Three men locked up for refusing to rat out others in gambling probe

The FBI searched the Northland homes of people who “have been investigated in the past for organized crime in Kansas City,” The Kansas City Star reported in early April. This was part of a federal gambling probe, the Star said.

Now, Tom Cascone, the owner of Cascone’s Italian Restaurant, and two other men are in jail for contempt of court after refusing to testify before a grand jury about local Internet gambling operations. (Cascone’s home wasn’t one of the ones searched.)

KMBC Channel 9’s Micheal Mahoney talked to Cascone’s uncle, Jimmy Cascone, who’s not too happy about his nephew being locked up.

“We’re talking about ordering these people before a grand jury to talk about people they know,” Cascone told Mahoney. “And if they don’t then they’re putting them in handcuffs and sending them to a maximum security prison.”

Well, KMBC says Cascone isn’t believed to be in max custody.

KCTV Channel 5 spoke with Sharon Cervello-Curd, the mother of Dominic Cervello, who was one of the other men locked up.

“For them to lock him up, he can’t see his family, he can’t go to

work,” Cervello-Curd said. “I think the prosecutor is going after the

Italians — racial profiling — and that doesn’t seem fair.”

KCTV reports that the men were granted immunity for their testimony, but they refused.

The third man hasn’t been named because he didn’t request a public hearing.