A Fox Lane High School assistant baseball coach and former professional sports mascot is facing charges that he choked two teenage boys while working at a birthday party in Thornwood.
Robert Di Fiore, 60, has pleaded not guilty following his arrest by Mount Pleasant police on misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and criminal obstruction of breathing.
On the night of July 20, Di Fiore was performing in the backyard of a Lake Street home as a DJ at a 14-year-old’s birthday party. He allegedly grabbed two boys by their necks, one 13, the other 14, and applied pressure, causing them “to experience difficulty breathing, fear, and physical pain,” according to the criminal complaints filed in Mount Pleasant Town Court.
The arrest was first reported by News12.
Di Fiore’s lawyer, Bruce Bendish, said his client denies the allegations. He said that while Di Fiore was playing music, a group of boys started throwing a Frisbee at him. He ignored it, and then some boys were throwing candy at him, at which point Di Fiore yelled at them to stop, Bendish said.
“He denies harming them, touching them, hurting them,” Bendish said.
Robert Di Fiore is a veteran sports mascot
Di Fiore, who goes by ‘Diz’ and ‘DizzyDog,’ is an independent entertainment professional, according to his LinkedIn page, and has spent years as the DJ for Slam Dunk basketball tournaments and the Section 1 playoffs at the Westchester County Center.
For nine years, he was the New York Liberty’s dog mascot “Maddie.” Before that, according to a 2001 New York Times profile, he was the Bobcat mascot while attending Byram Hills High School, Johnny the Beast when he was a student at St. John’s University, Niles — the New York Islanders fisherman mascot, and the mascot for two New York area indoor-football league teams.
Di Fiore has coached at Fox Lane for more than a decade. This year, he contributed to a historic season as the Foxes won their first Section 1 baseball championship since 2006 and reached the state final for the first time.
Fox Lane baseball Coach Matt Hillis and Athletic Director Adam Lodewick did not respond to requests for comment as of Friday afternoon.
Staff writer Stephen Haynes contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Fox Lane coach, former Liberty mascot accused of choking teenage boys at birthday party
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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