NEW YORK — The general manager of a Staten Island bar, which declared itself an "autonomous zone" and defied the state's coronavirus regulations, has avoided criminal charges in connection with a December incident where video appeared to show him striking a sheriff’s deputy with his car.
He is still facing charges by a grand jury for refusing to comply with COIVD-19 safety protocols.
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon on Friday said 34-year-old Daniel Presti, of Mac's Public House on Lincoln Avenue in Grant City, is being charged with the unlicensed sale of alcohol and running an unlicensed bottle club.
On December 1, the bar was shut down for refusing to comply with COVID-19 protocols and then shut down again on December 5. Presti was also arrested on December 5 and was accused by the sheriff's office of striking a deputy sheriff with his car.
Surveillance video provided by Mark Fonte, one of Presti's attorneys, to NY1, which he said showed the incident, showed two men approaching Presti's vehicle. Presti was then seen driving off while the two men were trying to access his car. One of the men was seen on the hood of his car as he drives off.
The sheriff's office said Presti struck the deputy sheriff with his car, but Fonte said the video showed that Presti was "running for his life from unidentified individuals dressed in dark clothing" and that the sheriff officers "broke every proper procedure for effectuating an arrest."
Fonte claimed that the sheriffs were in plainclothes, but the criminal complaint said they were in uniform.
McMahon said, after reviewing all the evidence presented, a grand jury voted that there was only sufficient evidence for the alcohol and bottle club charges.
Sheriff Joseph Fucito released a statement criticizing the decision, saying, "The multiple evidence videos submitted to the grand jury clearly showed deadly physical force was deployed against a uniformed deputy sheriff for carrying out his duty. The evidence was of equal or greater caliber then other similar deadly assaults where criminal indictments were obtained."
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