John Napoli took a "scruffy, disorganized" outlaw biker gang and turned it into a well-organized $6 million crystal-meth-trafficking organization.
And, like the head of a crime family, Napoli, 35, president of the Breed Outlaw Motorcycle gang, used violence to keep bikers in line in the Bristol-Levittown area, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Foulkes said yesterday, urging that the defendant be sentenced to life in prison. Napoli, among his violent attacks, used an electric drill to bore into Thomas Burke's arm, and nearly crushed his face and dislocated an eye. He put a severely beaten rival in the hospital for four days. And he warned bikers who cooperate with law enforcement: "You'll be killed.""What you did was uncivilized," said U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III yesterday before sentencing Napoli to 36 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.His treatment of Burke, who refused to sell drugs, was "horrendous, to say the least," he added.Despite Napoli's reign of terror distributing 125 pounds of methamphetamine to mid-level dealers between 2003-2006, he apparently had a domesticated side - to which his common-law wife, niece and two neighbors attested.
In an impassioned plea, defense attorney Hope Lefeber asked Bartle to consider "the other side of Napoli" in fashioning a sentence."How can it be that a man who is capable of acts of brutality led an almost completely different life?" she asked.Napoli took in three children of his crack-addicted sister, enrolled them in school, set a 9 p.m. curfew and and "would not tolerate drug use," said a niece, Jessica Lenugan, 18. "He was like my second dad.""John has been nothing but good to me - never laid a hand on me or our son," said Sadie Kinney, 30, Napoli's common-law wife of 9 1/2 years. "He was not a crazy outlaw all the time. We lived like everyone else, and we treated everyone with respect."Two neighbors, Kelly Hood and Laura McDonough, both testified that Napoli had cared for them - Hood when she was seriously ill, and McDonough when her heater exploded, among other times.Instead of life in prison, as calculated under advisory sentencing guidelines, Bartle gave the construction worker six more years in prison than the 30-year sentence he gave Napoli's top aide and co-defendant, William "Tattoo Billy" Johnson, last Friday.
Another co-defendant, Thomas "Fuzzy" Heilman, earlier received a 19 1/2-year sentence in federal prison.With time off for good behavior, Napoli will serve more than 30 years in federal prison, and be 65 years old when he gets out.The government is seeking a $6 million judgment against Napoli - the wholesale value of illicit drugs sold.To prevent his Levittown home from forfeiture, Napoli agreed not to contest the government's seizure of three motorcycles, four vehicles, 20 firearms, including a machine gun, and $223,500.Last Oct. 4, Napoli was convicted of conspiracy to distribute crystal meth, violent acts in the aid of racketeering, extortion, three counts of possession of firearms, including a machine gun, and ammunition by a convicted felon. *