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Mob lawyer seeks to regain license after prison term |
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Saturday, 13 January 2007 |
A notorious mob lawyer who represented crime boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and went to prison for racketeering should regain his law license, a court disciplinary panel recommended.
Robert F. "Bobby" Simone, 73, must still have the hearing committee's recommendation approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court before he could practice in state court.
Simone served a total of three years of imprisonment and home confinement after being convicted of racketeering, several extortion counts and income tax evasion. He was disbarred in 1994.
"Mr. Simone's conduct, while serious, was not so deplorable that he can never be restated," the three-member hearing committee of the Supreme Court's Disciplinary Board wrote in its 16-page report last month.
Simone won several acquittals for Scarfo before the mob leader was finally convicted by a federal grand jury.
Simone was later charged with helping the mob and former Philadelphia City Councilman Leland Beloff in a failed attempt to extort $1 million from Penn's Landing developer Willard Rouse. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion after losing his appeal of the racketeering conviction.
He has worked as a paralegal for several Philadelphia lawyers since his release from prison and in 2001 won reinstatement to practice law in federal court.
"His goal is ... (to) practice law in the state courts," said lawyer James J. Binns, who represents him in the petition.
During his time in prison, Simone wrote a memoir called "The Last Mouthpiece."
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