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Zaimi after rape case mistrial: 'I was the underdog'

Terence Corcoran
Lani "Ariano" Zaimi outside the Putnam County Courthouse March 17, 2014, after a judge declared a mistrial in his rape case.

CARMEL – After a Putnam County judge declared a mistrial Monday in his rape case, Mahopac restaurateur Lani "Ariano" Zaimi said he felt like an underdog and felt sorry for the woman who made the claim.

One juror said as recently as Monday morning the jury was 11-to-1 in favor of conviction.

Judge James Rooney declared the mistrial after a jury said it was deadlocked on two of three counts Zaimi faced despite six days of deliberations. Rooney made the decision after polling the jury of six men and six women, each of whom agreed that further deliberations would not lead to a verdict.

Zaimi, 44, of Mahopac was charged with third-degree rape, criminal sexual act, nonviolent felonies, and unlawfully dealing with a minor, a misdemeanor, in an incident last summer involving an 18-year-old waitress he employed.

The jury found him not guilty of unlawfully dealing with a child but could not reach agreement on the two felonies.

"It's a small town. You are the king when you're on the good side. When you're on the bad side, you're going to be prosecuted," said Zaimi, who still faces sex charges filed last month involving another waitress. "I was (the) underdog."

The 18-year-old woman at the center of the case was the first witness and spent parts of three days on the stand. It was evident she did not want to be there as she bolted from the stand crying at least three times.

Zaimi criticized Assistant District Attorney Danielle Pascale for repeatedly putting the woman back on the stand "like a piece of meat."

"For the first time, I felt sympathy for that lady that destroyed my life," he said.

One juror, Frank Lanza of Kent, said that as late as Monday morning, the vote was 11-1 to convict Zaimi of the felonies. Lanza, an editor for Fox News and a married father of a teenage daughter, said he was not the lone holdout. He said in earlier votes, the jury was not as united on the felonies.

"I thought he was guilty from the beginning," Lanza said. "The victim's story was believable and consistent."

Authorities allege Zaimi gave alcohol to the woman after she worked a 12-hour shift at his Carmel restaurant, Ariano's II, before taking her to his closed Mahopac restaurant, where he raped her after she told him no.

The felonies centered on whether Zaimi continued to have sex with the woman after she said no. He maintained the sex was consensual and that the woman accepted $200 from him afterward.

Rooney's decision came after jurors sent him a third note over the past three days of deliberations, indicating they were deadlocked. Rooney sent them back to deliberate the first two times but not after receiving the third note about 3 p.m. Monday.

In a statement Monday, Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy said his office "will keep all options open, including a retrial, after conferring with the victim and her family."

Levy praised the 18-year-old woman "for her courage and incredible bravery in not only reporting this crime to the police, but then finding the strength to confront her attacker in court."

Lanza said the jury voted not guilty on the misdemeanor charge because Zaimi had what is known as an affirmative defense — he took an alcohol-awareness course after police filed the charge.

"We all believe he had given her alcohol but we felt we had no choice" but to acquit him on that charge, Lanza said.

Defense attorney George Galgano maintained that Levy targeted Zaimi, a one-time member of the political Putnam Sheriff's Advisory Committee, because of Levy's ongoing feud with Putnam Sheriff Donald B. Smith.

Galgano said Carmel police and the District Attorney's Office victimized the young woman but insisted Zaimi did not.

"She tried to tell them that she went along with it, that she consented to the act and they wouldn't accept that," Galgano said. "They wouldn't accept it because of who he is and what they wanted to do to him and what they wanted to do to Sheriff Smith through his association with (Zaimi)."

Regardless of Monday's mistrial, Zaimi's legal difficulties are not over. He was charged on Feb. 11 with first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, plus misdemeanors involving an alleged encounter with another waitress. Those charges are pending in Carmel Town Court.

In November 2010, he pleaded guilty in Carmel Town Court to third-degree sexual misconduct, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to get treatment.

Twitter: @CorcoranTerence