Matteo Anello ordered to give up copy of ‘speech’

Local News

November 21, 2011

By Rick Pfeiffer Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon Nov 21, 2011, 12:34 AM EST

BUFFALO — Matteo Anello claims the Falls City Council violated his First Amendment rights and his civil rights when he was stopped from making a speech and placed under arrest at a meeting in October 2007.

But his federal civil rights lawsuit has been on hold for most of this year because the brother of former Mayor Vince Anello did not want to give attorneys for the city a copy of his “speech.”

That hurdle has now been removed as a result of a ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio. Foschio has ordered Anello to provide a copy of his “speech” to lawyers for the city and to answer, in writing, questions submitted to him by those attorneys.

The magistrate has also ordered lawyers for Anello and the city to complete their exchange of materials and conduct pre-trial depositions by Dec. 30. A new trial date for the case was set for May 15.

Both sides in the case sent a flurry of accusatory letters, about delays in the proceedings, back and forth in September. Lawyers from the prominent Buffalo law firm Hodgson, Russ, Andrews, Woods & Goodyear, which is representing the city, asked Foschio to order Anello to respond to their demands and to pay for their costs in forcing him to submit, among other items, a copy of the hand-written speech he was trying to read to the council at a meeting on Oct. 8, 2007.

Foschio did not order the payment of the legal fees.

Anello is seeking unspecified damages for what he claims were his false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution after the incident in the City Council chambers. He claims he was “falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned” after then City Council Chairman Robert Anderson Jr. ordered him removed from the chambers.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and arraigned the next day in Falls City Court.

The lawsuit names the city, current Councilmen Anderson, Samuel Fruscione and Charles Walker, former Councilmen Chris Robins and Lewis “Babe” Rotella and a Cataract City cop as defendants.

Anello had begun speaking during a portion of the council meeting designated for public comments when the trouble started.

“(Anello) intended to speak on derogatory statements defendant Anderson has made regarding Italian-Americans,” the lawsuit claims. “Approximately two minutes into (Anello’s) statement, defendant Anderson declared that (Anello) did not ‘have the floor.’”

The lawsuit claims a police officer, who was stationed at the council meeting to keep order, then used excessive force to remove Anello from the council chambers after being ordered to do so by Anderson.

City lawyers have called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

The case was originally assigned to a federal mediator, but efforts to resolve the case without a trial broke down in June 2010. Anello’s original attorney in the case, Matthew Pynn, said, “We couldn’t get anywhere (in the mediation attempt).”

After multiple postponements of court hearings, lasting over a year and a half, City Court Judge Diane Vitello gave Anello an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal on the charges he faced.

Those charges were formally dismissed on Nov. 30, 2009.

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