Belmont 'Big Mouth': Suspended State Cop Set for Trial

Rather then a tough leg breaker ready to wipe the floor with an unfortunate bookie, attorneys for a Belmont suspended State cop are telling prospective jurors that John Analetto “is simply a drunk with a big mouth.”

So begins the preliminaries for the federal extortion trial of the state trooper where prospective jurors are likely to be asked about their gambling history and anytime they have been on the wrong side of the law. 

Analetto, 49, a 19-year veteran of the Massachusetts state trooper, has been suspended without pay since his arrest in December 2011, according to the Boston Herald. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of threatening to murder a bookie who owed him $24,000.

The local bookie, who recorded the meetings – including some at a gas station in Belmont's Central Square – with Analetto for the FBI, will testify in the trial, prosecutors said.

In pre-trial paperwork, potential jurors will be asked about their history of gambling – including if they ever placed a bet – and if they have any bias for or against law enforcement officers. 

In those same papers, Analetto’s defense team claimed he was just imitating characters from HBO’s former long-running Mafia melodrama “The Sopranos.”

Analetto “is simply a drunk with a big mouth,” said the attorneys.