Thomas Breen photo
Gabe Canestri, Jr. and defense attorney Richard Tropiano, Jr. in court Monday.
A state judge has given the organizer of the 5,000-person “EastCoastin” motorcycle rally one week to consider a newly offered plea deal in his criminal case — as the city continues to try to collect on $82,000 in police and public works overtime stemming from that unpermitted event.
That was the outcome of a brief procedural hearing in a third-floor courtroom at 121 Elm St. Monday morning.
State Superior Court Judge Philip Scarpellino continued the state’s case against Gabriel Canestri, Jr. until Dec. 1.
Canestri is the local motorcyclist who organized Sept. 25’s EastCoastin’ blow-out in the Annex. City police arrested him the day of the “cancelled” annual event after thousands of people filled the city’s industrial waterfront to rev their engines, do motorcycle stunts and burnouts, and temporarily take over Waterfront Street.
State prosecutors have charged Canestri with one misdemeanor count of second-degree breach of peace and one misdemeanor count of inciting a riot. According to the state criminal court’s online database, Canestri has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
“We have a disposition worked out,” Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney David Strollo said in court on Monday. He said he’d like to have a representative from city government present in court before the judge rules on the proposed plea deal.
“We did have some discussion about this,” Scarpellino said from the bench.
The judge decided to push the case out to Dec. 1 to “give Mr. Canestri some time to consider” the proposed deal with the state, and to give “the court some time to see what the City of New Haven is looking for in the case.”
No one in court on Monday spoke about any of the details of the proposed plea deal.
Sophie Sonnenfeld file photo
At EastCoastin 2021 in September.
In early October, Mayor Justin Elicker and Interim Police Chief Renee Dominguez estimated that the total city overtime cost for EastCoastin was over $100,000. That’s because over 150 city police officers, as well as public works employees who helped with dump trucks and barricades, worked the event.
Elicker and Dominguez said during that October press briefing that the city had two potential routes it could take in trying to get Canestri to foot that overtime bill.
One would be by asking the judge to order restitution as part of Canestri’s criminal case.
Another would be to file a separate civil lawsuit against Canestri for the amount equal to the EastCoastin overtime bill.
On Monday, city spokesperson Kyle Buda told the Independent that the city’s current estimate for EastCoastin-related overtime costs is now down to $82,000.
He did not comment on which route — criminal or civil — the city is seeking in its ongoing efforts to collect from Canestri.
Canestri did not say anything during Monday’s court hearing. His attorney, Richard Tropiano Jr., spoke up only to agree to the judge’s setting of Dec. 1 as the next court date in the case.
After the hearing, Tropiano declined to comment on the case, as Canestri walked away from this reporter and out of the courthouse.
I hope this trial is not for show, and the city is serious about having this thug pay back the money used in overtime costs. If this had been the Flaming Knights giving the mayor and the city "the finger" they would have been arrested and probably still be in jail.
Like I said, this better not be for show.