Callaci
Lagatella
MAHOPAC – The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office charged a Mahopac couple with bringing their two young children with them when they went to make a drug deal in that hamlet. Philip Callaci, 49, and Dawn Lagatella, 38, of 1 Parker Drive in Mahopac, face drug dealing and child endangerment charges.
The alleged incident occurred on Wednesday, October 26.
The boyfriend and girlfriend are alleged to have driven together in a car to a parking lot of a Mahopac gas station on Wednesday afternoon where they had prearranged to sell heroin to a buyer. The couple’s two children – a two-year-old and a three-week-old – were with them in the car at the time.
The buyer in the drug deal turned out to be an undercover deputy sheriff working as part of a buy-bust team of the Sheriff’s Narcotics Enforcement Unit. The couple was arrested on the spot when the drug sale went down.
The two children were temporarily turned over a relative at the scene.
Callaci was charged with felony criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and endangering the welfare of a child. At the time of his arrest, Callaci was on probation for a prior petit larceny conviction. He was arraigned with bail set at $10,000 cash or $20,000 bond and sent to the Putnam County Jail until October 27, when he posted cash bail and was released.
Lagatella was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of drugs and endangering the welfare of a child and was released on an appearance ticket.
