Mob kin granted license to do NJ casino work

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - They have relatives in the Mafia, but no one ever accused Joseph N. Merlino or his mother of being mobsters.

On Wednesday, mother and son felt vindicated when the New Jersey Casino Control Commission granted their concrete reinforcing company a license to work in the Atlantic City casino industry.

That long-sought permission came 22 years and two rejections after they first sought a license for their company, Bayshore Rebar of Pleasantville.

"It's finally over," Merlino's mother, Phyllis, said as she exhaled deeply. "I'm relieved. We just kept on fighting; we had to."

Her eyes grew teary as she and her son embraced and held hands in the commission's hearing room.

"We're happy now," Joseph Merlino said. "We're a good, hardworking family."

His father, mobster Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino, died in the witness protection program. His cousin is jailed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino.

Joseph Merlino's own lawyer admits that when he and his mother and son mother, walk around town, people whisper, "There's the Merlinos; they're part of the mob."

But the Merlinos insist their company is clean, and note it has been trusted to do work on sensitive sites including nuclear power plants and a state police building. The company inserts steel rods into concrete to strengthen it.

In order to win the license, the Merlinos had to bat back decades of opposition from state casino regulators and explain away evidence that included phone calls to their home from imprisoned Mafia figures, including "Skinny Joey" Merlino. (Those calls were to a younger relative who was staying with the Merlinos and wanted Skinny Joey's help breaking into the music business, their lawyer said.)

Prosecutors also said Joseph and Phyllis Merlino spoke or socialized with organized crime figures for years after their last license rejection in the late 1980s.

Hanging over the proceedings was blistering criticism from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement of casino Commissioner William Sommeling's initial recommendation of a license for the Merlinos. In its challenge to that recommendation, the division implied that Sommeling was biased, stupid or corrupt for dismissing strong evidence that the Merlinos still associate with organized crime figures.

Commission chairman Linda Kassekert said she was "shocked" and called the division's conduct "unwarranted and extremely unprofessional." Sommeling declined comment.

Deputy Attorney General Louis Rogacki said the decision means that "meeting with, associating with, hanging around with, or having contact with members of organized crime for indeterminate periods of time will be acceptable to the commission" as long as applicants disavow any mob ties before applying for a license.

The Merlinos said that sometime around 2000, they "divorced ourselves from that side of the family" in order to qualify for a casino industry license.