Metro

LI fraudster found guilty of plot to behead judge, prosecutor

A Long Island con artist was found guilty by a Brooklyn jury Thursday of plotting to mutilate and murder a federal judge and assistant US attorney.

Joseph Romano, 51, hoped to exact revenge on Judge Joseph Bianco and prosecutor Lara Gatz after he was convicted of a coin-fraud scheme and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Romano, who now faces life in prison, hired an undercover agent posing as a hit man to behead his legal enemies and to preserve their parts in formaldehyde as souvenirs of his vengeance.

“I got sentenced to 15 years by a scumbag judge,” Romano once told an informant. “I will not be doing 15 years.”

Romano, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read, insisted he was egged on by a jailhouse snitch and had no intention of killing anybody. His attorneys claimed that he was just talking tough in the clink to impress fellow prisoners.

But jurors rejected his defense after prosecutors argued that he had an accomplice in the murder plot collect $22,000 as a payment for the killings.