Last Dance, Last Chance

Anthony began. “Where do I begin? How do I tell my family and this Court how very, very sorry I am for what has happened? First and foremost, I want to apologize to my wife and my children. I want to apologize to the Rago family, and my family. I failed you all—not only my wife and children but my profession and my family legacy. Mostly, I failed myself. I was once so strong, both mentally and physically, and anybody can attest to that.”
    Within a paragraph, the prisoner was back to himself, lips quivering as he looked for someone to blame. He didn’t blame his father, but marked his decline from his father’s death.
    “My professional career failed and I went to jail, after which an attempt in a private business venture with my wife failed, and in the process, consumed the majority of our remaining cash reserve.
    “My pride was eating me up inside…The pressure of no income, being unemployable, the confusion, the pride, the frustration, consumed me. After years of dedicated study, I became a twenty-four-hour prisoner of my own demise.”
    Jail had been tough for him, he said. “I hit bottom.”
    He said he could not reach out to his wife because it would confirm his failure. “I lost sight of everything but bitterness.”
    He reached back to his dead baby girl, mentioned his children’s athletic accomplishments, and asked only that the Court would allow him to help his family, to provide for their emotional and physical needs. “I truly am not a harmful man. I want to prove that. I am a good man…My soul aches with profound shame, sorrow, disgrace and loss…Please allow me a second chance.”
    Anthony claimed that his recent talks with his wife had elicited feelings of forgiveness from her, even though people with other agendas had influenced her.
    “I want you to ask her if you question that at all. Our souls are still bonded, and I did the worst thing imaginable, but she has expressed her ability to forgive.”
    Anthony finished with tears streaking his face.
    “Anything else?” Judge Rossetti asked.
    “No, Your Honor.”
     
    Judge Rossetti had missed nothing in either Joel Daniels’s or Anthony Pignataro’s rhetoric. He observed that he knew the family history. He himself was Buffalo born and bred. He had been to Scotty’s on Busti Avenue, and he had known Anthony’s grandfather, if not Dr. Ralph. “There are a lot of Pignataros that I played ball with,” he said.
    But the judge was not about to be persuaded by an “old boys” plea, a plethora of local connections, or a river of tears. It was clear that he had paid far more attention to facts than to emotional oratory. He spoke with a wry solemnity.
    “When you received your medical degree,” Rossetti said to Anthony, “I believe you took the Hippocratic Oath…the oath embodying the code of medical ethics that doctors should perform during their practices.
    “Whether the arsenic ingesting was acute or chronic is immaterial at this particular time…You had your wife consume [arsenic] which resulted in her going to the hospital—which resulted in her being close to death’s door…All of the physicians were trying to find out what the basic problem was. They could not ascertain how to treat her because they couldn’t find out immediately that she was poisoned with arsenic. It seems to me that [with] remorse, if anything, [you] should have said, ‘I know what it is. I gave it to her. She has got arsenic poisoning—let’s try to do something.’
    “That is very, very troublesome to me.
    “As a part of the marriage ceremony, there were vows to love, honor, cherish, obey, in sickness and in health. When you got out of jail, you renewed those vows. Certainly giving arsenic, in my humble opinion, is not living up to that vow.”
    Judge Rossetti blasted Anthony for reconciling with his wife and then returning to put arsenic in her food and watching as she consumed it. And then he had proceeded to blame other people for his own crime. “You pointed to the family of Sarah Smith; you pointed to the fact that she [Debbie] may have [almost] committed suicide.
    “You have two children…This whole matter, as a result of your unprovoked conduct towards your wife, has led to an array of pain, of permanent damage to your wife—physically, emotionally—I remember arraigning you on the initial charge [Sarah Smith]…I remember your wife being here. I remember your mother being here…She’s been here time and time again—and I’m