Joseph Romano, enraged over his imprisonment in a multimillion-dollar coin fraud scheme, opted for “gruesome and deadly” revenge by plotting to have a federal judge and prosecutor killed and to keep their heads as souvenirs, a prosecutor said yesterday as Romano’s trial began.
But the defense insisted that Romano—prone to bluster and bravado to keep up appearances in jail— was entrapped by a government informant looking to “milk” and “prod” Romano to avert his own lengthy sentence. And it insisted that the government officials never were in any danger.
