1 Guilt for the Guiltless: The Story of Steven Crea, the Murder of Michael Meldish and Other Tales by Lisa Babick – aka “MS” “….the other thing we’ve learned…is just how large the uni- verse of other people who wanted the guy dead is.” Judge Cathy Siebel on Michael Meldish during a bail hearing for Steven D. Crea on August 3, 2018 2 On November 15, 2013, on a quiet street in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx, 62-year-old Michael Meldish was found dead in his car with a single, fatal gunshot wound to the right side of his head. Police were more than giddy about the murder, immediately telling news outlets they believed it was a “gangland-style” execution. Meldish was one of the reputed leaders of the Purple Gang – a criminal group that controlled the drug trade in the Bronx and Harlem in the 70s and 80s. They were said to have killed and dismembered over 100 rivals, with Meldish having committed at least half of those murders himself. Police described him as a “stone-cold killer.” Law enforcement pursued Meldish for more than 30 years but was wildly unsuccessful in bringing any charges against him even though he had been arrested 18 times since the early 70s. Joseph Coey, former head of the NYPD Organized Crime Homicide Task Force, blamed it on witnesses who wouldn’t come forward. “They had the people so terrified they just wouldn’t cooperate,” he said. He then added that Meldish’s murder “should have happened a long time ago. I call it vermin killing vermin – poetic justice.” Despite spending what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time trying to “pin murders” on Meldish to no avail, law enforcement had no such problems when it came time to find the killers of this particular “vermin.” Reportedly, authorities identified the suspects “within days.” Yet, it took nearly a year before any arrests were made. Eventually, four defendants were brought to trial for the events of that chilly November night in 2013 – Steven L. Crea, Matthew Madonna, Christopher Londonio, and Terrence Caldwell. The murder and the trial that followed made headlines around the world and while the juiciest details made the pages of various media outlets, the complete story of what happened never did. 3 What follows is an in-depth look into the case of Steven L. Crea and how the government wrongly won a conviction against an innocent man for a murder he didn’t commit, participate in, or have any knowledge about. Truths and Lies Before we delve into the details of this sordid tale, there are some basic facts that need to be clarified. First, there is no such thing as Crea Sr and Crea Jr – only Steven L (the elder) and Steven D (his son.) While our main focus is on the elder Crea, his son plays a major role in the story we’re about to tell. We’ll be referring to the elder Crea as Steven L or Crea and the younger Crea as Steven D. But what’s important is that this common Crea misnomer is a fact that was clarified by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Kelly at the July 21, 2017 bail hearing for Steven L when she told the Court: …Stevie Crea, Jr – he’s not actually a junior; they have dierent middle names.” Next, like most of us, Crea has probably been called a lot of things in his lifetime, but he has never been called “Stevie Wonder,” “Wonder Boy,” or “Herbie” – by people who know him personally and people who don’t. Sure, you see those nicknames floating around the web, in news reports, and on government indictments, but those nicknames don’t exist in the real world. Even law enforcement knows Crea’s nicknames aren’t real. Plus, Crea’s middle name is not Lorenzo. We’re not going to tell you what his real middle name is because, quite frankly, it’s none of your business, but Lorenzo isn’t it. The point of bringing up these issues is to show how the government likes to pick and choose when it wants to tell the truth and when it wants to fib in order to further their case – even when it comes to the smallest of details. But Crea’s bogus nicknames aren’t small details as they become a very sig- nificant part of the case against him. 4 In addition, based on our review of all the public documents available in this case, it should be immediately noted just how low the feds will go when they have a target or targets in their crosshairs. They’ll pay criminals or use lying and desperate “witnesses” to assist with their dirty deeds. They’ll outright lie and manipulate the facts to reach their goals, even throwing temper tantrums in the middle of a trial to get their way. They’ll leak misinformation to the press complete with Hollywood-style storylines and use the media in the cruelest of ways to keep their narrative front and center without even thinking of how it might aect the families of those they’ve accused or even the accused themselves. Because, after all, the feds are doing it in the name of “justice.” But their brand of justice doesn’t follow the “playbook” when it comes to organized crime. Instead, they pull out their secret down and dirty one that follows no rules. 5 Sitting Ducks Although back in November 2013 law enforcement claimed it had identified “the suspects” in the Meldish murder, it wasn’t until the following year that the murder case started to pick up steam. The first to be arrested was Christopher Londonio on November 8, 2014, on unrelated state gun charges. Londonio was an alleged “soldier” in the Lucchese Family and also a friend of Meldish. He was released on November 14 after posting bail. Six months later, on May 5, 2015, Terrence Caldwell was picked up in Harlem and questioned by the NYPD about the murder. Caldwell was a friend of both Londonio and Meldish and was also an alleged “associate” of the Lucchese Family, though that’s debatable. He was held without bail on suspicion of murder. On May 11, only a few days later, Londonio was hit with federal gun charges brought in a complaint by FBI agent Theodore Otto. SDNY Special Agent John Carillo was also involved in the investigation. Londonio was once again arrested, but this time there was no bail. He stayed behind bars. Newspapers erroneously reported that Londonio and Caldwell had been charged with Meldish’s murder. In addition, “sources” leaked to Gang Land News that Londonio was the “definite new suspect” in the murder. The sources claimed there was “evidence” linking both Londonio and Caldwell to the crime, but no murder charges had yet been brought against either of them from the state or the federal government. Gang Land later reported this happened so that “state probers” could gather and present “evidence” to the grand jury.” And federal “probers” would continue to try and gather “evidence” throughout the entirety of the case, even after they brought indictments against all the players allegedly involved. But, at this time, Londonio was only a small fish in a big pond and the feds wanted to use their little fish to catch bigger and better ones. 6 One of the ways they did this was by tickling the wires – a method that has always been a favorite of theirs. And in this particular world, they always seem to turn to their favorite source to do it – Gang Land News. Gang Land News is a subscription-based online publication that touts itself as “the nation’s foremost expert on the American mafia.” It’s published by Jerry Capeci, who covered the organized crime beat for the NY Post (and who still occasionally contributes to its pages.) Gang Land is also reportedly read by alleged mafia members and federal ocials alike, so it was the perfect vehicle for a fishing expedition by the feds. But there was a problem. The “exclusive” information being leaked and published was speculation, and it was painting two men guilty in the eyes of the public and the potential jury pool before anyone was even ocially charged with murder. In essence, Gang Land News had become the unocial spin machine for the prosecution as they desperately tried to put their ultimate fantasy case together. And it makes no dierence if many times throughout this sordid tale it seemed that Gang Land was making fun of their informational benefactor. The fact is the majority of what was being published, especially in the early stages, was one-sided “evidence” that was put into the public arena without any thought as to how this gossip, speculation, and misinformation might aect the potential defendants, if and when they went to trial – something that a renowned journalist like Capeci should have learned in Ethics 101 . What’s worse, the feds didn’t even know how to write this particular script. The only thing they knew for certain was that they wanted their big fish – aka Crea – and Londonio was the key to getting their man. 7 Going Fishing On June 4, 2015, both Londonio and Caldwell were ocially indicted by a Bronx grand jury and charged for their alleged participation in Meldish’s murder. Caldwell was accused of being the “trigger man” while Londonio was accused of being the “getaway driver.” But the accusation was a state charge, not a federal one, and it would remain that way for nearly another year.