North End restauranteur Patrick Mendoza stands accused of firing three shots at a man on Hanover Street last week before pedaling away from the scene. That’s his alleged crime, but the beef between the pair, simmering for years, is anything but alleged.
A police report filed in the shooting case said that Mendoza, 54, and Rocco Giovanello, 60, have known each other for some 20 years.
But their acquaintanceship turned ugly the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2019, when Patrick Mendoza and his brother Frankie Mendoza beat Giovanello with fists, kicks, a glass bottle and even the side mirror to the victim’s silver Ford Explorer at the side of Parmenter Street, according to the police report filed for the incident.
It all started, as Giovanello told it to police about a week later, when he and Frankie Mendoza earlier that day “exchanged words” over the latter causing a traffic jam “as he entertained his girlfriend” on Salem Street.
By 3:25 p.m., Giovanello said, he was driving down Parmenter toward Salem Street when he saw Frankie Mendoza waving for his attention. Giovanello told police he had “heard rumor” that Frankie Mendoza was looking for him, and that he thought it was to apologize for his behavior earlier in the day.
As Giovanello pulled over and started to exit the car to talk, he told police, Frankie Mendoza’s older brother Patrick Mendoza — who he calls “Patho” — “rushed over and struck him with a glass bottle to the head.”
The two brothers then allegedly began to punch and kick the “disoriented” Giovanello. Frankie then broke off the side mirror to Giovanello’s car — which police say was captured on security footage — and used it to continue the beating. Eventually, Giovanello alleged, Patho brought a knife out from his jacket and Giovanello kicked up at him so he wouldn’t “get poked.”
The incident left the victim with bumps, bruises, and a gash to his head.
Following a bench trial held that December, Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville sentenced Patrick Mendoza to probation, set to end on July 12, the day of the alleged showdown in front of Modern Pastry on Hanover Street in the North End.
But, according to police records, Patrick Mendoza’s alleged shooting at Giovanello that day was not their first encounter since the Parmenter Street beatdown.
Just last month, Giovanello filed at least two claims of harassment against Patrick Mendoza for the latter’s alleged violations of his probation orders to stay away from, have no contact with and to not abuse Giovanello. Giovanello’s name is redacted in these reports, but the incident numbers match those included in court filings for the current case.
On June 22, Giovanello told police he had seen Mendoza “twice within the last 3 days riding his bicycle towards him … laughing at him and giving him the middle finger.” He described this as “an ongoing problem” causing him to “‘fear for his family safety.”
A week later, June 29, it was a similar story: Mendoza allegedly “rode past by him on a bicycle giving him the middle finger and yelling obscenity,” a problem he said had “been happening every day.”
Patrick Mendoza is due back in court on Wednesday for a detention hearing.
