Former Mafia “street boss” Ralph DeLeo was arrested Thursday for allegedly violating the conditions of his probation a year after he finished serving 15 years in federal prison on racketeering conspiracy and gun charges.
Few details about the alleged violations were disclosed Thursday as DeLeo, 82, of Somerville, made a brief appearance in federal court in Boston. A court filing related to the allegations remained sealed.
Assistant US Attorney Lauren Maynard said in court that DeLeo committed several violations: lying to federal agents, communications with convicted felons, and possession of steroids and marijuana.
She said the government was seeking to hold DeLeo without bail until the new allegations are resolved on the grounds that he poses a danger to the community and risk of flight.
FEATURED VIDEO
“Danger would be the primary basis,” she added.
US Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson ordered DeLeo held overnight pending a hearing Friday.
DeLeo was a “street boss” of the Colombo crime family, one of five Mafia families that controlled organized crime activities in New York City. He pleaded guilty in November 2012 to racketeering and gun charges. Prosecutors alleged that he ran a criminal enterprise known as the DeLeo crew, which operated in Massachusetts, Florida, New York, and Arkansas and was engaged in drug trafficking, extortion, and loansharking.
US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced him to 19 1/2 years in prison, with credit for three years he had already spent in jail while the case was pending, and placed him on three years of supervised release, or probation.
The following year he filed a motion attempting to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging that “an unknown officer of the court” forged his signature on his plea agreement. His request was denied.
Advertisement
He was released in May of last year.
On Thursday, DeLeo repeatedly told the magistrate, “I can’t hear you,” prompting a brief pause in the proceedings as he was fitted with earbuds with microphones.
Attorney Kevin Barron, who was provisionally appointed to represent DeLeo until it’s determined whether he can afford to hire his own lawyer, described DeLeo as “an ailing and infirm” man.
He said DeLeo is being treated with chemotherapy, suffers a blood disorder, requires ongoing dental surgery, and is dealing with “a number of other medical problems that need immediate attention.”
DeLeo has a lengthy criminal record and previously served time for the slaying of a doctor in Ohio.
In 1977, DeLeo was serving a 25- to 40-year sentence in the state prison at Walpole for kidnapping and armed robbery when he escaped while being treated at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain.
He was captured in Ohio, where he was charged with bank robbery, then struck a deal with prosecutors. He confessed that he shot a Columbus doctor, Walter Bond, in 1977, but claimed the slaying was ordered by another doctor and later testified against that physician.
DeLeo was sentenced to 15 years to life for the slaying but was granted clemency by Ohio’s governor in 1991. He was returned to Massachusetts to finish his earlier state sentence, and he was released in 1997.
Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com. Follow her @shelleymurph.