John Pennisi Assault on a Woman Retraction - Guilt for the Guiltless

[mafiastudent]

On August 12, 2022, I issued a retraction about John Pennisi allegedly assaulting a woman and knocking out her teeth which was written about in the 2020 story (turned ebook/audiobook) Guilt for the Guiltless - a story about the Michael Meldish Murder trial involving Steven Crea, Matthew Madonna, Christopher Londonio, and Terrance Caldwell.

That story, as most of you know was posted here on BH (this forum also served as a main hub for a lot of my attacks on Pennisi which I speak of in the original retraction which I've posted below.)

On August 16, I contacted Dominick Crea both via email and phone (he didn't return my call) to ask him to put the retraction on the Guilt for the Guiltless website which he owns. On August 17 via email, he informed me that the website was going to be a forwarding DNS to his YouTube channel where the audio version of the book resides.

On August 22, I asked Dominick via email to place this in the description section of the Guilt for the Guiltless video on his channel:

"Lisa Babick, the author of Guilt for the Guiltless, has issued a retraction regarding the assault of a woman by John Pennisi. You can read her retraction and other information regarding it on her YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/c/LisaBabick.

You can contact her at her business e-mail address at nymstaff@gmail.com with any questions."

That same day, I received an email from him stating he would not "be updating description on channel as I will not further look to discredit a woman whom I believe is a victim of abuse."

He then suggested my "best course of action" would be to have my "friends" post the retraction on their channels and to post it on sites that I "control."

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Just so people can get up to speed...here is the original retraction in full plus a little bit more background on how it evolved. It was originally posted on a MobFax community post in reponse to something he posted about the book.

This can also be viewed on my personal YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/lisababick. More information is available there as well.

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Original Retraction

The book isn't propaganda/fiction (it's a free ebook and I was never paid for the book and no one asked me to write it) but there is definitely no solid proof that John Pennisi did that - only two references in someone else's court documents that I could find. The story was written more than two years ago and, like everything, there is time for contemplation and re-evaluation. Do I believe now that John Pennisi punched a woman in her mouth and set her hair on fire? No, I don't. If someone can produce dental records, then I would retract that but I don't believe those dental records exist because I don't believe the event happened.

I also believe that I wasn't objective in writing that book in regards to many things but especially in regards to Pennisi because of a dear friend of mine who was abused that way by a boyfriend many moons ago - an event which still haunts her to this day. So, when people said back when the book was "published" that I had a vendetta against Pennisi after I kept going on and on about this incident and then moved on to attacking him in other ways, they were probably correct.

No journalist is perfect. I'm certainly not. But if I make a mistake, I'm going to admit it. And in this case, I believe I did make a mistake. And John Pennisi did not deserve my wrath. There are people out there who may say that I still have a vendetta against Pennisi based on recent communications. Just remember, people do things for a reason and my only goal was to get to the bottom of this dental records issue. I do not share or post private emails or text/IG messages and I don't intend to do so in the future.

As far as this garbage that's been going on, I'm not a fan of that either. And had I known that it would have ended up the way it has, I wouldn't have even contemplated trying to shed light on something that I felt at the time (and still do today) should be exposed.

I was told by someone very wise when I first took on this project to not do it (once again MY project MY idea - nobody else was involved in that decision) because I "don't know anything about anything." He was 100 percent right. As he usually is.

What's happening now, in my opinion, isn't shedding light on anything. It's a bunch of adults acting like children. And to be quite honest, it's an embarrassment all around.

That's all I have to say at this time.

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[mafiastudent]

Since the time of the original retraction, I have been continuing my investigation.

A few weeks ago, I added an additional 11 points about the alleged assault which you can read below (These were posted here in the Graveyard section as well as on my personal FB page and will be added to my personal YouTube channel shortly.)

There will be further updates but as of today, the evidence STILL leans very heavily on the side that John Pennisi DID NOT assault this woman.

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11 Additional Points

1. If a police report/domestic incident report had been filed, the NYPD is required by law to investigate and question the alleged abuser - even if an arrest isn't made.

2. If the event was as violent as was claimed, there is no doubt that an arrest would have been made.

3. If the event was as violent as was claimed, she more than likely would have had to go to the hospital, in which case, the hospital would have had to call the police which circles back to #1.

4. John Pennisi wasn't on trial. Eugene Castelle was. If the woman attended court on the day of the trial in which Pennisi was set to testify to "face her abuser," you must ask yourself why this was the time where she gathered up her "courage" to face her abuser and not any time prior in her own court proceedings against Pennisi for the alleged assault. Had she filed a police report - there would have been a court proceeding.

5. The woman hadn't even been subpoenaed by the defense to testify the day she showed up in court. According to her lawyer via e-mail: "If a court would have allowed her testimony, she would have complied with any defense subpoena and that is the sole reason why I appeared in Court with her during the Castelle trial (the issue of her potential testimony, and also the related issue of potential cross-examination of Pennisi on the topic, was FIRST being litigated at that time)."

6. In that email to the attorney, I asked this specific question: "I am specifically seeking a copy of the dental records, a police report, or a domestic incident report regarding the assault. " And added that in order to verify authenticity I would need to see the alleged victim's name but would keep everything confidential. No documents would be released to the public.

7. In his response, the lawyer did not reference any of the above documents nor did he say anything couldn't be released because they were under a protective order. What he did say is the alleged victim did not want to "revisit this sensitive issue."

8. If you recall, Castelle's lawyer requested a "mini-trial" a few days before the actual trial began but was denied by the Court.

9. Go back to the lawyer's statement in #5.

10. The defense was allowed to question Pennisi about any alleged bias he may have had towards Castelle because they were dating the same woman.

11. The woman's lawyer also represented one of the defendants in the same indictment as Castelle. Does one have to do with the other? Maybe. Maybe not. But interesting nonetheless.

[TommyGambino]

Think you take this all a bit too seriously

[Antiliar]

Taking responsibility for a mistake in a published work shows integrity, so you have my respect for owning up to it, mafiastudent.

[Pmac2]

Agreed.

[TSNYC]

I didn’t follow this too closely, but was this whole dv assault a story pushed by Dominick crea ? Was there ever any proof or evidence of it? Think it’s a lesson in assessing credibility of sources.

[JakeTheSnake630]

Taking responsibility for a mistake in a published work shows integrity, so you have my respect for owning up to it, mafiastudent.

Agreed. I used to like listening to DC, but I stopped. I feel like he has become another channel just full of drama within the "mob tube" genre. As a matter of fact I stopped listening to all those channels. FBS, Angel, MRE, Canarsie, DC, etc. So much negative energy.

[Angelo Santino]

Admitting when one makes an error speaks to true character. Our opinions may be very different but your agenda on this is also a search for truth. I commend you.

[B.]

This is important as a researcher because it involves the credibility of a cooperating witness and source of a lot of current info on the Luccheses.

I haven't followed this saga so I don't now what has been said but if this retraction supports Pennisi that's good for anyone who values his info since it was originally used to hurt his credibility.

Def a respectable move to issue a retraction.

[Ryan98366]

Think you take this all a bit too seriously

Agreed! This is way too serious for a jerk off like John “Mr. Do Nothing” Pennisi.

The guy is a bum and never earned a nickel illegally. Why they made him is beyond anyone and he flipped over absolutely nothing. He worked a 9-5 job as a made mafia member installing toilets.

The guy is a jerk off. No need to retract anything on Mr. Made Nothing.

I know John reads this forum. John, can you come over to my house and install a sink for me?

[JohnnyS]

Think you take this all a bit too seriously

Agreed! This is way too serious for a jerk off like John “Mr. Do Nothing” Pennisi.

The guy is a bum and never earned a nickel illegally. Why they made him is beyond anyone and he flipped over absolutely nothing. He worked a 9-5 job as a made mafia member installing toilets.

The guy is a jerk off. No need to retract anything on Mr. Made Nothing.

I know John reads this forum. John, can you come over to my house and install a sink for me?

It's been discussed a hundred times. They straightened him out because he was good friends with the bosses son in law and did nearly two decades in prison. The mob talent pool has shrunk and Pennisi ticked a lot of the boxes.

[SonnyBlackstein]

It's been discussed a hundred times. They straightened him out because he was good friends with the bosses son in law and did nearly two decades in prison. The mob talent pool has shrunk and Pennisi ticked a lot of the boxes.

Ignore little Veet Johnny.

He gets obsessed with certain men.

[mafiastudent]

I didn’t follow this too closely, but was this whole dv assault a story pushed by Dominick crea ? Was there ever any proof or evidence of it? Think it’s a lesson in assessing credibility of sources.

The "proof" was the two references I mentioned which were in "somebody else's" court transcripts (Castelle) and the other "proof" was supposedly under a protective order, which at the time I was writing the story made sense. But as I said, I currently don't believe the event happened.

[Cheech]

Always with the drama

[CornerBoy]

MAfiaStudent- why are you so fixated on this guy penissi or the case that he's testifying in?