Gambino facing additional charges

By Mike Odom
Staff Writer
Posted 12/4/09

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The man who barricaded himself in a local pizza shop and was at the center of a six-hour-long police standoff that closed off a number of city streets last week is out on bail now and faces additional charges, including a felony …

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Gambino facing additional charges

Posted

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The man who barricaded himself in a local pizza shop and was at the center of a six-hour-long police standoff that closed off a number of city streets last week is out on bail now and faces additional charges, including a felony count, according to the Fairhope Police Department.

“He bonded out from (the) Baldwin County (Corrections Center),” said FPD Sgt. Craig Sawyer, regarding Richard Cary Gambino, who was initially charged with reckless endangerment for the Nov. 24 incident at Ravenite Pizzaria.

“He has a total of four charges,” Sawyer said. “He (now) has charges of reckless endangerment, terrorist threats, disorderly conduct and domestic violence in the third degree, which is harassing communications.”

Gambino, 46, was transported Tuesday from Searcy Hospital (where he had been taken after his initial arrest last week) to the BCCS, Sawyer said, where he was released on bond for the additional charges, which included a $5,000 bond amount for the terrorist threats count, a class C felony, according to county records.

“It’s basically when you threaten to do something, and it causes substantial public inconvenience or alarm,” Sawyer said of the terrorist threats charge.

Gambino threatened to blow up the building where he barricaded himself in the early morning hours of Nov. 24, according to media accounts. After downtown streets were closed for six hours, resulting in the cancellation of a dance performance at the Civic Center scheduled for that day, police broke through the front of the pizza business and arrested Gambino at 10:37 that morning.

“We had 28 police employees involved,” Sawyer said. “That included officers, jail staff who came out to help with the perimeter, reserve officers called in to assist and dispatchers assigned to handle radio traffic. In all, this accounted for approximately 108 man hours. The total cost will be around $2,700, which will vary slightly depending on each officer’s pay rate.”

Sawyer said the costs did not account for the personnel of other agencies involved such as the FBI, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, and the Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department.

An initial court date of Feb. 3, 2010, has been set in the case, according to city records.