Judge Gets Her Irish Up About Motion For New Trial By Irish-American Gangster
Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon has nothing but skepticism when it comes to longtime Gambino associate Edmund Boyle. She made no bones about it a few times in 2010. The most dramatic moment was at his sentencing for racketeering. The judge decided that even though a cab driver who just happened to witness the 1998 murder of FBI informer Frank Hydell had testified that Boyle didn't do it, and even though Boyle was acquitted of the slaying, she believed he had done it, and gave him 20 years.
In Gang Land, where this has occurred more than once, this phenomenon is known as judicial nullification, the flip side of jury nullification: A judge determines that a defendant is guilty of a murder, regardless of the jury's verdict. A heavy prison term is ordered. In McMahon's case, the sentence she imposed on Boyle was five years longer than what she gave two others who pleaded guilty to the slaying. That may seem unfair to you lay readers, but rest assured it is perfectly kosher, as far as the law is concerned. McMahon's sentencing was affirmed on appeal. Judicially speaking, it's not considered a big deal, that is, except to Boyle, who's doing the time.
But a Gang Land review found that in issuing her latest ruling in which she denied Boyle's motion for a new trial, the judge appears to have misstated several key facts about the case. And even more curiously, the Irish-American judge seems to have gotten her Irish up in dealing with this Irish-American mob associate.
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