The North End restaurateur accused of shooting at a man in front of Modern Pastry earlier this month is being held without bail after being found dangerous.
Alleged shooter Patrick Mendoza, 54, faces charges including assault to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, intimidating a witness, and three charges related to unlawful possession of a gun.
Boston Municipal Judge Paul Treseler found Mendoza dangerous following a detention hearing Wednesday morning. He was transferred back to the Nashua Street Jail.
“There’s more to this case than meets the eye, okay,” Mendoza’s brother Jorge Mendoza told reporters outside the courtroom when the judge adjourned the hearing as he considered the arguments presented. He was one of many members of family and friends who have shown up for both hearings so far and was willing to take his brother in if he was bailed.
Police arrested Mendoza on July 21 — nine days after he allegedly fired three shots in front of Hanover Street’s Modern Pastry at a man he had a long-simmering relationship with. That history includes Mendoza previously striking the man on his head with a glass bottle in February 2019, for which he received six months probation.
While Mendoza was able to hide away in the detention room next to for his arraignment on Friday, he appeared Wednesday in Boston Municipal Court wearing a lightly checkered gray suit — extensive hand tattoos visible, which includes the city of Boston seal on his palm — and sat down next to his attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio.
Scapicchio unleashed her trademark fiery defense right away with an objection to receiving prior court case documents shortly before the detention hearing.
“Just so we’re clear, it’s not my job to produce the evidence the commonwealth is going to use,” she said. “It’s completely unfair that Mendoza has to defend himself against something I wasn’t made aware of until 5 minutes ago.”
Judge Treseler said that the case was public record, but he would note her objection.
Assistant District Attorney Daniel Nucci presented video depicting the scene of the alleged crime, which shows a man “who the Commonwealth alleges is Mr. Mendoza” on a bicycle firing a gun as many as three times toward another man who dove behind a Jeep. The evidence of the shooting remained for at least a day as “ballistic evidence”: a bullet hole in Modern Pastry’s front window.
Scapicchio objected to Nucci suggesting the shooter was her client and said that the video shouldn’t be made for identification.
Nucci also presented a police interview with the alleged victim, who described “running for his life” following the incident.
“He rides down on his bicycle and starts swearing at me, calling me ‘(Expletive)face,’ he says of Mendoza. “He gets off his bike, drops his bike in the street, and goes down to his waist. I thought he was going to pull a knife on me … but he pulls a gun instead.”
He also describes Mendoza as “harassing me for the whole time while he’s on probation,” a claim backed by police reports reviewed by the Herald.
Scapicchio said that Mendoza has lived and worked in the North End for 28 years, that he is the sole support for his wife and children and that should Monica’s restaurant go under in his absence, 25 “loyal employees” would lose their jobs.
She also said that while Mendoza has a history with the alleged victim, that man also has a criminal history, including a case in which he faced four assault charges against police officers and an out-of-state case involving assault with a gun.
“If you’re going to consider my client’s past behavior in determining probable cause on whether he committed a crime,” Scapicchio said, “I ask that you also consider the record of the alleged victim in this case.”
Scapicchio also objected to the idea that her client was still on probation that night. She said that a probation hearing was held that morning and the judge chose not to extend probation, a contention backed by the public court record.
Nucci said that whether Mendoza remained on probation or not when the crime allegedly occurred was “muddying the waters,” contending that if Mendoza on the day his probation ended sought out the victim, then that may be what he does if released on bail now.
