Lawyer: Fired waiter may have been rebelling against dadBY MATTHEW CHAYES
matthew.chayes@newsday.com
1:08 PM EST, January 10, 2009
A waiter at a Jewish wedding who is considering converting to Islam interrupted the celebration's final prayers with recorded Arabic chants of "God is great," sparking fear among the 700 guests of a terrorist attack, Nassau County police said Friday in announcing his arrest.
Stephen Buttafuoco, who police say was fired "on the spot" from the catering service at the Woodbury Jewish Center, had attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan a day earlier opposing the Israeli campaign.
Buttafuoco recorded the audio on his cell phone of the rally, which he then used to replay for the wedding guests, police said.
Following a police investigation, Buttafuoco, 23, was charged with aggravated harassment, a felony, police said. The crime with which he is charged makes it illegal to "harass, annoy, threaten or alarm" via electronic means. A grand jury will consider whether to also charge Buttafuoco with the crime of disruption of a religious service, police said.
At his arraignment Saturday, Buttafuoco pleaded not guilty, his attorney, Thomas H. Spreer, said, adding that his client's mother intended to post the $1,500 cash bail.
Spreer said Saturday that his client may have been rebelling against his father -- the preacher of a born-again church in Babylon who apparently supports Israel's war against Hamas -- by airing the tape of the pro-Palestinian protest.
The wedding guests early Jan. 4 couldn't at first decipher the angry-sounding chants blaring over the public address system shortly after 1 a.m.
"They just figured it was the children playing with the DJ's microphone," said Nassau Det. Sgt. Michael Marino.
But when they heard "Allahu akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- the guests became worried.
"They thought that this could lead to some kind of terroristic act," Marino said. He said the recording "put the guests in fear that something was going to happen to them."
Because of the Sabbath, neither the caterer, Morrell Caterers, where Buttafuoco had worked for about two years, nor the synagogue could be reached for comment.
Buttafuoco told detectives that he was trying to disrespect Judaism privately and that he didn't think the recording was being played throughout the building, just in the sanctuary, where he was, police said.
Police, who called the recording "an offensive Palestinian chant," said he was not arrested until Friday because detectives wanted to rule out terrorist connections.
Attorney Spreer, of Babylon, said charging his client with a felony may have been heavy-handed.
"On the other hand, I can understand the concern of the members of Jewish community who were at this wedding," Spreer said. "I can certainly see both sides of the coin."
Police said Buttafuoco told detectives that he is not related to Joey Buttafuoco, the man involved in a notorious love triangle in the 1990s with Amy Fisher, though people ask him often about the shared name.
Speaking of the confusion, Sgt. Marino said: "He actually told the detective he went through that his whole life."
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