By Michael V. Cusenza
With his recent arrest still garnering fresh headline ink, Ozone Park Residents Block Association President Saverio “Sam” Esposito this week faced more troubling questions.
The outspoken former member of Community Board 9 was nabbed on Saturday, July 20, and charged with petit larceny. According to police and published reports, on July 14, around 4:30 p.m., Esposito allegedly swiped a license plate off an automobile parked on 101st Avenue. He was issued a Desk Appearance Ticket and ordered to return to court on Friday, Aug. 9.
Esposito has railed against what he has characterized as a pervasive problem in South Queens: abandoned vehicles and autos with illegal or counterfeit tags.
“Over 1200 abandoned/illegal/unregistered/uninsured/improper plates of vehicles are identified as being parked on our Ozone Park Streets, taking up valuable parking that residents are losing. We will continue to have these plates removed, cars towed, and streets cleaned, regardless of who tries to stop or set us up,” he wrote on Facebook in a July 22 post.
Photo Courtesy of Facebook
An image posted by Esposito on the Ozone Park Residents Block Association Facebook page.
“We cannot have wannabe vigilantes on our streets, trying to take the law into their own hands,” City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) said in a statement. “We live in a city and a society with laws, and those laws need to be followed by everyone. If something illegal is happening, you tell the police and they will deal with it, but you don’t create your own crimes to have legally parked cars removed from the street because you don’t like them being there.”
However, Esposito is purportedly the subject of more grave accusations. In a lengthy post on the popular Facebook forum “Howard Beach Dads,” a man wrote that Esposito “manipulated me into hating my family and putting the community above them. I missed so much time with my Dad, all for what? Driving around with him harassing people and small businesses. He took us to Florida, where he want [sic] to watch me have sex with other little boys. (I have the texts to prove it.)”
Later in the message, the man said, “Just a month ago, I saw him with what looked like a 13-year-old boy. I really do fear for that kid, and that’s part of the reason I’m finally going public. The other reasons being that the investigations from the NYPD have been dragging on for over two and a half years, still open, no updates.
“So now that everyone knows more than you did before reading this ask yourself if you will continue supporting him and his ‘organizations.’,” he concluded.
Asked by The Forum for comment, no official would — citing an open investigation.
