Essex County Woman Admits Lying in Federal Court
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 05, 2013 |
NEWARK—An Essex County, New Jersey woman today admitted to committing perjury while testifying in a federal trial, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Debora Medeiros Da Silva, 27, of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden in Newark federal court to an information charging her with knowingly making false declarations before a grand jury or court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On September 23, 2009, while appearing as a witness under oath before the federal grand jury, Da Silva testified that she witnessed Peter Ventricelli, the target of a grand jury investigation, retrieve a bag of guns from her bedroom closet, and that he later gave the bag of guns to his brother, Mark Ventricelli. Da Silva subsequently appeared as a witness under oath at the trial in the matter of United States v. Peter Ventricelli and Mark Ventricelli, where she denied ever seeing any guns in a bag.
The federal charge of knowingly making false declarations before a grand jury or court carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
Sentencing before Judge Hayden is scheduled for May 16, 2013.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dara Aquila Govan of the Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.