Carmel Councilman Facing Criminal Charges for Reporter Fracas
Carmel Councilman Mike Barile is facing criminal charges for his alleged actions in a confrontation with a newspaper columnist at a meeting last month.
Barile was charged last Tuesday by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office with first degree grand larceny, a felony, fourth degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and second degree harassment, a violation, after turning himself in to police. He is due to appear in Carmel Court October 22.
At the September 18 meeting, Barile lashed out at Journal News columnist David Mackay Wilson for alleged biased reporting, threw an empty water bottle at him and then grabbed the reporter’s cell phone and tossed it outside, cracking the cover.
Two weeks ago, the majority of the Carmel Town Board voted to hire an outside law firm to investigate Barile’s alleged unauthorized connection to a sewer system for a restaurant he owns in Lake Mahopac.
Councilpersons John Lupinacci, Suzi McDonough and Jonathan Schneider agreed to retain the services of Cozen O’Connor to look into the accusations. Barile recused himself from the October 2 vote, while Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt, who called the scuffle “an embarrassment,” abstained.
However, prior to the vote, Schmitt said he agreed with the need to bring in an outside legal eye, commenting “we need to start this process quickly.” He also said retaining Cozen O’Connor could cost the town more than $40,000.
As reported in The Putnam Examiner, a letter from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection stated that Blu at the Lakehouse, the restaurant owned by Barile, was connected to a sewer and not using a septic system. Earlier this year, Barile said that the property did use septic. A dye test on the existing septic field was done on September 4 by the DEP and discovered the force main for the Blu Restaurant was online. According to Barile, the cap on the force main at Route 6N and Clark Place had been removed the previous week. The Putnam County Department of Health sent a violation to Barile for non-compliance.
On September 3, Barile told The Putnam Examiner that he disconnected from his septic field and connected to the sewer so the DEP could run a test to inspect the manhole and sewer line. He also claimed that the town engineering department had been aware of the sewer hookup.
“I’m not looking for exoneration,” Barile remarked two weeks ago.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/