NEW YORK -- The trial of two retired police detectives accused of committing murders for the mob disintegrated into a shouting match between a one-time Luchese crime family boss and a defense attorney, with the witness ripping the lawyer as ``a loudmouth'' before a federal judge ended the cross-examination.
The angry exchange on Monday came after defense attorney Bruce Cutler, his voice rising to a crescendo, shouted that ``Little Al'' D'Arco _ who flipped in 1991 _ was tailoring his testimony for this trial.
Cutler, saying he had reviewed past transcripts from D'Arco's previous cases, said the witness had never used the expression ``the bulls'' to refer to detectives in any other case. D'Arco used it repeatedly Monday in testifying that Luchese underboss Anthony ``Gaspipe'' Casso had a pipeline of information that came from detectives.
The back-and-forth came as testimony started following opening statements in the trial of Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa, who sat quietly as their attorneys answered allegations that the pair joined the payroll of the Luchese crime family before going on a two-cop crime spree.
``You never used the term 'bulls' in all your testimony!'' shouted Cutler to D'Arco, stomping behind the defense table.
``Maybe I have, you loudmouth!'' replied D'Arco, who was earlier threatened with contempt for another flare-up with Cutler. The defense lawyer is best known for representing late mob boss John Gotti.
Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, are charged with racketeering, conspiracy and a variety of other charges. They were allegedly involved in eight murders while working for Casso, who paid the pair a reported $4,000 a month.
In return, they helped him avoid arrest, warned him of impending investigations and committed killings for up to $65,000 a hit, a prosecutor said.
Cutler launched into somewhat rambling questioning of D'Arco, who was called by the government to testify about Casso's intelligence sources. While D'Arco couldn't identify the two defendants, he testified that Casso was wired into ``the bulls.''
D'Arco _ who admitted committing eight murders and countless other crimes _ explained that was slang for detectives, a claim that eventually left a red-faced Cutler screaming across the courtroom.
The pair sparred for most of the afternoon, with the testy exchanges occasionally escalating into angry words. D'Arco said he knew who Cutler was _ and said the lawyer was known to have ``never picked up a tab.''
At one point, Cutler began asking D'Arco about the number of made men in New York City. D'Arco estimated the number at less than 2,000, and Cutler wondered if every made man had five or more associates.
``That's a lot of criminals,'' said Cutler.
``There's a lot of criminals in the world,'' said D'Arco. ``Otherwise a lot of lawyers would be out of business.''
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