Two veteran sanitation workers snared in a major auto-theft ring case are speaking out for the first time, insisting the Brooklyn DA is making them scapegoats because he’s too embarrassed to admit he has no case.
Charles Sacco and Steve Cannon, both Sanitation Department supervisors, were among 26 employees rounded up in pre-dawn raids in October 1998 and charged with helping a mob-linked company steal $1.5 million worth of cars from Brooklyn’s streets.
The supervisors were accused of tagging cars in good condition as derelict so they could be hauled off by A1A Auto Parts of Canarsie.
Under a city contract, A1A towed derelict vehicles to sell them for scrap, paying the city $168 apiece.
Authorities said city workers got kickbacks from A1A, which investigators have linked to the Genovese and Lucchese crime families.
The men who ran A1A – Anthony Serpico Sr. and John Serpico – pleaded guilty in April to attempted criminal possession of stolen property. Each was fined $5,832.
But by last November, all but two of the defendants were off the hook.
“They have to justify $4 million spent on the investigation,” Sacco said of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ office.
“How could they do that if they really believe these are mob guys?”
Both men insist they did everything by the book.
Sacco said his 66-year-old father is so ashamed he cannot walk the streets anymore.
“My children were harassed in school, they were labeled as organized-crime children. I lost my limousine company because people were afraid … my kids wonder why is daddy always upset, why is daddy always taking it out on us,” said Sacco, choking back tears.
None of the sanitation workers arrested in the highly publicized case have been brought to trial.
Four cases were dropped before they got to the grand jury.
And 20 others were dismissed by a Brooklyn judge who found discrepancies between the minutes of the grand jury proceedings and the final charges brought against the defendants.
The judge said he had a problem with numerous handwritten changes – made without a notation that the grand jury authorized those changes.
The prosecutor who presented the cases to the grand jury no longer works for Hynes. A spokesman for the DA’s office refused to say why the assistant district attorney left.
Cannon and Sacco said they had minimal involvement in transferring the cars to A1A.
Sacco said wiretaps that allegedly have him telling A1A brass that he had a good truck that they should act on quickly were taken out of context.
“Of all the vehicles they have to pick up, a truck is the least priority, so when we tell them it’s in good shape it just means they need no special equipment,” Sacco said.
Cannon said he was offered a deal to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, which he turned down.
The other accused supervisor, 27-year veteran Thomas Manzo, said the humiliation of having cops cuff and arrest him has left him scarred. The charges against Manzo were among those that were dropped.
Manzo said his arrest is ironic because he actually worked with the NYPD on several initiatives, including “Operation Intercept,” a 1993-95 program aimed at uncovering unlicensed tow operators seizing cars off city streets.
A police spokeswoman said she couldn’t confirm Manzo’s role. But Manzo showed The Post a letter of commendation from the NYPD to the Sanitation Department praising him.
“They sent me out there to get cars off the street. Some I tagged with police officers present and they turn around and arrest me for it,” Manzo said.
“We are not prosecuting anybody just to save face,” said Jay Shapiro, a Hynes deputy. “That is just not correct. Had the indictment not been saved, we would not be prosecuting them.”
The Sanitation Department and the Department of Investigation, which spearheaded the 15-month probe, both declined comment.