Reputed mobster won't be home for Xmas

A REPUTED mob associate will stay in jail over Christmas while a judge weighs charges that he tried to have his daughter's boyfriend and two rivals killed.

Ronald Galati Sr., who has an auto body shop on 20th Street near McKean in South Philadelphia, also is accused of threatening people during a grand-jury investigation focusing on organized crime and insurance fraud.

A police affidavit filed in court states that Galati agreed to pay $20,000 apiece for the killings of a rival shop owner who testified before the grand jury and the shop owner's son.

The affidavit said Galati, 63, also ordered a hit last month on his daughter's boyfriend, Andrew Tuono, outside Tuono's Atlantic City home. Tuono was shot three times in the abdomen but survived. Police caught two of the shooters, who said Galati had paid them to kill Tuono and the father and son, the affidavit said.

The hit men visited the targets' shop to scope out the job, but the state shut the business down before they could act, the affidavit said.

Galati also paid them $500 to $1,500 to vandalize cars, the hit men said, according to police. The state insurance probe has been underway for about 18 months, according to the affidavit.

Defense lawyer Anthony Voci, in court yesterday to seek bail, called the evidence weak. He said Galati's relatives and friends, about 60 of whom went to court, could post $50,000, enough to make $500,000 bail.

But prosecutors said they have more evidence they could not disclose in court. Common Pleas Judge Charles Erlich heard from both sides behind closed doors before postponing the bail issue until next Monday.

The Galati case has no apparent link to the federal retrial of Philadelphia mob-boss suspect Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew George Borgesi, who are charged in a racketeering case that involves loan-sharking and bookmaking. Their defense attorneys have accused the FBI of paying mob informants more than $500,000 and overlooking their crimes to try to bolster a racketeering case that's "been on life support" for years. They've also said federal wiretaps offer no proof Ligambi and Borgesi did anything more than make private loans and rent poker machines to bars and social clubs.