Though most of the trail will revolve around the Government?s mail fraud charges against Black related to non-compete payments, the deadly dagger hanging over the heads of the defense table is the Racketeering charge.

For almost 4 decades now, Federal prosecutors have perverted RICO into a menacing legal beast that subverts our basic freedoms and denies due process.

Passed in 1970, RICO was originally devised as a method to deconstruct organized crime syndicates which often escaped justice in state and local courts. At that time the law was squarely aimed at Italian Mafias, so blatantly in fact that it received much criticism from Italian American organizations.

Since that time, RICO has grown into a prosecutorial dirty bomb, removing the presumption of innocence and elevating penalties to absurd levels. Basically anyone who commits any crime with anyone else can presently be prosecuted as a criminal enterprise and face RICO, a large reason for the dangerous increasing Federalization of criminal justice in America. Moreover, the statute has been expanded into the civil arena, where trial lawyers have made fortunes suing legitimate businesses as if those companies acted as drug cartels.

Tales of RICO abuse are legion, but perhaps the most unjust was the conviction of Michael Milken, a financial revolutionary who propelled capital financing out of the clubby world of banking thereby providing the financial energy that fueled the booms of the 1980?s and 90?s.

Rudy Giuliani used RICO to convict Milken of very minor securities offenses (not insider trading, as is widely believed) and Judge Kimba Wood - another judicial hottie! - sentenced him to 10 years and fined an incredible $900 Million.

Like Milken, Black ran a business, not crime syndicate. To use RICO against Black, if he is indeed found guilty of the Fraud violations, would represent not only a miscarriage of justice, but also yet another government assault upon private enterprise.