Man retaliates against woman who testified at trial by beating her 15-year-old, feds say
An 18-year-old pleaded guilty to beating a woman’s 15-year-old son in retaliation for her testifying against his family members in a criminal case, federal prosecutors said.
Before the beating, Patrick Civitello was at a restaurant in Glenville, New York, about a 30-mile drive northwest from Albany, when he saw the woman and her son walk inside on May 19, according to court documents.
At the time, Patrick Civitello was on the phone with his older brother, Jeffrey C. Civitello Jr., who was in jail, prosecutors said.
The woman helped convict Jeffrey Civitello Jr. and Jeffrey C. Civitello Sr., the father of the Civitello brothers, on federal drug trafficking charges in April 2023 by testifying as a witness, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.
She previously dated Jeffrey Civitello Sr., court documents show.
Upon seeing the woman and her son, Patrick Civitello alerted his brother and told him, “I gotta rag this (expletive), I gotta call you back,” according to prosecutors, who said this meant he “intended to retaliate against (the woman) for her trial testimony.”
Jeffrey Civitello Jr. told his younger brother: “OK run down, but do it away from everyone if you could,” according to prosecutors.
He knew that Patrick Civitello “was about to commit a crime,” an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit, which showed a photo of Patrick Civitello on the phone at the restaurant, Max410 at The Waters Edge.
When the woman and her 15-year-old left the establishment, Patrick Civitello followed them to the parking lot, according to prosecutors.
He took off his watch and a cross-body bag and put them on the ground, then raced toward the mother and her son, prosecutors said.
Patrick Civitello began punching the teenager in the head, according to prosecutors.
After the teen fell, Patrick Civitello kept punching and kicking him, leaving him with cuts and bruises on his head, neck and hand, prosecutors said.
His defense attorney, Brian W. Devane, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 29.
Patrick Civitello, of Schenectady, has been in custody since he was arrested on June 13, prosecutors said.
He will be sentenced on a charge of witness retaliation on Feb. 28, 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The attack on the woman’s son happened about two months after Patrick Civitello’s brother was sentenced to 11 years in prison on March 22 on charges of conspiring to traffic more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, and possessing two firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, prosecutors said.
Jeffrey Civitello Jr.’s defense attorneys didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment Oct. 29.
The Civitello brothers’ father, Jeffrey Civitello Sr., was sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2023 for conspiring to traffic about 15 kilograms of cocaine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
His defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jeffrey Civitello Sr. was accused of working with his older son “and experienced drug traffickers from the New York City area to transport large amounts of cocaine to Schenectady,” U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said in a statement on his sentencing.
The drug trafficking operation had ties to the Mafia, The Times Union newspaper reported.
In Patrick Civitello’s case, he faces up to life in prison, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Man retaliates against woman who testified at trial by beating her 15-year-old, feds say."
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