Would a judge mutter Italian slurs in court? Fuhgeddaboudit

Frank Cerabino

I feel bad for Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele.

He ended up presiding over a civil case full of guys with Italian names, and Hafele got confused.

Hey, it can happen. Especially if you’re some straightoutta-the-jar barrister without any Mediterranean street cred.

There you are trying to listen to legal arguments while your brain is struggling to sort out a cast of characters that reads like the end credits to “Cinema Paradiso.”

Which is why during a court hearing in the multimillion-dollar real estate dispute between Delray Beach developer Anthony Pugliese and the recently deceased Subway founder, Fred DeLuca, the judge interjected for a bit of personal clarity.

“There are so many righthand men with our Italian folks here,” the judge said in open court.

So Hafele needed to get the teams straight from DeLuca’s attorney, Richard Hutchison.

“So you got San Giacomo is who’s right-hand man?” the judge asked.

“Mr. Pugliese,” the lawyer answered.

“Mr. Pugliese,” the judge repeated. “Florio is DeLuca’s right-hand man?”

“He’s not involved,” Hutchison answered.

As you can see, this was turning into an Italian ver- sion of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” bit.

I thought it was funny. But Pugliese has called the judge’s remarks insulting to his Italian heritage.

“Judge Hafele’s statement makes me feel that he has a negative, stereotypical, racist opinion of Italians and their ‘right-hand men,’ ” Pugliese said in a sworn statement.