It dropped on the Pine Bush School Board Meeting like a small bomb. Connie Squillace made an announcement during the public participation portion of the meeting that there had finally been an arrest in the bizarre case of the toxic pizza.

The details are familiar to most people, but just in case you're new to the strange incident, here they are in brief:

Joe Zankl, a former member of the Pine Bush School Board, clashed with Squillace and her fellow video camera operator, Patti Brown, over the videotaping of School Board meetings. He appears to have blamed them, at least in part, for his electoral defeat last July.

In the fall of 2007, at a Board of Education meeting that was to include a party in honor of Rosemary Stark, the retiring Superintendant of Schools, a couple of pizzas were delivered to the high school cafeteria to Squillace with a note attached that read, "Have a Happy Holiday....don't eat both pizzas at once." The delivery boy specifically asked for Squillace.

Squillace and Brown put the pizzas on the food table and Brown took a bite of one of them. She experienced an intense burning sensation in her mouth and then developed blisters there. She and Squillace warned everyone away from the pizzas and after the meeting they began the process of tracking down from where they had originated. After trying two pizzerias in Pine Bush, they eventually discovered that the boxes the pizzas came in were identical to those used by the Villa Gaudio in Bullville.

The Villa Gaudio claimed to know nothing about either the pizzas or the delivery boy.

The school surveillance cameras did get clear enough pictures of the delivery boy to identify him, however.

Brown was treated at a hospital for what were termed "chemical burns." The pizzas were frozen and eventually given to the state police, who analyzed one or both pies, and found they were overloaded with hot sauce.

Now, Frank Gaudio, owner of the Villa Gaudio, has been arrested and charged with assault and tampering with a consumer product. Joe Zankl will be charged with ordering the pizza. The charges are felonies and carry with them the possibility of jail time as a penalty.

At this most recent Board of Education Meeting, Connie Squillace asked if the High School's security cameras should be upgraded, and also whether it might be a good idea to have a security guard to block deliveries of things like toxic pizza.

Acting Superintendant Dr. Bill Bassett responded by noting that with the Excel Project included in the new school budget, security cameras will be installed in all Pine Bush Schools. However, he pointed out that having a security guard at meetings was impractical. Nor would it have stopped the delivery of the mouth burning pizzas.

COMMENTS about this article (13)