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FBI agent tips off bookmaker
Ex-FBI worker tipped off mob
Christa Lee Rock, Register Staff January 18, 2002
BRIDGEPORT — A former FBI employee pleaded guilty Thursday to charges she tipped off a West Haven mobster, temporarily "frustrating" a joint state and federal investigation into illegal gambling.
Federal prosecutors say Dawn Mascari, 26, was a dispatcher with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's digital voice privacy radio system, checking license plates as agents called them in and providing general staff support at the bureau's New Haven office.
But when an agent asked her to run a check on Albert xxxxx, an accused West Haven bookmaker, during a 1998 investigation, Mascari did more that identify the plate, prosecutors said. The Hamden woman researched the case, accessed computer files on the ongoing investigation and warned a friend — xxxxx's son — of the federal probe.
"He better be careful or watch out," Mascari told the friend, who played amateur baseball with her husband.
FBI and state police investigators had been watching xxxxx and at least seven other alleged mobsters, prosecutors said. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Jongbloed, the two agencies had spent at least eight months investigating the group's alleged bookmaking operations in New London and West Haven.
Those agents overheard one bookmaker warning others to "quiet down" the West Haven gambling operation, telling his friends that "he got it straight from the horse's mouth, he got it straight from the FBI," Jongbloed said.
"It frustrated the investigation," Jongbloed told U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons before Mascari waived indictment and pleaded guilty.
But Mascari's attorney, William F. Dow III of New Haven, said the tip was an error of impulse the woman made over beers after a baseball game.
"This is the result of being young and inexperienced and not understanding the consequences of her actions," he said. "… After she did it, she went home and realized what she had done."
A 1996 criminal justice graduate of Albertus Magnus College, Mascari had worked at the FBI for less than a year when she provided the tip that ended her career. She gave the tip on May 9, 1998, Jongbloed said, and was fired shortly after the offense.
FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull would not discuss the details of Mascari's dismissal but said investigators with her agency and the Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force acted quickly to root her out.
"When we learn of incidents like this we promptly take the appropriate steps," she said. "In this case, the allegations were aggressively pursued with the goal of bringing the appropriate people to justice." Mascari pleaded guilty at U.S. District Court to one count of aiding and abetting an illegal gambling operation and faces up to six months' imprisonment under her plea agreement.
Jongbloed said several of the accused bookmakers had been prosecuted by State's Attorney Kevin Kane in New London, but the disposition of those cases was unclear Thursday.
Christa Lee Rock, Register Staff January 18, 2002
BRIDGEPORT — A former FBI employee pleaded guilty Thursday to charges she tipped off a West Haven mobster, temporarily "frustrating" a joint state and federal investigation into illegal gambling.
Federal prosecutors say Dawn Mascari, 26, was a dispatcher with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's digital voice privacy radio system, checking license plates as agents called them in and providing general staff support at the bureau's New Haven office.
But when an agent asked her to run a check on Albert xxxxx, an accused West Haven bookmaker, during a 1998 investigation, Mascari did more that identify the plate, prosecutors said. The Hamden woman researched the case, accessed computer files on the ongoing investigation and warned a friend — xxxxx's son — of the federal probe.
"He better be careful or watch out," Mascari told the friend, who played amateur baseball with her husband.
FBI and state police investigators had been watching xxxxx and at least seven other alleged mobsters, prosecutors said. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter S. Jongbloed, the two agencies had spent at least eight months investigating the group's alleged bookmaking operations in New London and West Haven.
Those agents overheard one bookmaker warning others to "quiet down" the West Haven gambling operation, telling his friends that "he got it straight from the horse's mouth, he got it straight from the FBI," Jongbloed said.
"It frustrated the investigation," Jongbloed told U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons before Mascari waived indictment and pleaded guilty.
But Mascari's attorney, William F. Dow III of New Haven, said the tip was an error of impulse the woman made over beers after a baseball game.
"This is the result of being young and inexperienced and not understanding the consequences of her actions," he said. "… After she did it, she went home and realized what she had done."
A 1996 criminal justice graduate of Albertus Magnus College, Mascari had worked at the FBI for less than a year when she provided the tip that ended her career. She gave the tip on May 9, 1998, Jongbloed said, and was fired shortly after the offense.
FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull would not discuss the details of Mascari's dismissal but said investigators with her agency and the Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force acted quickly to root her out.
"When we learn of incidents like this we promptly take the appropriate steps," she said. "In this case, the allegations were aggressively pursued with the goal of bringing the appropriate people to justice." Mascari pleaded guilty at U.S. District Court to one count of aiding and abetting an illegal gambling operation and faces up to six months' imprisonment under her plea agreement.
Jongbloed said several of the accused bookmakers had been prosecuted by State's Attorney Kevin Kane in New London, but the disposition of those cases was unclear Thursday.
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