Luthmann Discusses Motivation For Attacks, Lawsuits Against Ronald Castorina and Kamillah Hanks
Loyalty: John Tabacco is a Stand-Up Guy; Castorina and Hanks are Only Out For Their Own Skins
Like many other young men on Staten Island, John Tabacco, Sr. was my football coach. He also coached football at S.I. PeeWee Football, S.I. Boys Football League, and baseball at Great Kills Little League. He was a stand-up guy and loyal to the core.
A retired NYPD Officer and builder, John, Sr. brought the same vigor to teaching young men about football and life. One valuable lesson I learned was the importance of knowledge of your subject matter is always an advantage. Coach Tabacco was a football encyclopedia, and he had us running the same offense the New York Giants ran in the Polo Grounds in the late 1920s - confounding and crushing our opponents all at once.
John Sr. was also legendary for giving it as well as he could take it, in all areas of life. In a story that has now become Staten Island legend, he confounded a team of opposing lawyers at a deposition related to a property he was renovating in Midland Beach in the late 1980s.
“So, Mr. Tabacco, does your company own the property on the corner of Colony Avenue and Midland Avenue?” the lawyer asked.
Tabacco’s trucks were on that plot. His employees were working on the property. The block and lot were set to go onto the market in a few weeks. His company’s name was on the deed.
John Sr. looked straight into the lawyer’s eyes, and without missing a beat, said, “No, my company does not.”
The lawyer was exasperated. He had a stack of documents he wanted to bring into the case. Tabacco and his company’s legal relationship with the parcel was the lynchpin.
“You do understand perjury, right Mr. Tabacco?” the New Dorp lawyer sneered.
“Better than most. I testified under oath on innumerable occasions as an NYPD Officer. I can tell you my company does not own the property on the corner of Midland and Colony Avenues,” Tabacco said.
At that point, the deposition was over. The opposing lawyers were pissed because they couldn’t get anywhere. They stormed out of the building. John’s lawyer grabbed him and said, “John, are you crazy? Everyone knows you own that property! What are we going to do now?”
John just smiled. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Everyone knows who owns the property at the corner of Midland and Colony, and that’s the City of New York. The property line begins a few inches from the setback, but he never asked about that,” Tabacco said.
Vintage John Tabacco.
The Feds Want Their Money
Before my arrest in December of 2017, I did a ton of legal work for many people that I never had a chance to collect on. I was content to let sleeping dogs lie. But the US Government wants their money. I owe them around $1 million. The best part is, the Government had copies of my files and my billing from when they raided my old law office. When the Feds want something, they can sure line it up.
Staten Island operates in very much a “Sopranos-style” mentality. When you get “whacked,” I guess people believe their debts to you are no longer valid. I got “whacked” by the Feds, and then again by a Special Staten Island District Attorney. A bunch of deadbeats thought they didn’t have to pay. But when the money comes into their coffers, the Feds don’t play by that rule book.
For the Feds, John Tobacco, Jr., was one of the people that owed me money. This wasn’t the JT I knew. That’s not the family I’ve known since I was a kid. John Tabacco was always a stand-up guy just like his dad.
I learned this week what I came to learn in my past four years at “Gladiator School”: Trust your gut. More often than not, the Feds are liars and full of shit.
My lawyer finally had a chance to talk with JT. He wrote me a check for $25,000 back in December 2017. It was never cashed because I became a long-term resident at the Brooklyn MDC. John and my lawyer are finalizing a release agreement to finally put this matter to bed and remit any proceeds to the EDNY Federal Court.
I learned this week John Tabacco remained loyal, and that his word matters. John Tabacco doesn’t walk out on bills or badmouth his friends, no matter the circumstances.
Loyalty is the core of this story. You can’t be “a little” loyal like you can’t be “a little” pregnant. It’s all or nothing.
Along with the Feds breathing down my neck for receivables, it is the reason why I am compelled to wipe the streets with Judge Ronald Castorina and NYC Council member Kamillah Hanks.
Rich, Why Are You Doing This?
I have been getting calls from New York political people. They have been reaching out to me. The chorus is the same: “Rich, you’ve got a lot of people worried up here. What’s your endgame? They say that you are dangerous.”
My endgame was to live a quiet life in Southwest Florida, or wherever else time and chance might take me. I lay on prison bunks at night thinking about putting everything past me. I had to forgive myself, and I had to forgive others. Madiba put it best:
Prison was tough. It is called “Gladiator School” for a reason. But it does have its virtues. I was a soft, racist, misogynist, asshole of an addict before I went in. I was forged into something much different by the time I got out. My nature had changed. I spent four years as a warrior monk. I was able to whet my mind with books and was given ample time to reflect, strategize, and pray.
I responded to one phone call (ironically from a KH staffer) in this way: “They sent me away to Gladiator School for four years. Now they’re complaining I came back a Gladiator?” The word on the street is that I am “dangerous.” And I think I am now a monster, at least as Jordan Peterson described it. Gladiator School gave me something I hadn’t had before. It taught me control.
“They sent me away to Gladiator School for four years. Now they’re complaining I came back a Gladiator?”
I realize my lot. I am compelled to explain myself where others need not. And that’s fine. I will explain why I am Ron Castorina and Kamillah Hanks’ monster. The answer, however, is simple. It can be summed up in a word: DISLOYAL.
The Ninth Circle of Dante’s Inferno
In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, he reserved the deepest, darkest, and coldest circle of hell for the disloyal. In the ninth circle, those who committed betrayal are tormented for all eternity by Satan himself, in a frozen lake named Cocytus.
Judas Iscariot, Jesus Christ’s betrayer, and Brutus and Cassius, who both plotted Julius Caesar’s assassination spend eternity in torment. If Dante were around to give a modern revision, Ron Castorina and Kamillah Hanks would be there too.
In the same way the Inferno was an allegory and a cautionary tale, I give fair warning to anyone dealing with Ronald Castorina and Kamillah Hanks. If you shake their hands, count your fingers afterward. If you do work for them, get paid bigly and upfront. And if they say they are your friend, believe nothing that rolls off their forked tongue.
Ronald Castorina - Disloyal
If you want the back story on my dealings with Ron Castorina, it is out there. Read Frank Parlato’s ongoing exposé.
I let Ron have it in a letter I wrote him dated October 27, 2022. The proof there is daming.
There are only three animals that actively hunt mankind. Polar bears, lions, and other men. And all three need to be triggered.
What triggered Ron as my prey (in the legal arena) is reading the transcript from the August 1, 2018, grand jury in the Kangaroo Court Case that was People v. Luthmann. The real story that no one knows is that Ron and I were colleagues and friends. Ron has even admitted this to political people saying, “You know politics as well as I do, I had to distance myself from Rich.”
I had no problem with Ron doing that. In fact, the August 25, 2017, Facebook post that “cleared” Ron politically was something I did for my friend.
I closed that post like this:
From Plato to Machiavelli to Hannah Arendt, the practice of politics has never been tied to truth. It is tied to distributive justice whereby there are great "noble lies" to borrow a Platonic term. And the Supreme Court of the United States agrees:
http://time.com/.../on-your-mark-get-set-lie-supreme.../
And finally, Ron Castorina has no knowledge of the contents of this email. Nor does any other elected official. This is all me - setting the record straight for my friend. If you're with me, I'm with you to the Gates of Hell.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother"
-Henry V, Act IV
In one paragraph, I said politics has nothing to do with truth, and quote a Time Magazine article: On Your Mark, Get Set, Lie: Supreme Court Weighs Truth in Politics.
In the next paragraph, I lied. Vintage Luthmann.
“Ron Castorina has no knowledge of the contents of this email.” This statement is false, and demonstrably so.
I made the Facebook post from Lake Placid, New York. I was at the NYS Kiwanis Convention. I was sitting on the hockey arena floor where they played the Miracle on Ice. Ron was on the phone with me crying about how they were calling for him to resign the Republican Party Chairmanship and that he needed “cover.” I drafted the Facebook post on my smartphone. Attorney Sean O’Sullivan was sitting next to me helping. O’Sullivan - Castorina - Luthmann. Where have we seen those three together before?
In fact, Sean O’Sullivan is the lynchpin to much of what is going to happen. Sean has been around Republican Party politics for a long time. He’s seen a lot of people come and go. He’s lasted because he generally tells the truth. And in the case my lawyers are filing this week, Sean has already received a spoliation notice. Sean is Ron’s “cut-out.” Sean and Ron are business partners. And lawyers know, in many situations, the actions and knowledge of one partner can be imputed to the other.
I don’t think Sean is going to lie for Ron. Sean isn’t going to get his ticket pulled. In fact, I’m pretty sure Sean and Ron have already had a conversation about just how screwed Ron really is. Sean is getting subpoenaed right away - and you watch the legal maneuvering that will go on to try to block and/or delay his testimony. Once Sean goes on the record, Ron will lose his black robe, if he hasn’t already.
Back to the Facebook post above. In the grand jury transcript, the Special Schmuck, Eric Nelson, goes through the entire August 25, 2017, Facebook post - co-authored by Luthmann, Castorina, and O’Sullivan on the record. Ron’s sworn testimony is a lie. He denies involvement with the post, including its authorship or collaboration.
The problem is that Eric Nelson, an incompetent-by-design special prosecutor, had subpoenaed all of my Facebook and Verizon Phone records. We know this because Nelson billed and bilked NYC taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars claiming he read them.
If anyone looks at the phone records from August 25, 2017, they see numerous calls between Luthmann and Castorina that day. Castorina initiated the calls. Luthmann was at a convention. He wasn’t calling Ron from Lake Placid because he was a “crazy person” that needed to talk to an Assemblyman. Anyone who knew me then knows I felt a greater need to talk to the bartender than an elected official, particularly on the weekend.
Ron wasn’t “placating Luthmann” on the call Ron initiated. Ron was in tears they were calling for his resignation as Party Leader. For example, Ron had choice words about Letitia Remauro telling him it must have been a “dark time” for him to have consulted with Luthmann. I told Ron not to worry. I was a warrior. I would take the blows for my friend and my client. I grabbed Sean O’Sullivan, and we got to work.
But don’t take Luthmann’s word for it. Look at the phone records. They don’t lie. The FBI gets warrant applications, arrests, and indictments on less “coordination.” Nelson had the phone records. They contradicted Castorina’s sworn testimony. Both sets of evidence were offered to the grand jury. One set is necessarily false.
And therein lies why I have to destroy Ronald Castorina legally and politically. Loyalty. Not to me, but to THE TRUTH.
If Ronald Castorina testified truthfully on August 1, 2018, there would have been no indictment. The sitting Assemblyman and Judicial Candidate would have defended Luthmann’s actions as within the purview of the First Amendment because Luthmann’s actions were also Castorina’s.
Instead, the lawmaker and his accomplice, the incompetent-by-design Special Prosecutor, proceeded to bastardize the facts and the law:
Staten Island, New York. Where the Judges, the Lawmakers, and the Prosecutors tell you what speech is “not good speech.” There are other places where they do that too. Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang.
But wait, there’s more. What about grand jurors that might have questions about the First Amendment given Castorina’s testimony?
NYS Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castorina, Jr.: Disloyal to the Facts; Disloyal to the Law; Disloyal to his Friends; Disloyal to the End.
This is your Supreme Court Justice, Staten Island, New York. Don’t worry. I intend to take out the trash. Maybe Tish James will get there first.
But because of the Castorina-Nelson-Smiling Jack “Fake Facebook” felony, I am a multiple felon. With a single felony, I could get a mortgage broker, real estate, insurance, or a multitude of other licenses to have a craft and/or a trade to focus on day in and day out. Because of the pile-on felony, the fake felony, the felony based on felonies and perjury, I can’t even get a license to pilot a shrimp boat like Forrest Gump.
I have plenty of time and plenty of patience. I am a monster and I am in control.
Kamillah Hanks - Disloyal
I call Kamillah Hanks “Queen Crime.” I do that because crime doesn’t pay, and neither does she or her paramour Kevin Barry Love. I was their friend and their family attorney. But as others of their former friends know, they value friendships at ten cents on the dollar - if that much.
Kevin has been angling to get Kamillah in office for years. She’s there now. Kevin was trying to sell access back in 2017. I heard him on the phone soliciting contributions from the Bay Street campaign office: “You know, if we get in, we’ll be able to take care of you. You’ll have access.” If it’s a quid pro quo, the Feds and NYS Public Corruption might be interested.
If he sounded like he was ready to do it back then, I wonder what he’s doing now.
The biggest issue I have about Kamillah and Kevin is betrayal. I did a lot for them. I was their family lawyer. I helped Kamillah’s daughter Nadia graduate from LaGuardia High School. Kevin and Kamillah said they were going to pay me, probably from campaign funds. I was never paid.
Kamillah is a liar. She lied to the NY Times and other news outlets when she said: “she hired Mr. Luthmann only to help her get on the ballot.” Kamillah’s then-spokesperson (supplied by Scott Levenson) said “Richard Luthmann was hired solely for the petitioning process and is not employed by this campaign.”
I was more than a simple “jobber.” I went from being at the campaign headquarters on Bay Street every day and having Kevin, Scott Levenson, and Jason Reynard bogarting my weed and my schnaiz to becoming persona non grata. I was at their house in Stapleton all the time.
The CFB records show I was paid $1,650. Kamillah Hanks lied to the CFB about the costs paid and services rendered by me and others. And make no mistake, Kamillah Hanks knew what was going on. She was worried about the CFB every second of the day:
The numbers are even fugazi. In 2017, got paid $1,650 “solely for the petitioning process.” In 2021, Howard Graubard got paid $10,000 for the same work.
In 2017, I did much more than the “petitioning process.” I coordinated getting Phil Marius thrown off the ballot. Kamillah and Kevin agreed to have me do this work. They told me I was going to get paid. I expended time and I laid out money that I never got paid back. But Phil Marius got thrown off of the ballot - he went from over 1,250 to below 450 valid signatures - at the Board of Elections. We didn’t even have to go to court, but we filed there. And Kamillah, Kevin, Scott Levenson, and everyone else knew:
She didn’t pay me for the days I spent working on the specific objections and the line-by-line with Jason Raynard (Scott Levenson’s sub-consultant and Nadia Hank’s ex-boyfriend) and others. She didn’t pay for the gas, tolls, and copies at the NYC Board of Elections. She didn’t pay for the court filing. She didn’t pay for Don Frangipane, the handwriting expert from Brooklyn I retained. She didn’t pay for the private investigators and process servers I had to send out to set up the case. The costs here alone exceeded $10,000. And if I wasn’t paid or reimbursed, aren’t those undeclared in-kind contributions for CFB purposes?
Also, ask an election lawyer what the fair market value for the work performed was. Will Jerry Goldfeder, John Ciampoli, Sarah Steiner, Marty Connor, or Howard Graubard say that the legal work involved in knocking someone off the ballot at the Board of Elections AND preparing for a Supreme Court petition is any less than $25,000?
Kamillah and Kevin agreed to pay me for my work. They never did. The work was good work, Kamillah and Kevin commissioned it, and they benefitted from it. Either way, Kamillah had to report the engagement to the CFB. The work was far more than “petitioning” and far more than “$1,650.” I probably spent about that amount of money feeding Jason Reynard and other campaign workers (fraudulently reported as “REYNALD” to avoid a 1099) throughout the course of the campaign.
But I’m looking to get the money back now (or more precisely, the Feds are) if only to use it to pay my federal restitution.
My lawyers are including the NYC Board of Elections and the NYC Campaign Finance Board as necessary parties because they have records relevant to my case. No one is going to weasel out of this one.
Kamillah has a campaign finance problem. And I intentionally timed this so that it’s going to kill her matching funds until it is resolved. She is going to be investigated and fined. She is going to have to pay the people she stiffed (and there are many) and show proof - to the tune of well over $100,000. Only then will she be able to get matching funds this year.
And given this track record, what vendor wouldn’t ask for all their money upfront? She is going to be in a very tight pickle financially, and she deserves to be. She knew all about the fake Facebook pages in 2017. I have messages with her too.
Has anyone asked why Kamillah Hanks didn’t testify at the 2018 grand jury against me? Newsflash, I get a chance to ask her in this case. But I’ll tell you the answer.
Again, like Ron Castorina, I was going to let the Kamillah Hanks thing go. But between the Feds wanting their money and what I heard when I got out of prison, I became truly motivated.
Kevin Love was bitching around to everyone that would listen in the summer of 2018 that I had cost him a “small fortune” and I had cost Kamillah the election. He especially said that he had to pay a boatload to fight Eric Nelson’s subpoena for the fake Facebook grand jury. If Kamillah Hanks had nothing to hide, why would she fight the subpoena and pay tens of thousands to do so? Unlike Ron Castorina who decided perjury was politically expedient to obtaining a judgeship, Kamillah did not want to perjure herself. At least she has that going for her.
But Kevin and Kamillah kept their narrative going that I was the reason why she lost in 2017. In reality, the reason she lost was she didn’t do the right mailings, she had no Election Day pull operation, and she overpaid for Scott Levenson’s “cookie cutter” campaign. I had to hear from people on her own and other elected officials’ staffs that I was still being badmouthed in 2021.
Kamillah Hanks doesn’t deserve to be Staten Island’s North Shore City Councilwoman. Kamillah and Kevin are disloyal and only out for themselves. They don’t pay their people and treat people the wrong way.
In 2017, I treated Debi Rose the wrong way. I made a fake Facebook page. I still don’t think what I did was illegal, and I think I will be vindicated. However, what I did was morally wrong. Debi Rose was a beloved and effective elected official and is an even better person. She didn’t deserve to be the butt of dirty tricks and negative campaigning. I’m a new Luthmann.
I apologized to Debi Rose personally for my fake Facebook shenanigans. Kamillah Hanks knew all about it and hasn’t apologized to Debi for that or any of her other transgressions. Kamillah is still the same.
Kamillah Hanks should apologize to Debi Rose immediately. Then Kamillah Hanks should announce that she is not running for re-election. There are far better representatives than her. And the people know it. She is a One-Term Council Member.
But don’t worry. My lawyers will get to ask Kamillah and Kevin all about this in upcoming depositions.
NOVEMBER IS COMING
November is Coming. Who will survive? Probably not Kamillah Hanks, not with a City Council campaign without money and unanswered questions about her character.
And probably not Judge Ronald Castorina. Not unless he “flips” and gives up a bigger fish. But who is a bigger fish than a sitting NYS Supreme Court Justice?
Keep Smiling.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Is there more? Of course, there is more.
Remember, Mr. Luthmann is now a LAW ABIDING CITIZEN. He is also a writer, commentator, satirist, investigative journalist, and a proud member of the National Writers Union.
There will be many more Enemies to receive their comeuppance. What new Enemies will show their faces and then be shown the Luthmann Inquisition followed by the legal and political Death Chamber? Which members of the Swamp should be worried? What other persons may become collateral damage in this story? And who exactly is on “THE LIST” Luthmann spent the past four years making?
Stay tuned—much more to come.
We welcome all comments.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We can shine a light on Pirates and Scallywags, and watch the cockroaches scurry in every direction. Also, drop me a line if you are a victim of The Swamp of corrupt politicians, lawyers, judges, or corrupt courts.
"Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.” (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.) ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Tips or Help: richard.luthmann@protonmail.com or call 239-287-6352.
We are especially looking for stories about the Staten Island Swamp. Corrupt lawyers, judges, and government officials are all within bounds. Were you a litigant who is getting/got screwed in your divorce in front of Judge Castorina? Or maybe your relative’s estate is in front of Surrogate Titone, and you suspect some shenanigans? Let us know.
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