Sex, Lies and Audiotape: Mob Case Dismissed

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Prosecutors have dropped charges against an ex-FBI agent accused of helping a mobster pull off four murders.

The ruling comes one day after bombshell recordings were introduced that captured the state's star witness apparently talking out of both sides of her mouth.

In a stunning development to a case that made headlines and influenced plot lines on "The Sopranos," Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione stood up in Brooklyn Supreme Court and said, "Had we been provided these tapes much earlier in the process, I dare say we wouldn't have been here."

As retired agent Lindley DeVecchio stood in the courthouse well, spectators in the courtroom including his wife and several former FBI colleagues applauded and expressed their joy, according to courtroom witnesses.

The high-profile courtroom drama was rocked Wednesday morning when it was revealed that star witness Linda Schiro, in 1997 interviews with two reporters, contradicted testimony she gave this week claiming that DeVecchio had a hand in the homicides. Judge Gustin Reichbach, who is presiding over this bench trial, informed Schiro that she may have committed perjury and should get a lawyer.

Lawyers for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and the defense subpoenaed Village Voice writer Tom Robbins and mob reporter Jerry Capeci Tuesday night after Robbins published a story describing the decade-old interviews. According to those stories, Schiro told the reporters that DeVecchio only had a role in one of the four murders.

The revelation shocked spectators in Brooklyn Supreme Court who had been captivated by Schiro's colorful stories about her life in the mob, including vivid accounts of DeVecchio's sitdowns with Greg Scarpa Sr., at which he supplied the gangster information on which mobsters were ratting him out and who should be killed.

"Lin DeVecchio may be guilty, or may be innocent. But one thing is clear: What Linda Schiro is saying on the witness stand now is not how she told the story 10 years ago concerning three of the four murder counts now at issue," wrote Robbins in Tuesday's story in the Village Voice.

According to Robbins, Schiro claimed that DeVecchio had nothing to do with the murders of Joe "Joe Brewster" DeDomenico, Larry Lampasi, and Mary Bari. During testimony in court on Monday, she tied DeVecchio to all of those murders.