Allegedly abusive pizza guy remains behind bars after judge twice rejects request for home confinement as he awaits trial

Even as the Stash's on Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale re-opened this week, its owner remains behind bars as he awaits trial on charges he beat, abused and underpaid the undocumented immigrants federal prosecutors say he preferred to hire at his pizza places.

After his initial arrest in March on a single charge of forced labor, a federal magistrate judge ordered Stavros Papantoniadis held without bail as a threat to the workers who had cooperated with federal investigators looking into the way he allegedly like to hire undocumented migrants to lessen the chances they might complain about the way they were treated - such as the worker who had to have surgery on his testicles and have all his teeth removed after separate beatings.

Following his indictment on even more charges of forced labor and attempted forced labor at his Roslindale and Dorchester Stash's and the pizza places he formerly owned outside Boston, Papantoniadis twice appealed the decision to hold him without bail, arguing he should at least be released to home confinement as he awaits trial.

His lawyer noted that Papantoniadis had faced an earlier Labor Department investigation into worker conditions and argued that Papantoniadis had complied with the terms of a consent decree he signed in 2019 to no longer mistreat his workers by forcing them to work for less than minimum pay or work overtime without overtime pay - and to not retaliate against any workers who might file complaints with the federal Department of Labor.

His attorney, Carmine Lepore, also argued it was unfair to keep him locked up in part because of what he did more than 20 years earlier - including beating somebody with a pizza shovel and hitting and killing somebody with his car.

Although the Court did acknowledge that the incidents are not recent, the Court must look at the incidents in context to the defendant's age. The defendant was only 21 years old when those incidents occurred, he is now 48. It is reasonable to find that at 21 years old, the defendant was a very different person than the 48-year-old married father of four children.

Moreover, the defendant was placed on conditions of probation after his convictions for motor vehicle homicide and assault and battery. While his criminal history is not recent, it shows that he can and will obey conditions of probation as he did not violate the terms of probation and successfully completed his terms of probation in all instances.

But in rulings on May 10 and June 2, US District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor rejected the requests. In his first ruling, he wrote:

The Magistrate Judge found that the government had met its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that no combination of conditions of release would reasonably assure the safety of other persons in the community if defendant were to be released, citing, among other things, the weight of the evidence against defendant; the evidence that he "threatened victims, engaged in physical altercations, and/or improperly called the police, thereby putting the victim at risk for negative immigration consequences"; and that he had engaged in a "continuing pattern of threats and actual violence over the years."

It is true that much of the evidence that defendant threatened vulnerable employees occurred some years ago, and indeed much of it occurred between 2013 and 2018. Nonetheless, the pattern of conduct is extensive, and is fairly directly tied to the allegations of this case, which concern actual and attempted forced labor. Furthermore, the Magistrate Judge noted defendants criminal history, which included separate incidents of assault and battery in 1996, motor vehicle homicide in 1997 (for which he served a year in custody), assault and battery in 2000, and identity theft in 2003. Again, those incidents are not recent, but they add substantial weight to the conclusion that defendant has a predilection toward violent behavior and disregard of the law. Finally, the Magistrate Judge also found evidence of more recent criminal conduct, including possession of child pornography and a video depicting sadistic violence, as well as fraudulent conduct in connection with an SBA loan in 2021. Taken as a whole, the evidence strongly suggests that defendant poses a danger to the community, both in terms of his violent behavior and disregard for the law.

Defendant proposes, among other things, that he be released on conditions, including home confinement with GPS monitoring; that he have no contact, direct or indirect, with any alleged victim or witness; that he have no role in the management or operation of his restaurant; and that he execute an unsecured appearance bond. In addition to his apparent penchant for violence, defendant appears to have recently committed one or more crimes of dishonesty, which suggests that he cannot be trusted to comply with the conditions of his release or otherwise show proper respect for an order of the Court. Like the Magistrate Judge, this Court has little confidence that the safety of the community can be ensured if the proposed conditions are imposed.

For those reasons, and the reasons stated by the Magistrate Judge, the Court finds that the government has proved by clear and convincing evidence that no combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of other persons in the community if defendant were to be released, and that the motion for revocation of the detention order should therefore be denied.

Saylor's second denial came after Lepore raised the issue of the 2019 consent decree as proof Papantoniadis could comply with the terms of home release and not attempt to contact his former workers. Saylor wrote:

To the extent that the motion seeks to have the Court reconsider its earlier order, defendant has not demonstrated that the original decision involved a manifest error of law, that the result of the decision was clearly unjust, or that newly discovered evidence warrants reconsideration of the order.

Papantoniadis filed an appeal of that ruling with the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston last month. The appeal remains open.

Stash's on Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale re-opened this week. Although nearby residents received menus this week listing the outlet as Bel Ave Pizza, at least as of yesterday evening, the exterior Stash's Pizza Co. sign remained up - and the menu lists the same phone number as the previous outlet.

Innocent, etc.