Staten Island activist and city comptroller candidate John Tabacco on Monday filed a police report against two borough elections officials he said had him forcibly removed from a ballot-counting session for refusing to wear a facemask — even though he was not required to cover up.
Alleging menacing, intimidation and assault against Board of Election chief clerks Don Bosco and Anthony Andriulli, Tabacco fired back following his arrest last week while trying to serve as a ballot-counting monitor for Vito Fossella, the former congressman running for borough president.
“I’m the son of a cop and I never want to put more of a work load on the NYPD,” Tabacco told a Post reporter Monday as he formally pressed charges at the North Shore’s 120th Precinct station house. “But I know in this case an innocent man was put in cuffs and thrown in jail for not wearing a mask.
“Those who committed crimes against me should face the same justice.”
When Tabacco tried to enter the BOE’s borough headquarters to watch over the ballot counting process last week, he said that he was forcibly ejected from the premises for going maskless — even though the health screening forms he filled out said face coverings were optional for the vaccinated, as Tabacco said he is.
The police were called, and Tabacco was hauled to the Richmond Terrace cop shop on a criminal trespass charge.
“The elections were f–ked up from the get-go and now I’m getting thrown in jail for not wearing a mask,” Tabacco said Monday, referring to the BOE’s problem-plagued rollout of results under the city’s first year of ranked-choice voting.
“It’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about [asking] how much confidence should the people of this city have with the BOE?”
Tabacco, who is running as an independent, chose to press counter charges Monday despite attempts by local leaders including Michael Cusick — the Staten Island Democratic Party boss — to mediate the situation.
“They told me I have their full support and they told me the BOE has a process. I’m sure the BOE has a process,” Tabacco said. “I’m sure I’m sure it will be just as screwed up as the count of the mayoral election.”
Tabacco alleged to The Post that Bosco and Andriulli “blocked my way, physically harmed me, grabbed my arm.”
He additionally told a 120th Precinct officer that the encounter left him “petrified…because I couldn’t understand why I would be abiding by the law, by their own document, and I was being forcibly removed.”
Phone messages left at publicly listed numbers for Bosco and Andriulli seeking comment were not immediately returned Monday afternoon.
But shortly after a Post reporter left the messages, he received a call from a Board of Elections spokesperson inquiring about the story.
Informed that Tabacco was bringing charges, the BOE spokesperson said that the agency would issue a statement.
The statement is yet to be provided.