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GLENS FALLS---For the second time in less than three weeks, Glens Falls attorney Gregory V. Canale has been charged with assault.
Canale, 44, faces a charge of second degree assault, a felony, stemming from a brawl outside the Irish Pub on South Street in Glens Falls early Tuesday.
Glens Falls police responded to a call about 12:22 a.m. for an altercation outside the bar. Responding officers said that upon arriving at the scene, they saw Canale reportedly punching a man in the face who was trying to defend himself although bleeding heavily from the nose and face.
The victim was identified as Dennis LaFountain of Putnam.
Police used pepper spray to subdue the men when they refused to stop fighting. LaFountain was treated at the Glens Falls Hospital.
Another man who was reportedly involved in the fight, Jonathan Lusignan,31, of Oakwood Drive, Queensbury, was also charged. Lusignan had fled the scene but police found him in a nearby alley. Although he was bleeding from the nose, he refused medical treatment and police said he was uncooperative.
Although Canale is facing felony criminal mischief charges and misdemeanor assault charges from an incident in July, he was released following his arraignment in Glens Falls City Court. Lusignan was also released on his own recognizance, due to reappear in court on Aug. 22.
Canale is scheduled to reappear in city court on Sept. 14. and to Queensbury Town Court on Sept. 11 to answer charges relating to a July incident in which police said he assaulted a woman and damaged her car after a confrontation which began at DJ's Nite Club in Lake George.
On July 22, at about 12:30 a.m., Canale had called for a taxi to pick him up at DJ's. A cab driver had already been dispatched to the bar to drive a car belonging to a woman who was reportedly intoxicated and had been a patron at the bar. The cab driver drove the woman, a friend of the woman and Canale to Queensbury in the woman's car.
An argument ensued and the unidentified woman told Canale to get out of her car which was stopped at the time at a Mobil gas station at the corner of Route 9 and Quaker Road.
According to the police report, Canale then damaged the car's interior, allegedly tearing off the door handles. Once he was outside the car, police said that he allegedly knocked the woman down which caused her to sprain her wrist and ankle.
Canale has denied that he hit the woman, who he said he didn't know. He claims that the woman punched him in the side of the head, starting the altercation. He claims that the car's interior had been previously damaged and claims that he's the victim.
Canale is being represented by Glens Falls attorney Joseph Brennan in the first assault arrest and by attorney Jeffrey Matte in the latest arrest.
Because Canale is an active criminal defense attorney in the county, Warren County district attorney Kate Hogan has disqualified herself from prosecuting the cases. Essex County district attorney Julie Garcia has been appointed.
Canale is the brother of Jeffrey Canale, a former Warren County assistant district attorney, who has been convicted on numerous charges and imprisoned. Canale and his father, William Vincent Canale, maintain a law practice on Sherman Avenue.
8-09-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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