DOMINIC F. AMOROSA
ATTORNEY AT LAW
95 WORTH STREET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10013
TEL (212)
406-7000
FAX (212) 233-7805
e-mail:
lawoffices@dfamorosa.com
www.dfamorosa.com
November 23, 2007
Maren Christensen
Executive
Vice President and General Counsel
Universal
Studios
100
Universal City Plaza
Universal
City, CA 91608
Dear
Ms Christensen:
I
am writing to demand that you retract and correct immediately the false and
defamatory statement published as fact to the world at the end of AMERICAN
GANGSTER, a product of Universal Studios, that Frank Lucas and Richard
Roberts’ “collaboration led to the convictions of ó of the New York City’s Drug
Enforcement Agency”. They were
responsible for no such thing and in fact no such thing ever occurred. This false statement impugns and
damages the reputations of hundreds of honest, decent and courageous agents of
the New York City Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) who risked their
lives daily on the streets of New York in this period of time bringing to
justice people like Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes. Further, it was DEA, together with the United
States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (“USAO”), which
apprehended, prosecuted and tried Frank Lucas and his suppliers, and not
Richard Roberts and some Essex County law enforcement organization, as is
alleged in AMERICAN GANGSTER. The New Jersey prosecution of Frank Lucas in
which Roberts was involved took place over one year after Lucas was prosecuted
in the Southern District of New York in September 1975 in which he was
sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment.
It
is far more than ironic for AMERICAN GANGSTER to deprive New York City’s
DEA and the USAO of credit for apprehending and prosecuting Lucas and his gang
while at the same time smearing DEA agents with false allegations of
corruption: it is actionable, and
it is actionable on behalf of a whole class of DEA agents.
I
represent Gregory Korniloff, a former New York City DEA Agent. Mr. Korniloff was the case agent for
DEA on Lucas’ federal case and personally participated in the search of Lucas’
house conducted in January 1975 pursuant to a valid federal search warrant, and
the arrest of Lucas on that same day.
During this search $585,000.00 in currency was seized, which was later
physically introduced into evidence during Lucas’ federal criminal trial in the
Southern District of New York in September 1975. AMERICAN GANGSTER represents this search in the
most awful and corrupt manner during which Lucas’ wife was assaulted, his dog
shot in a vicious manner and thousands of dollars stolen by corrupt law
enforcement officers portraying Mr. Korniloff and his colleagues, including other
DEA Agents and officers of the NYPD, who assisted him on that day. It is irrelevant to your
liability that you represent the corrupt officers to be associated with New
York City’s Special Investigations Unit. This organization was disbanded long
before Lucas came on the scene as a major narcotics dealer in New York, and was
in no way associated with the investigation of Lucas. The public knows full well that it was Mr.
Korniloff and his colleagues who searched Lucas’ home and, as a result of false
depiction made in AMERICAN GANGSTER, now believe it was they who engaged
in these egregious acts. AMERICAN
GANGSTER’S final, gratuitous, maliciously false statement, placed in
writing on the screen at the end of the movie for “truthful” emphasis, that
Roberts and Lucas’ “collaboration led to the convictions of ó of New York
City’s Drug Enforcement Agency”, demonstrates that this libel of Mr. Korniloff
and his colleagues was exactly what you intended. While you may have the right to dramatize actual
events, this right does not extend to destroying the reputations of honest and
courageous public servants by deliberately misrepresenting the facts.
Moreover,
apart from defamation, AMERICAN GANGSTER falsely attributes to Roberts
and New Jersey law enforcement authorities admirable acts and conduct that were
engaged in not by them, but by DEA agents. As noted, it was not Roberts or his “unit” which
arrested Lucas in January 1975; it was DEA. It was not Roberts who first prosecuted Lucas; it was the
USAO in the SDNY in September 1975. I have personal knowledge of these facts as I
personally led the federal prosecution of Lucas and his 18 co-defendants in
September 1975. After
his 40-year sentence was imposed it was not Roberts with whom Lucas cooperated.
It was with the USAO and DEA. And,
most importantly, Lucas’ cooperation had nothing to do with incriminating law
enforcement officials and certainly not members of the Special Investigations
Unit. Lucas’ cooperation,
which admittedly was substantial, was aimed at other narcotics dealers, not law
enforcement officers.
AMERICAN
GANGSTER is
riddled with false information.
Its depiction of heroin being supplied to Lucas from Southeast Asia by
means of the coffins of dead GI’s is also false. No such thing happened. If you had labeled your movie as fiction, it would
have been one thing. But to
claim it is based upon fact, as you do, is quite another. It is certainly no defense for you to
assert that Lucas told you these events occurred, which I understand he has
been doing of late.
For even the most cursory investigation would have established that such
a false assertion was made to increase the likelihood that his “story” would be
purchased by you. Of course you
already know this. The same applies
to Lucas’ assertion that millions and millions of dollars in currency were
stolen from his house during the search. This too was easily proven to be
false. When I debriefed
Lucas following his decision to cooperate, he told me that he had no idea how much
money he had at his house, that it was a week or a weekend’s receipts from his
narcotics business and that $585,000 sounded right. This is documented throughout his case for anyone who
really wanted to know it.
AMERICAN
GANGSTER’S
false depiction of actual events and its attribution to others of courageous
acts engaged in by DEA agents deprive these individuals of their property
rights. You have profited
enormously based on these false and defamatory statements at the expense of the
individuals who actually were responsible for apprehending Lucas and his gang
at great risk to their lives.
Please
contact me at your earliest convenience. However, I suggest you immediately cause the
false statement at the end of the film to be removed from further distribution.
Sincerely,
Dominic
F. Amorosa
cc: Richard
Cotton
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
NBC Universal
Jeff
Zucher
President
and CEO
NBC
Universal