Charmed

The link between Policy and the DeBartolo family would eventually play a prominent role in the success of Policy's law firm. Flask had ties with the Cafaro family, shopping mall developers whose wealth and influence was rivaled only by the DeBartolos. So when Flask and Policy partnered, it was a marriage of much more than just their individual talents. It brought together the financial influence and political connections of the two best-connected players in the entire Mahoning Valley.

"They were viewed as the bridge between the big money axis and the political power," says James Callen, who, as president of the Citizens League of Greater Youngstown, testified before the U.S. Senate about organized crime in the Mahoning Valley.

Which is not to discount Policy's acumen as an attorney.

"They were perceived as a very influential firm, by way of their connections but by way of their talent, too," says Prassinos. "[Policy] had a trial ability that you only see in very, very few people. I think someone like F. Lee Bailey could take lessons from Carmen -- and I mean that very sincerely."

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Tim McGinty has vivid memories of watching Policy in the courtroom, while McGinty was a county prosecutor. "You had to be able to afford him," McGinty says of Policy. "Jurors loved him. Women jurors instantly fell for him. He had them believing the victim wasn't dead and the coroner should have never performed the autopsy. He could take some god-awful people and make them look pretty good. He took a couple of hussies and made them look like Mother Teresa."

As for the type of cases that attracted Policy, McGinty says, "I got the sense he took cases that he thought were fun, that were challenges."

Those "challenges" included everything from legal work for the DeBartolo Corp. to Zoldan's fireworks business to white-collar criminals. Another longtime client was Joey Naples, a mob boss who ran the crime rackets in Youngstown for the Pittsburgh Cosa Nostra with often bloody efficiency.

Friends and colleagues are quick to note that, while Policy did defend some mobsters, he was no consigliere. "He was not known as a mobster lawyer," says Prassinos. "It would be a grave mistake to characterize him as such."

To be fair, there was a time when any successful attorney in Youngstown would probably have attracted a shady clientele. "As a practicing attorney in Youngstown, he's going to get some of that business," says one source. "I don't know what you'd classify as a mob down there, but there's no question that, at some point, you're going to have to deal with some of those people."

Policy may not have been a mob lawyer in the classic sense. But he certainly defended the best-known Mafioso, at a time when the mobsters were bombing and shooting each other to death with unprecedented regularity.

The client that garnered the most attention was Ronald "The Crab" Carabbia, whom Policy defended in 1978. To the working world, Carabbia ran a vending business in Struthers, Ohio, with his two older brothers, Charles and Orland. But in reality the Carabbia brothers oversaw Clevelander James "Jack White" Licavoli's organized crime interests in Youngstown, a hotbed of gambling and prostitution also coveted by the Pittsburgh Mafia.

Like his brothers, Ronnie Carabbia was well-known to law enforcement agents. He was convicted in 1964 of promoting a numbers racket in Youngstown, though that conviction was later overturned. In 1967, Carabbia was sentenced to five years in jail for falsifying gambling records. And by 1977, Carabbia had been drawn into the gang war raging in Cleveland.

Liars and Perverts
The story of impetuous Collinwood tough Danny Greene is the stuff of legend in Cleveland -- how he tried to muscle in on Licavoli's rackets, and how a series of bombings, shootings, and bloodshed followed. Greene, who often would sit in front of the Celtic Club on Waterloo Road wearing nothing but shorts and a Celtic cross, giving the finger to Italian mobsters driving by, is widely believed to have ordered the killings of loan shark Shondor Birns and Leo "Lips" Moceri. But his own allies were getting hit, too, like Teamsters official John Nardi, who was killed when his car exploded in a union parking lot.

On Oct. 6, 1977, after stalking Greene for more than a year, the local Cosa Nostra finally caught up with its man. It was an overcast day when Greene came out of his dentist's office in Lyndhurst. As he unlocked his car, the corner of Cedar and Brainard roads turned bright orange. A 1970 Nova parked next to Greene's car exploded, killing him instantly.

Unfortunately for the assailants, they did not make a clean getaway. Eyewitness Debbie Spoth, the daughter of a police officer, testified that she saw Carabbia in the back seat of a car driven by hit man Ray Ferritto.