Former public defender is sentenced for assault
CATSKILL — An attorney who worked as a Greene County assistant public defender until his arrest in 2020 was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for beating his former girlfriend.
Anthony Pastel received the maximum sentence from a Rensselaer County judge after pleading guilty to felony assault. Before the plea deal, Pastel was facing 25 years in prison after being indicted on an attempted murder charge in the beating.
Pastel was pulled over, drunk, by State Police after choking and beating his girlfriend with a weapon in front of a child at a home in Athens. Pastel had fractured the woman’s skull and caused brain hemorrhaging, according to the Greene County district attorney’s office. He also gave her black eyes and severe lacerations to her face and lips.
She spent eight days at Albany Medical Center Hospital and had to undergo additional therapy to recover physically, according to the district attorney’s office, which called the attack “brutal.”
Pastel was charged with felony assault, felony strangulation and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, according to State Police. Still, his bail was set at only $250, an amount his attorney quickly paid.
Pastel was indicted by a Greene County grand jury on the attempted murder charge in November 2020, according to his attorney, Lee Kindlon of Albany. Bail was set at $25,000 cash or bond. Pastel again posted bail and was free until Friday’s sentencing.
Pastel began working as an assistant public defender for Greene County in May 2019. He had previously been an assistant public defender in Columbia County.