Sex Crime Victim's Mother Reads Impact Statement In Bonanno Extortion Case

"Patricia Adams used my disabled father to get to me. My father can barely walk unaided due to a work injury. ... However, she shamelessly approached him, just days after one of the most traumatic events of my life."

Pisani, Bonanno associate.

Patricia Adams, who operates the weekly Forum Newsgroup, threatened to use her position as publisher to virtually destroy a woman who had accused mobbed-up deli owner Robert Pisani of a sex crime. Adams was sentenced on Oct. 11 to five months in prison. (Pisani, found guilty of loansharking as well, was sentenced to 30 months.)





What follows is the victim impact statement that was read by the young woman’s mother to the court before Adams was sentenced.

Good afternoon Judge Matsumoto and Members of the Court,

I stand here today to tell you the truth that you may not know about the woman before us, Patricia Adams. Instead of facing it at a trial, she has pled to save herself from it. To hide from the facts that have undoubtedly made the past year and a half of my life horrifying to live. Over a year of fear, personal anguish and financial hardship have taken a serious toll on my well-being and that of my family. I felt the urgent need, despite the danger and possibility of retaliation, to come here today tell you my side of this. I did not want someone else to read unfamiliar words off a piece of paper but rather wanted you to see me and to hear my own words when I say them with every bit of emotion I have behind them.

What the defendant admitted to, “Misprision of a Felony,” is like salt in the wounds that I have not only received but that I have been forced to live with day after day. Ones that I will live with for the rest of my life. For the defendant before us was not only aware of the plot to silence me after I was sexually assaulted, she was the one who attempted to silence me. She threatened me from her high horse to stand down in testifying against a man who sexually assaulted me. The same man mind who was later tried and convicted by a jury of his crimes against me.

Patricia Adams used my disabled father to get to me. My father can barely walk unaided due to a work injury. In the past two years, he has had 10 major surgeries to help improve the quality of his life. Surgeries that have helped him stay out of a wheel chair or paralyzed. However, she shamelessly approached him, just days after one of the most traumatic events of my life. Using deceit, lies and fabricated stories, she desperately attempted to sway my father’s idea of his little girl. Her intentions were clear: “I do not want to harm your daughter, but the moment she cooperates with them (i.e. the federal government),” she would be forced to publish malicious information about me in her paper “The Forum.” She meant to slander and blackmail me using my own civil liberties against me. The supposed “unbiased” head of a well-known newspaper in my VERY small Neighborhood. She stated that she would “ruin my life”; that I would be hurt; and that I would never have a job in my neighborhood again. Though fortunately for me that was never my life goal, nonetheless. Her own bad habits of gambling with mob money put her “under the thumb,” as she stated, of the same person who assaulted me.

I listened to 2 hours and 36 minutes of recorded audio my father was sharp enough to capture while being berated by the defendant. I was haunted by it. The words and threats echoed in my head. I was terrified already after what had happened to me. This made it even worse — to know who these people were and what they were capable of. By no choice of my own I felt as if I was being written into a movie plot with me as the victim who would end up dead if I were to seek justice for myself. I sank into a very dark place. I was fearful for myself and for the safety of my young child. I was also fearful for my future and what would become of it. I was unable to function in my daily responsibilities. I became severely paranoid, finding myself thinking in worst-case scenarios. I couldn’t strap my son into his car seat without thinking someone could come up from behind me and hurt him or me. Or, if a car was behind me for too long, I KNEW they were following me and I would panic. I locked myself away, unable to keep a job with my new found paranoia and lack of trust in people. I was jumpy, irritable, distracted, and completely irrational when it came to believing everyone was out to get me. I mean, after all, it really was so easy for these people to get to me and my family. My worst fears of retaliation were realized just days after being sexually assaulted with the approach of this woman, the defendant before us.

In time, for the sake of the love I have for myself and that of my family, I sought and am still seeking help to cope. I am trying my best to move forward. However, due to the small town-nature of my neighborhood, there have been occasions in which I have encountered this terrible woman. Each time, it sets back my progress and makes me feel as if justice is only a dream to achieve instead of a reality. On one such occasion, after the defendant pled guilty and was granted additional freedoms on pretrial release, she walked into the nail salon I occasionally treat myself to—just 2 steps ahead of me! Wearing her ankle bracelet like a badge of honor in a pair of shorts. Ironically, I even backed up for her without knowing because she almost hit my car while parking! So close to home, quite literally, has been this entire situation. She does not care how this has affected me and my life. But yet she carries on with hers as if she is better than everyone. Above everyone. To attempt to knock down another woman while standing up for herself after being so violated. Especially in today’s day and age of women’s empowerment in which so many are coming out of the shadows to stand up against those who have violated them. She could still try to squash me like a bug with her threats against my rights as not only a woman, but as an American. She is a poor excuse for a human being let alone a woman.

It is my understanding under the terms of the plea agreement that the government can only ask for 6 months jail time. That is hardly enough time for what she has done to me. I have lived in turmoil alone for more than double that time. Her actions will continue to have a lasting effect on me because of the small neighborhood in which we live. And they have impacted me as I have stated in this letter. She truly deserves a lot more time. I would implore the court to sentence her to three years’ imprisonment, which is far less than what she would have faced under her original charges. In addition, I would like to request a permanent stay away order to be a part of her sentence. Just as one small piece of mind that may help me to start to put my life back together.

I am a true believer in Karma — what you put out into this world lovingly or hatefully cycles back to you. Anything that has happened thus far to lead the defendant to this point is because of her vicious actions. Though what she has done will undoubtedly stay with me for a lifetime, I believe what she has done to herself will condemn her throughout her own and the next. If victims have to worry about the likes of Pat Adams ruining their reputations in the community, in the press and elsewhere, how can the Court expect everyone to be strong enough to come forward? The Court should send a message to other people thinking of doing what Pat Adams did to me that their actions will be met with serious penalties. How is anything less than that fair to victims? What she did to me and to my family has made this whole nightmare that much worse.

It has been a very long year and a half, and I truly hope that today can be the beginning of a new tomorrow for me. Thank you to all of you here today who have helped me to get justice. Thank you for taking the time out of your lives and away from your families attempting to make right out of the despicable actions this woman has shamelessly, intentionally and with free will committed — all to benefit an associate of organized crime.


Comments