Melrose Park cop’s light sentence in gambling case leads judge to give probation to another defendant

A federal judge gave probation Tuesday to a Chicago man who worked as an agent for a bookie with purported mob ties — but suggested the sentence could have been harsher had another judge not given a light sentence to a former Melrose Park police officer.

U.S. District Judge John Tharp handed down the sentence of two years of probation to Ramiro Barajas, who admitted in October he recruited, managed and supervised gamblers for Gregory Paloian.

Federal prosecutors described Barajas as Paloian’s “smallest agent” who immediately explained his situation when confronted by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney told the judge that Barajas “was not making money” and was honest.

Before he was sentenced, Barajas told the judge he thought of the operation as “nowhere close to a business to me” but eventually realized it was wrong.

Tharp signaled early in Barajas’ sentencing hearing that he was inclined to give Barajas probation. When he later handed down the sentence, though, the judge said his decision “might be somewhat different but for the sentence that was imposed” last year on former Melrose Park police officer John Amabile.

U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold gave Amabile six months in home detention for his role in Paloian’s gambling operation.

“There’s no dispute that you’re not as culpable as that defendant, so I am loathe to impose a sentence of any sort of incarceration,” Tharp said.

Still, he said, it would “not be unreasonable” to decide something more punitive was warranted.

As for Paloian, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow gave him a two-and-a-half year prison sentence in April 2021, but she later agreed to push his surrender date back until this August for health reasons.

The prosecutions of Paloian, Amabile and Barajas are related to a larger prosecution involving Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice and his website, Unclemicksports.com. So far only one person in that case, Chicago police officer Nicholas Stella, has been sentenced to any prison time.

However, the feds last week asked U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall to give DelGiudice more than two years in prison. His sentencing is set for March 9.