GOING TO TRIAL CAN BE A GAMBLE

Albany -- Prosecutors show no leniency toward first-time drug offenders who
take their chances in court

Choosing to exercise his constitutional right to a trial was probably the
second-worst mistake Frank Lanni ever made. Worse was deciding to associate
with a Troy drug dealer who turned government snitch.

In 1991, under strict federal laws mandating long prison stays for even
first-time drug offenders, Lanni was sentenced to 22 years in prison after
being convicted on federal cocaine conspiracy charges.

Because Lanni and several co-defendants chose to take their chances and go
to trial rather than plead guilty and offer evidence of their and others'
culpability, prosecutors offered no leniency.

Lanni's sentence was eventually reduced by an appeals court, which ruled
that the weight of the drugs on which his sentence was based could not all
be attributed to him. He was released in 1997.

After spending almost six years in federal prison, Lanni says he'll never
deal drugs again. But he believes his sentence was extreme.

"I sold drugs and got 20 years plus. I can't buy it,'' Lanni said. "I know
people who are doing 20 to 30 years. I know drugs are bad, but 20- and
30-year sentences -- there is something wrong there.''

Lanni, who grew up in Troy's close-knit Italian community, started dealing
cocaine when he was 18, during his first semester at Hudson Valley
Community College, where he got a degree in criminal justice. He said he
never used the product he sold.

The Troy High School graduate said he started dealing drugs because men he
grew up with were involved in the illicit trade and he was tempted by the
easy money. He earned between $3,000 and $5,000 a week sitting near the top
of an elaborate, South Troy cocaine distribution ring. He was eventually
convicted of selling between 50 and 150 kilograms of cocaine.

Lanni's drug-dealing life ended the day FBI agents knocked on his door, in
November 1990. By the next fall, he had been tried, convicted and sentenced
to 262 months, or 21 years and 10 months, in prison.

Even with a reduced sentence, Lanni put in more time behind bars than many
hardened criminals -- including the man who federal prosecutors said was
the leader of the drug gang Lanni worked for, Michael Cioffi.

Because Cioffi cooperated with federal authorities, giving up names and
roles of different players in his organization, and because he testified
against his three "lieutenants'' -- one of them Lanni -- he was given a
lower sentence.

Of the eight people charged in the organization, four went to trial; each
of them got a stiffer sentence than Cioffi.

"It's like a big snowball effect,'' Lanni said. "Guys in my case started
cooperating. We go to trial, the ones that did cooperate testified against
us, other arrests were made because of their cooperation, it just doesn't
stop.''

Federal sentencing laws rest heavily on the notion of "substantial
assistance.'' Anybody who offers up information about another person who
has committed an offense gets a reduced sentence. Cioffi gave up his people
and was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months.

As to why he didn't plead guilty, Lanni said, the offer of a reduced
sentence wasn't a bargain: "I could have pled guilty . . . but it was (for
a sentence of) 10 years to life and I just couldn't see it.''

In a recent interview in his mother's Troy home, Lanni pointed to probably
the most famous case of a sentence being reduced in exchange for information.

"'Sammy the Bull' Gravano committed 19 murders. But he did less time than
me, and he made more money than me, too,'' Lanni said. "Does it make sense
to you?''