Witness speaks from behind wall at mob trial

A witness in the trial of a deputy U.S. marshal accused of leaking secrets in a major organized crime investigation testified in a federal courtroom Friday from behind an 8-foot-high wall of screens erected to protect his identity.

The witness, identified only as Inspector 1, took the stand behind the makeshift wall to describe the security measures taken to protect mobster-turned-witness Nicholas Calabrese.

His testimony came in the trial of Deputy U.S. Marshal John T. Ambrose, who was assigned to guard Calabrese at a Chicago-area "safe site" maintained to protect witnesses from harm.

Ambrose, who prosecutors say guarded Calabrese at the safe site in October 2002 and again in May 2003, is charged with leaking information about Calabrese's cooperation with federal agents.

The information ended up in the hands of the mob. Marshals say it was the only time in 39 years that the witness program's secrets were deliberately compromised.

Calabrese, a reputed hit man and so-called "made" member of the Chicago mob, was the star witness at the landmark Operation Family Secrets trial of top underworld figures.

Defense attorney Francis Lipuma maintains Ambrose might have talked too much when boasting about his assignment to a family friend, a former policeman. But his client never violated the law, he says.

The temporary courtroom wall obscures witnesses, the judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors from courtroom spectators' view. Court sketch artists working for two Chicago television stations often sat idle during testimony on Friday.