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MOUNT VERNON DAD SHOOTS ASSAILANT IN THE LEG – This well-known dude was simply picking up his dinner, when he was jumped and assaulted with a baseball bat.  This was not a wise move, as our client quickly wrested the bat away from his attackers and started swinging.  One of the thugs then pulled out a gun and that too turned out to be ill-advised.  Our client got the gun, shot his attacker in the leg and ran leaving the gun behind.  All criminal charges, included assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon were dismissed within a few short months.

College student cornered on MTA. A young Hawaiian actor in the United States to attend a local college was surrounded and threatened with violence by several larger men, one of which put the young man in a choke hold. The Defendant pulled out a knife to defend himself and ward off his attackers. He was then wrongfully charged with Possession of a Weapon and Menacing. All charges dismissed.


A known prostitute and admitted liar and thief lied to police when she claimed the defendant was her pimp and that he robbed one of her “johns” at gunpoint in Mamaroneck. Months later – aided by Mamaroneck Police – she drove down to the Bronx to pick him up and brought him to Mamaroneck where he was surrounded by police. She had stashed a gun under his seat and therefore the Defendant faced consecutive time on armed robbery and weapons charges. The Defendant was acquitted of the Robbery and Gun charge after Jury trial.

Young mother wrongfully accused of Killing her baby, Westchester Criminal Attorney Richard Portale sets her FREE.  A 1-year old little girl was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital and over a year later – mom continued to sit in an orange jumpsuit in an 8 by 8 foot jail cell.  After being  approached by her family, Criminal defense lawyer, Richard A. Portale, ESQ.  decided to take up her cause and fight for her.  It was an intense, no holds barred, month-long trial in Judge Zambelli’s courtroom – which passersby sometimes described as a battlefield. 

Mortar fire rained down upon the 2nd floor of the courthouse day after day, witness after witness as Mr. Portale slowly and methodically dismantled a very strong government case – which included an eyewitness, physical evidence – including DNA and a 6-hour videotaped confession.  When the dust settled, the jury was in tears and this 21 year old was acquitted of manslaughter and set free. 

Below is an article by The Journal News, you can find an excerpt of the article here

Jury acquits Yonkers mother in tot’s killing

October 2, 2009 – Copyright 2009 The Journal News

By Rebecca Baker

There were only two people who could have beaten 11-month-old Clarissa St. Victor to death, prosecutors said: her mother or her mother’s boyfriend.

A Westchester County jury decided the mother was not guilty, although she was the only one charged in the girl’s death.

The acquittal of 21-year-old Anthonica St. Victor was a stunning rejection of the prosecution’s case that she struck the girl’s head against a wall and shook her violently at her boyfriend’s place in Harrison.

The jury took 10 hours to acquit the Yonkers mother of killing her daughter on Sept. 9, 2008, days before the girl’s first birthday.

St. Victor wept as the jury found her not guilty of first- and second-degree man-slaughter, felony charges that carry up to 25 years in prison. She was found guilty of child endangerment , a misdemean-or with a maximum one-year jail term.

She’s been in jail more than a year awaiting trial, so she may be released Friday when she appears before Westchester Judge Barbara Zambelli. But there is an immigration hold on her, so she may be deported to her native Haiti.

“She always said she didn’t do it,” said her lawyer, Rich-ard Portale, who argued Dorrel Foster, then St. Victor’s boyfriend, was the one who killed the girl.

Foster was the prosecution’s star witness, testifying that he watched in horror as St. Victor hit the girl’s head against a wall and a dresser, then shook and squeezed her in his room at the Century Country Club in Harrison, where he lived in employees’ quarters.

When the baby became unresponsive, they took her in a taxi to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where Clarissa died of blunt-force trauma. An autopsy found rib fractures, bruises and other injuries on the girl’s body.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Murphy argued the forensic evidence, namely Clarissa’s blood on the wall, matched Foster’s version of events and that her injuries were consistent with his testimony that he saw St. Victor hit the girl. But no forensic evidence linked St. Victor to the bloody spot on the wall; only Foster’s DNA was there.

Portale told the jury Foster lied numerous times after the baby’s death and that only after police threatened to throw him in jail did he blame her.

St. Victor never accused Foster of killing her daughter and testified that she didn’t know how her baby was fatally harmed.

Portale, an attorney with the Scarsdale firm Pappalardo & Pappalardo, said St. Victor was a loving mother of a child with sickle-cell anemia who made countless calls and visits to doctors and specialists. He said St. Victor conceded she could have done more to save the girl and accepted the endangerment conviction.

Portale said his client plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against her daughter’s doctors, but insisted the case had no winners.

“Clarissa isn’t coming back,” he said. “No one wins.”

Story: An expecting young woman was charged with Grand Larceny. She had made many mistakes in her life, but was ready to make a change in her life, not only for herself but, more importantly for the sake of her child. She had a prior felony and when she approached me to help her.

Charged with: Grand Larceny

If convicted: The DA was offering 2-6 years in State Prison.

Result: For 3 years, NY Criminal Attorney, Richard A. Portale battled the powers that be, until finally we achieved a dismissal of all criminal charges.