Stephen Caracappa
PER
Caracappa Stephen Caracappa
The first day of testimony went in the racketeering trial of Louis J. Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, which opened yesterday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. In crisp opening arguments, a federal prosecutor, Mitra Hormozi, contended that Mr. Eppolito, 57, and Mr. Caracappa, 64, lent the power of their badges to a murderous Luchese family gangster, who corrupted them with monthly payments of $4,000 and employed them as his spies and the executors of his wrath. Ms. Hormozi told the jury that Mr. Eppolito and Mr. Caracappa had found their way onto Mr. Casso's payroll through a go-between named Burton Kaplan, a wholesale clothier turned drug dealer, who had met Mr. Eppolito's cousin Frank Santora Jr. in jail.