FEAR MOB WAR AFTER SHOOT. Ex-cop makes bail in Top Tomato attack
BY ALISON GENDAR, MAUREEN SEABERG and TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS WRITERS With Jonathan Lemire and John Marzulli
December 10, 2005
AN EX-COP ACCUSED OF SHOOTING a reputed mobster in the gut at his Top Tomato store was released on bail yesterday - but he might be safer behind bars.
Gambino family bigs are furious at the "renegade" attack on alleged capo Carmine Sciandra by retired officer Patrick Balsamo, who brought two Bonanno wiseguys along for protection, investigators said.
Police fear Balsamo's rampage - sparked by his belief Sciandra's brother groped his 18-year-old daughter, a cashier at the Staten Island store - could spark a deadly feud between the crime syndicates.
"There is a great deal of concern that this could spiral into a mob war," one law enforcement source told the Daily News.
"This was a renegade act. No one is supposed to lay a finger on a guy like Carmine Sciandra. The made guys know that. They are appalled that this hothead ex-cop mucked things up the way he did."
Surveillance video of the incident shows that when Balsamo whipped out a pistol outside Top Tomato on Wednesday night, one of the Bonanno henchmen appeared to lunge for the weapon to stop him, sources said.
Balsamo was so out of control that after he shot Sciandra in the stomach, he tried to blow away an innocent employee who ran to the boss' aid - but his gun jammed, sources said.
The Bonanno cronies, Michael Viga, 52, and Ronald Carlucci, 62, fled the scene in their Lexus, leaving their buddy to fend for himself at the scene, sources said. He later surrendered to cops.
The hulking Balsamo, 49, had nothing to say after being arraigned on first-degree assault, weapons possession and criminal mischief charges and posting $5,000 cash bail.
"He's a father looking out for the interests of his daughter," said his lawyer, Felix Gilroy.
Sciandra, 52, whose family owns the Top Tomato discount produce chain, is in the hospital and also has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Every time a detective enters his hospital room to question him, "he hits the morphine button," one source said. "He doesn't want to talk no way, no how."
The bloodshed was touched off by a complaint from Balsamo's 18-year-old daughter, Maria, that her boss, Salvatore Sciandra, sexually harassed and then fired her.
"Salvatore would tell the girl, 'Hey, you don't have to work the register. I can give you money for clothes," a cop source said. "Then he tried to get her to come into the trailer at the store to change into the clothes."
When her father heard, he charged over to the Victory Blvd. store with Maria, his son Anthony, 27, and Viga and Carlucci in tow.
Salvatore Sciandra wasn't there but they spoke by phone in an office, and Sciandra reportedly screamed, "She's a liar."
The two Balsamo men then marched out of the office with bats in hand and started smashing the front windows and a register, police said.
Meanwhile, Carmine Sciandra was summoned to the store and he ran up to Patrick Balsamo outside with his own bat in hand - and got shot in the stomach.
"Carmine falls to the ground and Balsamo turns his gun on this poor schlep employee who was with Carmine. Lucky for this guy, Balsamo's gun jams. He tried to shoot him four times," a law enforcement source said.
Carmine Sciandra, who lives in a palatial hillside mansion on Staten Island, is a reputed Gambino captain once mentioned as a possible successor to the late Dapper Don, John Gotti.
His brother, Salvatore, was indicted in 2002 for allegedly using a Bronx Top Tomato as a front to sell hot goods, and Salvatore's wife was busted for car-insurance fraud.
Balsamo racked up numerous commendations in his eight years on the force but came under fire in 1990 after he and his partner fatally shot a 20-year-old man 12 times in Brooklyn.
He retired in 1993 with knee and back injuries from three patrol car accidents and won a lawsuit to obtain Social Security disability benefits.
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2005/12/10/2005-12-10_fear_mob_war_after_shoot__ex.html
