WCNYH

CHECKER DOCK BOSS SURRENDERS REGISTRATION WITH PREJUDICE AFTER BEING CHARGED WITH ASSOCIATION WITH CONVICTED RACKETEER AND GENOVESE SOLDIER STEPHEN DEPIRO

June 01, 2018

   The Commission accepted the request of Patrick Cicalese, 67, of Roseland, New Jersey, to surrender his registration with prejudice as a Checker Dock Boss at Maher Terminal. Cicalese had been charged in a Notice of Hearing with Association with Stephen DePiro, a convicted racketeer and Genovese Soldier. Following an Administrative Law Judge’s determination that court ordered wire- tap conversations between Cicalese and DePiro as well as DePiro’s girlfriend, could be used in evidence at the hearing, Cicalese decided to surrender his registration as a checker with prejudice. The Waterfront Commission Act bars port workers from associating with members or associates of organized crime groups and convicted racketeers.

   Cicalese was first registered with the Commission as a checker in 1969. Records for 2017 show that as a Dock Boss, who received a “special package” agreement from Maher, Cicalese was paid over $487,000.

   DePiro was convicted in 2015 of Extortion Conspiracy in connection with his role in a decades-long scheme to extort Christmastime tribute payments from members of the International Longshoremen's Association on behalf of the Genovese Organized Crime Family.