DeSIMONE

PROVIDENCE — Rocco P. DeSimone shuffled into a federal courtroom in shackles yesterday to face the consequences of having allegedly absconded from a federal prison camp where he had been serving a term for tax evasion.

Clad in drab prison wear, the former Johnston dealer in high-grade art said only three words, “Yes,” and “Thank you,” as Magistrate Lincoln D. Almond of U.S. District Court informed him that he had a right to a preliminary hearing on a charge of escaping and had a right to a hearing to determine that he really was the person charged in a federal warrant with getting out of jail the wrong way.

But Almond said he would not ask DeSimone to make a decision on whether he wished to avail himself of those rights. The defendant’s lawyer, Kevin Bristow, was busy in an unrelated trial, Almond said, and while the magistrate had appointed public defender Edward C. Roy to advise DeSimone, the judge was “uncomfortable” with the idea of letting DeSimone make any legal decisions without Bristow’s advice.

“I propose to continue this matter until your attorney is present and makes a decision as to how to proceed,” he said. He ordered DeSimone to remain in custody until a hearing could be scheduled.

DeSimone, 55, was charged with fleeing the Federal Correctional Institution, in Fairton, N.J., a minimum-security facility for men. Federal authorities have said he was found to be missing at a 7 p.m. check Saturday.

Accompanied by Bristow, the fugitive surrendered to U.S. marshals in Providence yesterday, two days after his wife, Gail DeSimone, was accused of helping him allegedly escape. Gail DeSimone surrendered to authorities Monday and has been ordered held in home confinement at the couple’s house, at 103 Hopkins Ave., Johnston.

When asked yesterday whether Rocco DeSimone was very likely to serve out the balance of his sentence under minimum security conditions, Thomas M. Connell, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said, “In my experience, anybody who does what he has done will always be considered an escape risk and will never be assigned to a camp again.”

Connell said that DeSimone had only nine months left to serve when he allegedly escaped. That will be lengthened by any term he receives if convicted of escaping.

He could receive up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for the new offense.

Gail DeSimone faces up to three years if convicted, and the same maximum fine.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said that DeSimone gave himself up at 9 a.m. at the Pastore Building on Kennedy Plaza, headquarters of the U.S. Marshals service. He is being held at the Wyatt Detention Center, in Central Falls.

Authorities have alleged that after DeSimone walked away from the New Jersey incarceration facility, his wife picked him up in a rental car after flying from Rhode Island to Philadelphia on Saturday.

Deputy U.S. Marshal C.J. Wyant said she drove him to Putnam, Conn., and that someone else later drove him to Warwick.

DeSimone made his bid for freedom just two days after FBI agents searched his home as part of an investigation into suspected fraud and money laundering, federal authorities said. The agents seized numerous items, including a $180,000 Ford GT sports car, Japanese swords and artifacts, Wyant said.

At 6 a.m. on Saturday, Gail DeSimone took a US Airways flight from Rhode Island to Philadelphia, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent in federal court. She called her husband at the prison early that afternoon, and at 5 p.m. she rented a Volkswagen Jetta from Hertz Rent A Car in Philadelphia, according to the affidavit.

The Fairton prison is 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia. Gail DeSimone has visited her husband at the prison on Saturdays in the past, Wyant said.

On Sunday morning, an FBI agent saw Gail DeSimone drive the Pennsylvania rental car from her home in Johnston, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit said federal agents searched the house Sunday morning, with Gail DeSimone’s consent, but did not find Rocco DeSimone there.

In August 2005, Rocco DeSimone, then 52, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for filing a false tax return. A federal jury had found him guilty of fraudulently claiming income from the sale of art as a long-term capital gain rather than ordinary income, to avoid paying higher taxes.

DeSimone also was fined $100,000 and ordered to pay all income taxes due. U.S. District Judge William E. Smith determined that DeSimone had avoided paying between $200,000 and $325,000 through the false tax return.

DeSimone served about six months of his sentence before being released on bail pending the outcome of an appeal. But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal in June 2007. DeSimone’s bail was then revoked, and he was returned to federal custody to serve the balance of his sentence. Federal authorities estimate that he was to be released in about nine months.

During a five-day trial in March 2005, the government presented evidence that in 1999, DeSimone had brokered the sale of three paintings for $8.3 million: Canal at Zaandam, by Claude Monet, for $4.65 million; Les Mouettes, by Henri Matisse, for $650,000; and Jeune Fille Blonde, by Pierre Auguste Renoir, for $3 million.

Prosecutors said that DeSimone told Janet Traeger Salz, the New York owner of Canal at Zaandam, that he had instead sold the painting for $2.7 million, pocketing most of the difference. Yet on his 1999 tax return, DeSimone reported only $1 million of that income.

The government also said DeSimone falsely claimed the $1 million as a long-term capital gain rather than ordinary income, which is taxed at a higher rate.

After DeSimone was found guilty, Smith allowed him to remain free pending sentencing. Smith turned down a request by the prosecution that $100,000 bail be imposed, saying, “To flee would be colossally stupid. He’s too intelligent for that.”

tmorgan@projo.com