MASPETH — A Sanitation Department worker with a rotten work history should be fired for breaking a supervisor's finger after being chewed out for speeding in a snowplow truck during a winter storm last year, a city administrative judge ruled.
Worker Rudy Dilone pushed a car door into a supervisor, deputy chief Anthony Pennolino, after the two exchanged heated words over his driving at a Maspeth fueling station, the judge's Jan. 4 decision says.
Pennolino nearly dodged the door closing, but it caught his finger, fracturing it and causing it to bleed. Dilone then returned to his vehicle, fueled up and sped off, despite Pennolino ordering him to remain where he was so he could be drug tested, according to the decision.
Dilone and Pennolino were part of a large fleet of Sanitation Department employees called into service on the night of Jan. 26, 2015, and into the following morning to battle a major blizzard that didn't live up to its billing. The city ended up getting a little less than a foot of snow.
Pennolino testified during Dilone's trial at the city's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings that between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 27, 2015, he spotted the worker in a Sanitation truck "driving rapidly, fast, with his plow down on blacktop, causing sparks."
Pennolino said he followed Dilone in his own car, catching up to him two blocks away. When Pennolino confronted him about speeding, Dilone opened his window and began screaming and cursing, according to the decision. Then Dilone sped off to the fuel station, where they continued to argue.
There Dilone allegedly told Pennolino to "get a real job" and then pushed his door.
Dilone told the judge at the trial that the charges were a bunch of rubbish. He claimed Pennolino never identified himself and that Pennolino was driving an unmarked vehicle.
He also said Pennolino said "degrading, demeaning things" to him. He also denied pushing Pennolino's door.
Dilone added that he disobeyed Pennolino's order to remain where he was because Pennolino was acting aggressive.
But Judge Faye Lewis didn't buy Dilone's testimony. She also did not consider his long shift clearing snow as an excuse for his behavior.
"Although [Dilone] had been working all night under emergency snow conditions, the vast majority of Department of Sanitation employees handle themselves with a high degree of professionalism under stressful circumstances," Lewis wrote in her decision. "To excuse respondent's assaultive behavior on the basis of the difficulty of the snow operation would be a discredit to his colleagues."
Lewis also noted that Dilone had been disciplined multiple times for missing work and testing positive for marijuana since he joined the Sanitation Department in 2004.
The NYPD also charged Dilone with felony assault for the door pushing. Dilone later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received a conditional discharge. A two-year order of protection was also issued, banning him from contact with Pennolino.
