United States v. Tortora

Carmen Tortora (defendant) was allegedly a member of the Mafia’s Patriarca family (the family). Tortora was federally charged with extortion, racketeering, and related crimes in furtherance of the family’s criminal enterprise. Tortora’s criminal history included several armed-robbery convictions and other violent crimes, and he repeatedly committed crimes while on parole. A federal magistrate made detailed findings that Tortora should be detained before trial based on his potential threat to the community. Tortora requested that the district court modify or revoke the magistrate’s order, and he submitted no new evidence but proposed pretrial-release conditions. The district court determined that the proposed conditions reasonably assured the community’s safety and ordered Tortora’s pretrial release. The district court made no factual findings and forwarded no reasoning supporting its conclusion. Tortora’s pretrial-release conditions required Tortora to (1) remain on full-time house arrest, except for appointments with doctors and lawyers; (2) wear an electronic bracelet; (3) communicate only with people approved by the prosecutor (plaintiff) and defense counsel; (4) maintain just one residential phone line and connect it to a pen register; and (5) post his residence as security, which Tortora’s brother owned and had agreed to post. The government appealed Tortora’s release order, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit stayed the release order and expedited the appeal.