WHAT A BREAK
Kerik’s ‘mob-tied’ biz guy to duck felony in head-bash
A CONTRACTOR with ties to disgraced former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik was caught on video surveillance beating an FBI informant who testified against the one-time top cop — but will likely duck a criminal conviction.
Frank DiTommaso, 58, repeatedly pummeled his old friend, Larry Ray, 57, at the Hudson Hotel two years ago, the video obtained by the Daily News shows.
On Monday, DiTommaso will be offered to plead guilty to a mere violation, despite the damning footage and Ray’s objection to the deal.
The construction honcho, whose company Interstate Industrial Corp. has been accused of having mob ties, was initially charged with felony assault in April 2016. He could have faced seven years behind bars.
But the charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, citing a lack of evidence showing DiTommaso was holding a metal object.
He now faces up to a year behind bars.
The video shows DiTommaso kneeing Ray in the face as he struggled to escape from a seating area near the 58th St. hotel’s lobby around 10 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2015. Witnesses are also seen trying to stop the beatdown.
The attack left Ray with a skull fracture as well as permanent speech and other neurological problems, according to Ray’s lawer, Edward Hayes.
“It’s a terrible crime with a permanent injury and whether the case is difficult or not, let a jury decide,” Hayes said. Ray, a former close pal of Kerik’s, was the best man at his 1998 wedding and worked for DiTommaso and his brother, Peter, before turning against them.
He gave information to prosecutors about financial corruption and ties to organized crime that sent Kerik to federal prison for four years. The DiTommaso brothers were charged with lying to a 2006 grand jury investigating Kerik for improprieties dating to the late 1990s, when Kerik was the city correction commissioner. Frank was acquitted, but the same jury convicted Peter in 2012. Ray is suing DiTommaso and the hotel, and says the attack was retribution for his testimony against the contractors.
DiTommaso’s lawyer Cathy Fleming declined to comment on the plea talks but said the video “does not tell the whole story.”
The DA’s office also declined to comment on the plea discussions.