Biography
Dominick Flaiani was an Italian immigrant and Communist organizer who had worked in fur processing and organized in Philadelphia before moving to Newark, New Jersey. He headed the Newark Unemployed Council. On February 11, 1930, police raided a jobless workers' meeting at 93 Mercer Street and arrested him with other participants. He was held under $10,000 bail, beaten and kept in solitary confinement on bread and water. After his sedition conviction, Judge Walter Van Riper placed him on two years' probation, requiring weekly police reports and payments. On June 16 the judge also ordered ten days in jail for contempt. Flaiani was the Communist candidate for Congress in New Jersey's Ninth District that year.
The Newark report describes solitary confinement, a bread-and-water diet, alleged police beatings and $10,000 bail while awaiting trial. These are attributed contemporary allegations in the existing February case. Daily Worker, February 19, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n298-NY-feb-19-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The May 22 Newark dispatch reports conviction on sedition and police-assault counts. The seventeen-year figure is possible exposure; sentencing had not yet occurred. The June 11 and June 14 accounts likewise precede the announced June 16 sentencing and do not replace the later recorded actual sentence. Daily Worker, May 24, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n379-NY-may-24-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
Grover recalls Flaianis earlier Philadelphia organizing, five arrests in six days and departure after a sedition charge was dropped; these supplement the already represented Philadelphia episode without a new day or total. For Newark he reports defense witnesses excluded for atheism and the November 1930 reversal of his conviction by the New Jersey Supreme Court. This later appellate disposition is distinct from his initial conviction and probation; no physical discharge day is supplied. Source: https://www.newarkhistorysociety.org/images/articles/resources/PDF/NHS-Communists-061813.pdf#page=11 Source: https://www.newarkhistorysociety.org/images/articles/resources/PDF/NHS-Communists-061813.pdf#page=16
The official House Clerk returns for the November 4, 1930 congressional election list Dominick Flaiani as a candidate for New Jerseys9th Congressional District as a Communist, printed Domenick Fiaiani and receiving 94 votes. This corroborates electoral activity rather than a fresh arrest or custody endpoint. Source: https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1930election.pdf#page=15
The June 9 report says the Newark organizer was out on bail following a seventeen-year sedition sentence and describes efforts to pressure Judge Van Riper into recommending deportation. It says he had arrived in the United States in 1919. A deportation demand is not completed removal. Daily Worker, June 9, 1930, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n138-NY-jun-09-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The February 11 Newark dispatch identifies these workers among nine arrested at the unemployed meeting, 93 Mercer Street. Rosen had previously been out on bail after an earlier leaflet arrest, so earlier and current detention are not treated as one uninterrupted period. No exact discharge or completed total is supplied. Daily Worker, February 12, 1930, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n292-NY-feb-12-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The January 1929 Labor Defender profile of Domenick Flaiani (the spelling printed there) documents an earlier Philadelphia episode, separate from his 1930 Newark sedition case. It reports repeated picket-line arrests during June and an additional July 28 arrest for alleged seditious utterances. After two days in jail he received a preliminary hearing and was held under $1200 bail; he was out of jail when the article was written. The article supplies neither a physical admission day nor actual release day, and two days before the hearing is a minimum stage, not a complete served total. The year is not printed beside July 28, so no precise arrest-year/date field is inferred.
Labor Defender, January1929, original PDF page25 (printed17).
A contemporary report of barred jail visits
The issue reports that Dominick Flaiani was held awaiting trial after a Newark unemployment meeting, with $10,000 bail. Alongside the solitary confinement, bread-and-water diet and police beating already described here, it says jail officials would not allow friends or newspaper reporters to visit him. It announces that International Labor Defense counsel would seek a bail reduction so he could be released pending trial; that proposed application is not a completed bail release. These are attributed contemporary allegations and a confinement snapshot, not a new custody episode or proof of exact admission, discharge or total time served. The separate earlier Philadelphia case and later Newark outcome remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, February 19, 1930, original pages 1. Claims are attributed to the contemporary newspaper, not certified findings.
