Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former organizer with the Laborers' International Union of North America to two years' probation for his role in a kickback scheme.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith also banned Harold L. Tillinghast Jr. from seeking or holding any positions in labor organizations or affiliated groups. Tillinghast, 45, must pay $4,500 in fines, equal to the amount he admitted taking from an undercover federal agent, and to perform 200 hours of community service for each year of probation.

Before Tillinghast's sentencing in U.S. District Court, his lawyer Olin W. Thompson asked leniency, saying his client had already suffered tremendous damage to his reputation.
That was particulalry important because Tillinghast had spent his "entire life trying to escape the shadow" of his father and uncle.

Tillinghast, of Cranston, is the son of the late Harold L. Tillinghast Sr., and the nephew of Gerald M. "Gerry" Tillinghast, two mobsters who were convicted of killing loan shark George Basmajian in the 1970s.

Thompson said Tillinghast now lives with his mother and works as a waiter. He also saw a relationship unravel due to the travel constraints of probation conditions that had already been in place for the past year.

In November 2008, Tillinghast was indicted with Nicholas Manocchio, 55, of Cranston, and Gerald Diodati, a contractor from Seekonk, on charges that they participated in a kickback scheme involving a development at Rising Sun Mills, a redevelopment project on Valley Street in Olneyville. Tillinghast pleaded guilty in May and agreed to assist the government.

Smith sentenced Manocchio to three years' probation earlier Thursday. Diodati is due to be sentenced Thursday afternoon.

 Tags  court Cranston Harold L. Tillinghast Laborers' International Union of North America

Comments

Must Be More To Come said:

If none of these guys went to jail you can be sure more arrests are to come.

Link | November 12, 2009 7:49 PM
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