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As we mentioned yesterday, Tom Robbins' decision to make public the tapes that led to the dismissal of a FBI mob trial was not an easy one for him to make. In today's New York Times, he explains further his decision to break his pledge of confidentiality to star witness Linda Schiro. He tells the Times he came forward, rather than his colleague Jerry Capeci, because Capeci's entire career hinges on writing about the mob. "I don't face the same kind of jeopardy," Robbins says. "Jerry spends his life reporting on people who commit murders. The last thing in the world he wants to do is to be brought to the stand and asked about his sources." Capeci says the pair felt comfortable breaking their pledge of confidentiality since Schiro had broken it herself by testifying. "It wasn't a question of hurting her by violating the confidentiality," he says. "She had already discussed the material that she told us in confidence."

Prosecutors and defense lawyers met yesterday with the Voice's Tom Robbins to listen to his taped interviews that brought into question the testimony of the star witness in the trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder. By the end of the day, prosecutors said the recordings gave them no choice but to drop the case, the New York Times reports. Robbins, who had interviewed Linda Schiro in 1997, says he struggled with the decision to make the tapes available. "Tell me what else I could have done?" Robbins asks the Daily News. "If you sit silent, then someone could go to jail for life. I chose not to live with that." UPDATE: The Voice has digitized the tapes and made the files available online.