Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press Photo Former FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio exits Brooklyn State Supreme Court with his wife Carolyn, Thursday in New York. A judge dropped murder charges against an ex-FBI agent accused of feeding confidential information to a homicidal mob informant in what was billed as one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history.

NEW YORK (AP) - Prosecutors dropped murder charges Thursday against an ex-FBI agent accused of feeding confidential information to a homicidal mob informant in what was billed as one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history.

Lindley DeVecchio, who had denied the charges for years, heard the news in a Brooklyn courtroom one day after a key government witness, mob moll Linda Schiro, had her testimony undermined by a taped interview she gave to reporters a decade ago.

As DeVecchio stood in the courthouse well after the judge granted prosecutors' request to drop the charges, there was applause - much of it from former FBI agents who worked side by side with him.

"We all knew he was innocent," said former colleague Jim Kossler. "This never should have happened. Never."

Schiro testified earlier this week that DeVecchio had fed her gangster boyfriend, Gregory Scarpa, secret FBI intelligence that was then used to kill four suspected rats or rivals in the Colombo crime family. But this week, journalist Tom Robbins revealed in the Village Voice that Shiro had provided him with a different account during a 1997 interview.

"Had we been provided these tapes much earlier in the process, I dare say we wouldn't have been here," Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione said.

It was a stunning collapse of the case against DeVecchio in the midst of his trial.

Prosecutors had claimed DeVecchio was plied with cash, jewelry and hookers by Scarpa in return for the confidential FBI intelligence that was then used in the killings during the late 1980s and early '90s.

The 1997 interview with Schiro became the focus of a legal fight Wednesday when defense attorneys announced they had subpoenaed tapes of the question-and-answer session, hoping the tapes would undermine her crucial testimony against DeVecchio.

The interviews were conducted by reporters Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci. Robbins revealed their existence in a Village Voice piece published this week.

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