Judge orders "Mafia cops" freed on bail, says case is weak

Two former police detectives accused of leading double lives as Mafia hitmen were ordered freed on bail Thursday after a federal judge said the government's case against them was weak.

U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein said the statute of limitations may have run out years ago on nearly all the charges against Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. Both are accused of participating in eight murders on behalf of organized crime in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors charged the former detectives with engaging in the killings as part of a racketeering conspiracy, which has a five-year statute of limitations. The last killing occurred in 1991.

The judge said the charges seem to me to be relatively stale