After pleading not guilty today to federal kickback and fraud charges, Omaha City Council Vice-President Vinny Palermo remains in jail tonight, with any chance of getting back on the street delayed until at least Wednesday. 

And from the judge’s comments, regarding one of Palermo’s co-defendants, those chances appear slim.

At the same time, prosecutors today upped the ante against Palermo, painting a picture of the South Omaha Democrat never seen before, one draped in explosive accusations of domestic violence, drunk driving, and a variety of questionable moves tied to his ongoing federal probation from a three-year-old tax conviction.

Further in the background, his political future. As his attorney Randy Paragas puts it, “We really haven’t made any decisions regarding the city council.”

Palermo walking into a Lincoln Federal Courtroom this afternoon in dress shirt and slacks, handcuffs, and leg irons, sitting quietly as prosecutors detailed two domestic violence accusations:

  • A hotel sexual assault against the “mother of his child.”
  • A physical assault “nudging” his now estranged wife down a set of stairs as she holds a child.

All that adding to an alleged wiretap conversation, noted in Palermo’s 27-page federal indictment.

Joe Jordan, News Channel Nebraska: “Prosecutors allege that Mr. Palermo is on a wiretap saying, ‘Someone f---ing ratted,’ doesn’t that sound like an admission of guilt to you?”

Randy Paragas, Palermo’s attorney: “That wiretap was presented today as part of the hearing and I really don’t want to comment on anything that was presented at the hearing today.

Jordan: “In light of the allegations of domestic violence, drunk driving, he’s going through a divorce. What’s his state of mind right now?”

Paragas: “I can’t comment on that right now. Those allegations were brought up today, it’s the first we heard of them and I haven’t had a chance to confer with my client about them.”

On the witness stand an FBI agent shed her light on a recent Facebook post. As NCN first reported, Palermo’s profile picture has been updated with the words, “Everybody’s a gangster until a gangster walks in the room.” The agent testifying that that quote is attributed to former New York mafia boss John Gotti.

Prosecutors also accused Palermo of a wiretap comment that found him proclaiming himself the “Al Capone of South Omaha,” an apparent reference to his tax convictions.

One of his fellow council members, fellow Democrat Juanita Johnson, was at today’s hearing. Asked by NCN if Palermo should resign she said, “The law says we’re innocent until we’re proven guilty.”

Palermo and three others are named in a public corruption case for, among other things, misusing funds from an inner-city Omaha non-profit hailed for keeping kids in sports and out of trouble.

One of those three, former Omaha police detective Johnny Palermo, ordered to remain in jail as the judge said she didn’t “trust him” to obey the law if let back out.

The two-term Councilman and his other two co-defendants get to present their get-out-of jail side Wednesday, but prosecutors insist Palermo has also violated several provisions of his federal probation including unauthorized travel to San Diego and Las Vegas, and falsifying a federal Covid related PPP loan, using some of the money to fix up the basement of his $530,000 south 13th street home.