Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio personally ordered the Sheriff’s Department to crack down on a Staten Island pub that was flouting COVID protocols during the height of the debate over pandemic restrictions, new court papers reveal.
The details regarding de Blasio’s personal involvement in the furor over Mac’s Public House emerged through a lawsuit brought by the anti-vax mandate bar owner, Daniel Presti, against the city. Presti says the city wrongly arrested him and smeared his name through criminal charges, which were later dismissed, alleging he slammed his Jeep into a sheriff’s deputy on Dec. 6, 2020, after authorities arrived at the bar to enforce COVID restrictions.
Former city Sheriff Joseph Fucito revealed in a deposition last month that de Blasio called him before deputies arrived at the bar, which Presti declared an “autonomous zone” that did not recognize pandemic rules.
“The mayor asked me to enforce the vacate order,” Fucito recalled of his 30-second phone call with de Blasio. “I asked if I could have the Police Department assist, and he said yes.”
Fucito did not say the exact date of the call with de Blasio, but remembered it occurred before Presti was arrested for allegedly ramming his turquoise Jeep into the sheriff’s deputy, breaking the man’s leg, following a brief car chase.
The bar owner had been arrested days before that incident after an undercover sting by the Sheriff’s Department found 14 people eating and drinking inside the bar, in violation of rules requiring only takeout be served at the watering hole.
Presti’s lawyer now cites the phone call as evidence de Blasio should be questioned under oath in connection with his lawsuit.
“Mayor de Blasio appears to have had law enforcement officers directly target at least one plaintiff, Presti, ” lawyer John Balestriere wrote Monday, arguing the city had a “custom” of permitting excessive force.
The city Law Department is fighting the effort to grill de Blasio.
“Plaintiffs are unable to establish that former Mayor de Blasio’s deposition is necessary to obtain relevant information that cannot be obtained from any other source,” wrote Joseph Pepe, an assistant corporation counsel.
The former mayor did not immediately respond to a text for comment.
Mac’s Public House became a headquarters of sorts early in the pandemic for people who opposed COVID restrictions. Presti himself was a prominent figure in the movement. Nearly 400 protesters attended a Dec. 2, 2020, rally at the watering hole.
