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Charges dropped against attorney in Caffe assault

By Ayala Ben-Yehuda

Charges were dropped last week against a Brooklyn lawyer who had been accused of assaulting an Asian woman in an alleged bias attack at Bayside’s Caffe on the Green Jan. 3.

Annamarie Fortunato, 33, of Mill Basin, was arrested in March along with her parents, George and Jacqueline Fortunato, on charges they made racist remarks and physically struck Connie Coleman, 45, of Roslyn Heights, L.I. in a late-night melee at the deserted restaurant.

“Based on our investigation, we believe there are issues related to identification,” said Assistant District Attorney Mariela Palomino Herring at an April 9 hearing in Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens before Justice Douglas Wong.

Neither George Fortunato’s attorney Joseph Mure nor the DA would confirm reports that prosecutors were investigating another Fortunato daughter and her boyfriend.

“We said that to everyone from day one — Annamarie Fortunato was not there and should not have been arrested,” said Mure.

After the hearing, a relieved Annamarie Fortunato said she felt “fantastic.”

“I’ve been through an emotional ordeal, but healthwise I’m okay,” said Annamarie Fortunato, who is 10 weeks pregnant with her first child.

According to the DA’s criminal complaint, Coleman, who was born in Hong Kong, was having dinner with some companions at a table next to the Fortunatos’ when they began making anti-Asian comments.

When Coleman got up to leave, the complaint says, an unapprehended man threw a glass of wine in her face.

Jacqueline Fortunato held Coleman down while her husband, daughter and the other man punched her, the complaint says.

Caffe on the Green owner Joe Franco was not present at the time of the alleged attack.

When the Fortunatos were arrested, Mure gave a different version of events, casting Coleman as the aggressor.

He said George Fortunato had accidentally bumped into someone at Coleman’s table on his way out for a cigarette and contended that Coleman later backed her chair into Jacqueline Fortunato’s, elbowed her and hit her with a pocketbook.

Mure also said Coleman threw a knife at George Fortunato in the scuffle.

Annamarie Fortunato, a personal injury lawyer who holds a law degree from Hofstra University, said she was home with her husband at the time of the incident.

George Fortunato, a legal consultant whom law enforcement officials identified last month as an associate of the Gambino crime family, and his wife Jacqueline are still being prosecuted on charges of assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment. They are due back in court May 14.

The elder Fortunatos face a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted.

“Every family member of the Fortunatos has fully cooperated with the investigation, as well as the restaurant,” said attorney George Farkas, who represented Annamarie Fortunato.

City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) held two press conferences after the incident, one in which Franco apologized to Coleman and another in which Liu called on the district attorney to prosecute the case to the fullest after the Fortunatos were arrested.

Farkas criticized “people with political ambition” for blowing the incident out of proportion.

“Cases such as these are much better when they’re left to professionals,” said Farkas, who praised the DA’s office for its investigative work.

“What I want to see is justice served here in this case, and I have every faith that the Queens DA and the Police Department are going to pursue it to the fullest extent of the law,” Liu said Tuesday. “(Coleman) had the living daylights beat out of her.”

Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 146.