WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 31, 2020 3
Addabbo requests release of convicted mobster
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
A Queens lawmaker has requested
the early release of a
convicted mobster, who was
sentenced to six and a half years in
prison for extortion in November
2018.
State Senator Joe Addabbo penned
the letter to U.S. District Judge Dora
Irizarry in support of the early release
of Michael Padavona, a made
member of the Bonanno crime family
currently serving his sentence
at Fort Dix, a federal prison in New
Jersey, according to the office of
the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York. Addabbo cited
Padavona’s good behavior behind
bars, his connection to his loved
ones and his poor health as reasons
for the compassionate release.
“It is my understanding that Mr.
Padavona has realistic grounds
for such a release based upon his
health condition, which I believe
includes high blood pressure, a
herniated disc with medication and
a previous treatment for testicular
cancer,” the senator wrote. “One factor
on which I base my request is the
lack of social distancing and other
health measures being taken at Mr.
Padavona’s quarters, making him
susceptible to the rise in the positive
COVID-19 cases at the site.”
Prisons and jails in New York have
come under scrutiny in the past
year for what many lawmakers and
activists believe to be a lackluster
response to COVID-19.
In November, Padavona tested
positive for the virus and, instead
of being treated, was “alone in his
cell with a fever and an extremely
irregular blood pressure,” according
to his lawyers.
Addabbo also mentioned in his letter
that Padavona has been unable
to see his family since the pandemic
began.
“Personally, the other factor which
urged me to make this request was
the fact that Mr. Padavona has a wife
and five children, who I understand
he has not seen since the pandemic
crisis began,” Addabbo wrote. “I am
hopeful that his status as a model
inmate and remaining term of his
sentence would allow him to be safely
reunited with his family.”
The feds have strongly argued
against Padavona’s release, citing
several instances of extortion to
which he had pleaded guilty in 2018.
According to the U.S. Attorney,
Padavona and his co-defendants,
Ronald Giallanzo, Nicholas Festa and
Michael Hintze, acted as loansharks,
handing out money to victims only to
force the collection of a much larger
sum of cash under the threat of
violence.
In addition to the extortion
charges, Padavona also collected
over $400,000 in Social Security
disability payments for himself and
his family despite having not paid
taxes on the money he illegally made,
according to the feds.
In 2006, Padavona allegedly
ordered an associate to burn a car
belonging to the parent of a girl that
was having a dispute with Padavona’s
daughter at school. As a form of payment,
Padavona gave his associate a
bottle of the prescription painkiller
Vicodin.
File photo
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