Officer Accused of Leak Appears in Court

[December 19, 2007]  CHICAGO (AP) -- A federal deputy marshal accused of leaking information about a protected witness during a mob investigation wept Tuesday as he testified during a pretrial hearing, saying he was shocked when he discovered he could face charges.

John Ambrose was assigned several times to guard Nicholas Calabrese, the star witness in the government's investigation of 18 long-unsolved mob murders that ended with several convictions this year. Ambrose has pleaded not guilty to leaking information to the Outfit, as the city's organized crime family calls itself, concerning Calabrese's trips to Chicago to testify before a federal grand jury.

Prosecutors want to use at trial statements Ambrose made to federal officials, but a judge first must determine whether the nine-year veteran of the U.S. Marshals Service was under arrest when he suggested he had passed along information to the mob.

Prosecutors argue Ambrose was not under arrest, so his statements can be used in court.

Defense attorneys argued Ambrose was in custody, even pointing out that at least three FBI agents accompanied him into a restroom during breaks -- one standing on each side of the urinal, and one agent standing behind him.

He should have been read his rights, including his right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, they say.

Ambrose said he was intimidated when first confronted by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald at the FBI building in Chicago on Sept. 6, 2006, months before Ambrose was charged. He said Fitzgerald gave him an ultimatum: Either cooperate immediately or face charges and the loss of his job.

"I felt like I had been thrown into a vat of quicksand," Ambrose testified at a pretrial hearing, tears welling in his eyes. "My body was shaking. ... I was trying to grasp what was going on around me."

Fitzgerald testified he never presented an ultimatum to Ambrose, saying only that investigators wanted to get a full picture of what happened.

"I told him that we have an open mind, that we have facts but we don't have all the facts. ... Certain things we might have wrong," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald testified Ambrose was deeply stressed -- to the point that Fitzgerald wondered whether he might be suicidal.

"(Ambrose) said, 'I screwed up, but it's not what you think.' ... He said he wanted to keep his job. He said, 'My job means everything to me.'"

Ambrose came under suspicion when eavesdropping FBI agents heard reputed mobster Michael Marcello chatting with his jailed brother, James Marcello, in the visitors room at the Milan, Mich., federal prison.

Michael Marcello told his brother that he had a source within federal law enforcement who fit Ambrose's description.

The hearing was set to continue Wednesday, and U.S. District Judge John F. Grady is expected to rule later this week.

[Associated Press; By MICHAEL TARM]

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