Gallo accused of attacking woman
largemarge
Gallo accused of attacking woman
By: DAN KELLEY , Times Herald Staff
NORRISTOWN - Landlord and developer Alfonso Gallo again faces felony
charges - this time for aggravated assault.
Gallo, 41, is accused of punching a woman inside his home Tuesday night
on
the 1600 block of DeKalb Street, choking her and throwing her through a
set
of French doors.
Police said the attack left a mark on the victim's throat from a
necklace
she was wearing. She was treated at Montgomery Hospital Tuesday for
bruises
on the face, and given a CAT scan to assess potential head trauma,
according
to police.
Gallo was arraigned Tuesday before District Justice Robert Saraceni.
Still
on probation from the drug charges in 2004, he was expected to be
transported to the Montgomery County prison until a preliminary
hearing.
In November 2003 when he was head of the municipal waste authority,
Gallo
threw a bag containing nearly an ounce of cocaine from his truck while
leaving the scene of a dispute on the first block of East Main Street,
according to court records.
A police officer spotted the bag after Gallo opened the driver's side
door
of the vehicle to toss it out. The officer, James Lee of the Norristown
Police Department, picked up the bag and stopped Gallo.
Police charged Gallo with possession with intent to deliver, a felony,
because he had $1,483 in cash at the time of his arrest.
At a preliminary hearing in the case, county Det. Michael Reynolds - a
member of the county's narcotics enforcement team - said that based on
his
experience, the amount of the cocaine (24.9 grams) coupled with the
$1,483
in cash that Gallo had on him that morning indicated to him that Gallo
was a
drug dealer.
District Justice Frances Bernhardt downgraded Gallo's charges to
misdemeanor
possession after defense attorney Steven Fairlie described his client
as a
"man of means" who would be unlikely to purchase a $10 bag of cocaine
on a
street corner.
Fairlie declined to comment for this article, saying he had been unable
to
reach his client.
Gallo pleaded guilty in September 2004 and was sentenced to twelve
months
probation.
In October of 2004, Gallo, along with two of his employees, was accused
of
beating a homeless man with a baseball bat after accusing the man of
stealing tools.
On probation at the time for the drug conviction, Gallo spent more than
two
weeks in jail until the preliminary hearing. He was released and all
charges
were dropped when the homeless man failed to testify.
Law enforcement officials said that situation is unlikely to repeat
itself,
because in domestic violence cases police can testify to witness
statements.
Prosecuting Gallo in the criminal justice system has uncovered a tangle
of
potential conflicts of interest-both real and imagined.
Both district justices in Norristown, Saraceni and Francis L. Lawrence
recused themselves from the preliminary hearing on his 2004 drug
charges,
citing personal relationships.
Along with his brother Richard, who remains chairman of the Norristown
Planning Commission, Gallo donated heavily to the Police Athletic
League's
campaign to build a center on Sterigere Street.
District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., also took the unusual step of
appointing an assistant district attorney to handle Gallo's assault
case in
2004 in an attempt to head off claims of special treatment.
Gallo eventually resigned from the board of the waste authority in 2005
under pressure from Castor - citing his 1988 federal conviction on
obstruction of justice charges that Castor said made Gallo ineligible
to
hold that position. Gallo spent 12 months in prison on those charges,
tied
to a fraud investigation of federally funded housing rehabilitation.
Contact Dan Kelley at dke...@timesherald.com or 610-272-2500, ext. 207.