Trustee Plans to Apologize But Also Says ‘Shame On You’

After a few weeks of official silence, Ossining Trustee Robert Daraio told Patch he does plan to speak publicly on Tuesday about the Catholic-themed comments he made at the last village work session that have many up in arms.

Some people have been so angry, said Daraio, that he’s received several calls threatening him with bodily harm. “We’re going to do something about you,” one caller allegedly told him. Another said, “I should go to Hell.” Another, “My wife and I should go to Hell for eternity.” Another: “I’m a devil worshipper.”

To these folks, Daraio said, “shame on you.” 

Nonetheless, he explained at length that he feels remorse for using humor at someone’s expense. He also feels his comments, among them slights to Saint Lucia herself, were “taken out of context.”

Daraio justified his message, caught on video here, as him taking issue with St. Ann's priest for not following the same rules as everyone must follow, not coming before the board in timely fashion to submit requests for police support for his parish events. It has been going on for years, said Daraio, that Father Ed apparently sends someone to the meeting with a scrap of "scribble" a few days before such events. 

“I did not disparage the Catholic Church but I did call Father Ed to task," Daraio said. "I’m sorry I was using a little humor, but frankly his congregation should be mad at him. It’s disrespectful to the village, to the board, the police department, and to the public.”

Daraio said he does plan to speak his peace before the Board at Tuesday's meeting. He said he waited a while for tempers to die down.

“The reason I waited to say something was because the attacks were so immediate and so vile that I didn’t want them to think they coerced me,” he said. “I don’t respond to threats.”

Rather, he said, “Humor is my way,” explaining that he was raised Catholic, attended Catholic school and has the utmost respect for every faith. “I will own the fact that I was unkind and a little self-indulgent at Father Ed’s expense. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Daraio asks in turn that those responding to him in anger consider the same. He said a firefighter on Wednesday night was “screaming at the top of his lungs at me,” accusing him of being unfit to serve. “All of this begs the question – is this what the New Testament says, is this what Jesus would want when he says turn the other cheek. Whatever I said does not excuse the members of his community and what they are saying to me. Shame on them.”

When told that there was talk afoot to have St. Lucia’s as a write-in candidate on the ballot come the end of his two-term, Daraio said, “I’m going to vote for her.”