A New York Supreme Court judge was not charged after shoving a police officer during a street fight with neighbors, according to a Law360 report.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Mark Grisanti, 55, was involved in an argument with neighbors over a parking space on June 22 when officers arrived on the scene. In police body-camera footage obtained by Law360, the former state senator can be seen shirtless while he argues with his neighbors. The two households can be heard exchanging profanity-laden insults, with one woman loudly accusing the judge and his wife of being “drunks.”
At one point an officer warns Mark Grisanti’s wife, Maria Grisanti, 60, that if she continues to scream “this is gonna be a problem for you!” When Maria Grisanti replies that she does not care, the officer rushes over to her and proceeds to put her in handcuffs.
Upon seeing this, Mark Grisanti runs over and shoves the police officer away. After loudly threatening the officer to “get off my f—ing wife,” he tells the officer, “Listen, my daughter and son-in-law are both police officers. I’ll call ’em right now.”
After the officers place his wife in the back of a police vehicle, Mark Grisanti loudly shouts, “Listen, if you don’t get the cuffs off her right now, you’re gonna have a problem.”
The officer replies, “We’re not gonna do that by your demands.”
Mark Grisanti is later seen explaining what led to the argument. Mark Grisanti repeatedly mentions connections of his, including Mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo and his daughter and son-in-law. The conversation again becomes confrontational when he argues with the officer who handcuffed Maria Grisanti and another officer appears to become annoyed at Mark Grisanti’s repeatedly discussing his political connections.
At this point, the police put Mark Grisanti in handcuffs.
The Grisantis appear to have been detained for about an hour, but no arrests were made. Speaking in July, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn said he would not be pressing charges saying, “All parties were equally childish.”
Mark Grisanti’s attorney, Leonard Zaccagnino, disputed that his client had threatened the officers while acknowledging he discussed his powerful connections during the incident.
“If you had a wife that was being manhandled, you might feel the same way. … It’s a shame that the whole thing happened. It’s a shame,” he said.
When asked if the judge and his wife and received preferential treatment due to their status, Zaccagnino told local TV station WIVB, “I want people to remember at the end of this situation what happened was he and his wife were both handcuffed and they were taken down to the police station. So I don’t call that preferential treatment.”
Flynn stated that although MarkGrisanti’s conduct was bad it, “didn’t rise to the level of criminality.”