Few crimes are more terrifying in the mind's eye than that of home invasion. Often accompanied by robbery, rape and murder, the growing number of such crimes gives lie to the idea that the home represents a safe haven, a sanctuary from the often harsh reality of the world outside.
For Colleen Palmeri, wife and mother of five, such illusions disappeared forever on a rainy night in August, 1996, when three masked men entered her St. John's Parkway home and terrorized her for nearly an hour in a botched robbery attempt that left them empty-handed.
"The biggest problem I have with that night, and maybe I lived in a fantasy world, but if you have children you believe you can protect them," she said. "Especially when they're in their own house and their own beds. And that night, these three men shoved in my face that I could not protect my children. That kills me even to this day."
Of the three suspects arrested, only one, Robert Vitagliano, faces any jail time in connection with the crime. On Sept. 12 of this year, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of conspiracy to commit robbery and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. He is expected to serve only about five years of what could have been a 25-year sentence, but has already spent more than four years in jail awaiting trial.
The other two suspects, James Ventry and Wared "Wadi" Abdellatif, were acquitted of all charges relating to the robbery on Nov. 26, although Ventry was found guilty on a charge of witness tampering connected to the case.
Palmeri remembers the incident as though it happened yesterday. Following what she describes as a "stressful" day, she put her children -- the oldest then 12 and the youngest 6 -- to bed early.
"Why they went to sleep so early I have no idea," she said.
It was a little before nine o'clock. She turned on her favorite Celine Dion tape and sat down in a rocking chair to relax.
"I was playing the music and I was rocking, you know how you're not quite sound asleep but you're asleep? Then a gloved hand went over my nose and my mouth and the gun went to my head," she said.
The intruder told her not to scream, he had a gun. Glancing backward, she saw two other men entering the home through a sliding glass door at the rear of the house. The gunman asked her who else was home.
"I told him I had five kids," she said. "I was half crying and I told him four of them were asleep in the cellar and one was sleeping upstairs. They were sleeping in the cellar because it was a muggy night and the cellar is like a big family room."
The first thing Palmeri thought was that she was going to be raped, and she tried to think how she might avoid it and still protect her children. But the intruders had another reason for entering the Palmeri home that night.
"He said, 'I know who you are and I know what you do, I know who your husband is and I know what he does. We want the money. We want big money,'" she said.
Suddenly, it all made sense. At the time, Colleen's husband, Michael Palmeri, was involved with his father, Vinnie Palmeri, in an illegal bookmaking operation for which he'd been arrested and paid a fine two years earlier.
But, unknown to the intruders, none of the money from the operation was kept at the St. John's Parkway home.
"At this point, I had one $100 bill in a jar on the kitchen counter because my sister was getting married in one week and it was for my dress," she said. "So I told him that was all the money I had. And they never took that $100."
The gunman forced her to sit on the couch. Despite the fact that all three men were wearing ski masks, he told one of his accomplices to cover her head. The other man took off his sweatshirt and draped it over her face, she said.
"It was filled with smoke smell and I couldn't breathe," Palmeri said. "I had an asthma attack. One of them offered to get my inhaler, so he went in the kitchen and looked for it. He couldn't find it and he got me a glass of water."
For the next 45 minutes, one of the men held her at gunpoint while the other two ransacked the house looking for the non-existent gambling money. She prayed her children wouldn't awaken while the men were there.
"The first half hour I was terrified and then I got angry," she said. "They threatened to kidnap one of my children if I didn't give them the money."
As her ordeal continued, Palmeri thought there was something familiar about one of the men.
"I knew his name was Bobby, I didn't know his last name," she said. "He had been to the house three or four times to see Mike, and he lives on the same street as my girlfriend," she said. "So I knew who he was, his mannerisms. He said during the trial he thought I recognized him."
Frustrated, the would-be bandits finally gave up and fled. Palmeri called the Niagara Falls Police Department and then her husband. Police threw up a dragnet in the area hoping to catch the suspects and, at around 9:30 p.m., briefly spoke with Robert Vitagliano and James Ventry, who were sitting in a car at a gas station at the end of St. John's Parkway.
But the police were far more interested in another set of suspects, Palmeri said.
"They picked up four black gentlemen with a gun on Niagara Falls Boulevard and called and asked whether the ones at my house could have been black. I said no but they kept asking," she said. "Finally I said, listen, they were three cocky Italians. I told them the guys at my house could have just walked off the set of 'The Godfather.'"
Vitagliano was eventually picked up, but sat in jail for two years steadfastly refusing to name his accomplices before breaking down. Federal prosecutors became interested in the case after a bomb, which they believed was linked to Niagara Falls gambling kingpin Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti, exploded in the driveway of Vinnie Palmeri's home, damaging his vehicle.
When investigators ran a routine check of the vehicle's registration, they found it was in Michael Palmeri's name.
"Mike was partners in bookmaking with his father, but Vinnie, on his own, had a card game," Colleen Palmeri said. "That's the reason (Assistant U.S. Attorney) Tony Bruce thought Sonny was behind what happened at my house. Because exactly one week after it happened, Vinnie's Jeep was bombed. So they thought the bombing and the incident at my house were connected."
Though federal prosecutors theorize the bombing was related to Vinnie Palmeri's refusal to pay Nicoletti "tribute" from the card game, Colleen Palmeri said she never believed Nicoletti was behind the home invasion.
"Bobby's lawyer was trying to say this was Sonny Nicoletti, and Tony Bruce called me a week before his plea deal if I would consent to the plea. I said yes," she said. "But there is no way in this world that Sonny Nicoletti would align himself with someone like Bobby Vitagliano, I don't care what he says."
On Sept. 12, the day Vitagliano pleaded guilty to the reduced charges, Nicoletti was arrested by federal authorities on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and extortion. The U.S. Attorney's office and Vitagliano's attorney, Herbert Greenberg, have strongly denied any relationship between the two cases, but the testimony in both trials connected to the home invasion cast doubt on those denials.
Attorney Anthony Lana, who represented James Ventry in his trial, said the government's attempts to pin Colleen Palmeri's night of terror on Nicoletti were plain for all to see. "It came up a lot, in various aspects," he told the Reporter. "The government's investigation started out with a theory that Nicoletti was responsible for the home invasion and the bombing of the bookie's car six days later."
If the feds are hoping to base much of their case against Nicoletti on Vitagliano's testimony, the man some call "the real Teflon Don" may again go free. Clearly, in the trial of alleged accomplices James Ventry and "Wadi" Abdellatif, the jury didn't believe a word Vitagliano had to say.
Following his acquittal on the robbery charges, Ventry -- who holds a master's degree from Niagara University and recently won his first professional fight -- told the Reporter he would appeal his witness tampering conviction and try to get on with his life.
Ventry has always maintained his innocence, and said he and Abdellatif were fingered by Vitagliano to protect his real accomplices.
"Vitagliano was involved in some sort of organized crime," he said. "The two guys he did it with were pretty heavy guys, where if he gave their names he'd end up six feet under. So he named me and another friend instead."
For Palmeri, the plea bargain and acquittals offer little closure. She believes, as does the U.S. Attorney's office, that the right men were charged with the crime.
"As sure as I know the sun is going to rise tomorrow, I know who was in my house," she said. "O.J. Simpson was found not guilty too."
Her husband, Michael, gave up his bookmaking activities shortly after the incidents, she said, and has gone on to become a successful restaurateur.
Today, Colleen Palmeri maintains a strict workout regimen, lifting weights and studying martial arts.
"This isn't going to happen to me again," she said.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 10 2002 |