Outcall services, which send male and female dancers privately to customers's homes or hotel rooms, is a popular sex-related business in Las Vegas - and authorities believe it attracted the attention of the Gambino crime family. Now Christiano DeCarlo, a Vegas outcall operator, has been found mentally fit to stand trial in an extortion case involving a takeover bid said to be backed by the Gambino Family.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ordered a psychiatric exam for DeCarlo early last November, after the 28-year-old tried to commit suicide the previous month by sleeping pill overdose in jail, says the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was examined at a medical facility for federal prisoners in Missouri, where a psychologist found him "aware of the nature and potential consequences of the charges…and he is capable of properly assisting his attorney."
DeCarlo is one of six indicted in late 1998 in what prosecutors call a conspiracy to take over the outcall service business in Las Vegas, reputedly backed by the Gambino Family. He and three other defendants pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy, the Review-Journal says. But a letter to Pro's chambers from DeCarlo in October claimed he entered his plea mistakenly.
"Later that evening I attempted to have the plea withdrawn," he wrote, according to the Review-Journal. "I have been trying ever since." His attorney tells the paper he will file a motion by Feb. 18 asking to withdraw the plea. Pro says he will hold a hearing on the motion on that date if it's filed.
DeCarlo otherwise would face April 28 sentencing.
The FBI believes DeCarlo used four men to intimidate and extort owners of other escort services in Las Vegas. At the time of his arrest, DeCarlo was said to have been "befuddled" by the arrest, according to the Review-Journal.
His company, the DeCarlo Group, is described by employees as a gaming company bringing junket gamblers to Las Vegas, with DeCarlo also owning VIP Host, presumably the outcall business.
