Lawyer: Cleared mobster may be dead

Lawrence Ricci vanished in the middle of his trial

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two executives of the International Longshoremen's Association and a reputed mobster who went missing mid-trial were acquitted Tuesday of charges that they helped the Mafia keep its grip on the New York waterfront.

Supporters gasped and burst into tears as a federal jury in Brooklyn found union officials Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey not guilty of extortion and fraud charges.

The jury also acquitted Lawrence Ricci, an alleged Genovese crime family associate who had been accused of wire and mail fraud.

But the victory may turn out to be empty for Ricci, who vanished in the middle of the trial and is suspected to have been slain by the mob.

His attorney said after the verdict that he believed Ricci had been killed, but he hoped the verdict gave his family solace.

Prosecutors had accused Ricci of working to award a lucrative union contract to a mob-tied pharmaceutical company. Daggett and Coffey were charged with conspiring with the Genovese crime family to install Daggett as the mob-controlled puppet president of the ILA.