Mahopac Man Entangled in Nail Gun Incident Cleared

More than year ago, he was accused of shooting a nail gun near a coworker’s head on Tilly Foster Farm, but today Santino Pietrosanti is a vindicated man.

Pietrosanti, a Mahopac resident and former Putnam County highway worker, was accused of firing a nail gun in Feb. 2016 during a dispute with a fellow worker. It was a widely talked about allegation and reported in numerous media outlets. But the misdemeanor charges attached to his name were thrown out (with less publicity) as Pietrosanti looks to move on.

His attorney, Heather Abissi of the Goshen-based Sussman & Associates law firm, said the two charges—menacing in the second degree and reckless endangerment in the second degree—were adjourned, dismissed and the entire case in now sealed. The case was officially dismissed and sealed on October 5.

Abissi said Pietrosanti’s defense was the incident in question never happened.

“No one was ever in any danger,” Abissi said. “Nothing was ever fired at anyone or in the direction of anyone.”

Abissi said the DA’s office agreed with the assessment and declined to prosecute the case. Putnam County District Attorney Bob Tendy confirmed the case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal after a thorough investigation was completed and with the consent of the complaining witness.

Abissi said there were also numerous errors in the press release originally sent out by the sheriff’s office. From trivial issues like his name misspelled multiple times to more important ones like a false claim that a temporary order of protection against Pietrosanti was issued. The sheriff’s office in an email said it found no record indicating an order of protection.

“When it was further investigated, the case had no merit,” she said.

Abissi said Pietrosanti wants to put this “horrible, upsetting, distasteful and embarrassing” event behind him and his family that have lived in the community for a long time.

“He just wanted the truth to come out,” Abissi said

David Propper