Butcher Who Handed Black Deliveryman A Noose Gets Community Service

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A white butcher who gave a black deliveryman a noose as a "gift" was sentenced to just three days of community service after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, prosecutors said.

Joseph Ottomanelli, of the historic West Village butcher shop Ottomanelli & Sons, handed Victor Sheppard the noose in April, Sheppard told police.

"You can put it around your neck and pull if you want to end it all," Ottomannelli told Sheppard, according to a criminal complaint. "If you are feeling stressed out. I can help you with it."

Ottomannelli pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on Tuesday but will have the opportunity to get the charge erased if he completes three days of community service in a soup kitchen or food pantry and attends a restorative justice program.

Ottomanelli's attorney, the famous civil rights representative Ron Kuby, said the deal was evidence that both prosecutors and Ottomanelli's defense team agreed that "the appropriate disposition is dismissal of all charges."

Kuby added Ottomanelli maintains his innocence and insists that a different employee at the meat shop handed Sheppard the noose.

"It was done as joke by a different employee but it wasn't funny and the employee was terminated," Kuby said. "Ottomanelli's has been in the Village for over a century and has zero tolerance for hate speech."

Police initially arrested Ottomanelli and charged him with harassment as a hate crime, before the Manhattan district attorney's office decided to prosecute him on just one misdemeanor harassment charge. Disorderly conduct, the charge to which the butcher pleaded guilty on Tuesday, is a violation. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Have you been a victim to or have witnessed a hate crime? Tell your story here.

Sheppard worked for the delivery company Mosner Family Brands when he was handed the noose. The company has since severed all ties with Ottomanelli & Sons and has halted deliveries to the Bleecker Street meat shop.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch