Man who put up rewards pleads guilty

A Philadelphia egg-processing factory owner who made a name for himself offering high-dollar, high-profile rewards for unsolved crimes pleaded guilty yesterday to a gun charge and agreed to plead guilty to expected tax charges.

Joseph Mammana, who has been in federal custody since November, used checks written from his factory to the Citizens Crime Commission and Sam Katz for Mayor to evade federal income taxes, authorities said.

Mammana, 46, agreed to plead guilty to failing to pay taxes on roughly $400,000 in 2005 income and underreported income from 2000 to 2004. Those charges are expected to be filed soon.

When IRS agents raided his Yardley home Nov. 29, they found a loaded revolver - a crime because he is a previously convicted felon. His five previous felonies include bounced checks, car theft, and a 1990 assault on his then-wife.

Mammana's attorney, Jeffrey Lindy, said his client had committed those crimes many years ago while struggling with a steroid problem. The gun had belonged to Mammana's late father, and Mammana kept it for protection because he got threats related to the awards he offered, Lindy said.

Yesterday's plea by Mammana represented a further fall from grace for the self-styled crime fighter, who has drawn media attention to high-profile missing-persons cases - and, in the process, to himself.

He accumulated acclaim for funding rewards for information leading to convictions in several Philadelphia murders and kidnappings. But he also drew criticism for allegedly refusing to pay the rewards later.

Kevin Miles, president of Central Ohio Crime Stoppers, said he was so angry at Mammana for breaking pledges in Ohio cases that he drove to Philadelphia yesterday to watch him plead guilty.

"I think he's a horrible man," Miles said. "One of the sickest things you can do is to give people hope and then rip it away."

Lindy called Miles' comments "abhorrent" because they came as Mammana was trying to "solve his problems . . . and now this guy wants to pile on.

"That's disgusting," Lindy said.

Mammana probably faces at least six years in prison under the federal advisory sentencing guidelines, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bresnick said.

Mammana must also pay the IRS at least $200,000 and forfeit a 2003 Lamborghini Murcielago valued at more than $250,000.

Mammana did not speak in court yesterday. In an Inquirer interview in 2004, the former Marine said of the prior charges: "Any of my criminal past and things like that are irrelevant. Everybody makes mistakes when they're kids."

At a bail hearing last year, Bresnick described Mammana as "a horrid and violent person" and "a menace to society."

At Mammana's office, the prosecutor said, investigators found a photograph of Mammana, with brass knuckles on one hand and a baseball bat in the other, posing in front of a sign that proclaimed: "It's not about justice. It's about revenge."

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond set sentencing for June 11.