreed.

In a decision last month, the circuit judges said Diamond made a mistake by, in effect, punishing Amati twice for the same offense. Diamond had increased Amati's offense level by giving him extra points for being the leader of a conspiracy when that role was already covered by the crimes charged.

The circuit judges also said Diamond should take another look at the extra time he gave Amati for lying on the stand.

The judge conceded the first issue, but on the second he said Amati had clearly obstructed justice by committing perjury when he tried to argue that the government had entrapped him. The entrapment defense was his only hope at trial because he had incriminated himself again and again on tape recordings.

The investigation began in the fall of 1997 when informant Robert Hansen, who was working with undercover trooper Anthony Cornetta, approached Amati and asked for his help in acquiring a location for video poker machines.

Hansen had previously met Amati in 1993 and indicated that Amati had offered at that time to set him up in a video poker business.

In court, Amati said that Hansen contacted him again in March 1997 and kept calling him five times a month to get him to go in on a video poker deal.

He said Hansen tried to enlist his help in buying a coffee shop in Monongahela called "Tee Time" owned by Maggie Hill.

Amati testified that in those calls Hansen said he was negotiating with Hill to buy the shop, but that she was asking too much and Hansen wanted Amati to persuade her to reduce the price.

The government, however, said the entire scenario was a lie. In a Feb. 11, 1998, recorded conversation between Amati and Hansen in which Amati mentions Maggie Hill, it's clear that Hansen doesn't know who she is.

Diamond said that conversation "provides virtually conclusive evidence that [Amati] lied under oath when he testified repeatedly that numerous conversations between him and Hansen had occurred between March and December 1997" regarding the purchase of Tee Time.

Hansen said he contacted Amati in October 1997 and throughout early 1998 and eventually introduced Cornetta to Amati as Hansen's business partner.

Amati eventually negotiated the purchase of another coffee shop in Finleyville that had poker machines. When Hansen and Cornetta said they didn't have enough money, Amati became a partner and offered to provide a third of the purchase price.

Amati said he could protect the shop because he knew about raids, and once had the machines removed just before a raid. He also warned associates of raids after signing search warrants and even suggested to police that they investigate one of his rivals for gambling.

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