Publisher Used Queens Newspaper In Attempt To Silence Mafia Victim, Prosecutors Said

QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY - A Queens community newspaper publisher was arrested Wednesday and accused of using her publication to bully a man out of testifying against a member of the mafia, according to news reports.

Feds charged Patricia Adams after she allegedly threatened a man whose daughter had accused a Bonanno mob associate of sexually harassing her.

The daughter was “going to hurt herself. That’s the truth. I’m going to hurt her,” Adams told the victim's father in a recorded May conversation, according to the Daily News. “You know, I gotta put out what I have to put out.”

“I won’t hurt you, if you don’t deserve — that’s for my enemies. I will not hurt you .... but in the newspaper, thoroughly, thoroughly objective... For my good, for everybody’s good — I’m hoping that she’ll decide to drop it," Adams allegedly added.

Alleged Bonanno mob associate Robert Pisani was arrested for sexually harassing a woman at his Broad Channel deli in April. He had been out on bail for federal racketeering charges.

Adams – publisher of The Forum, which covers neighborhoods including Howard Beach and Forest Hills – owed the Bonnano family thousands of dollars after playing cards at one of the Bonannos' social clubs, according to court papers cited by NBC New York.

“I’m kind of under their ... thumb," the documents quoted Adams, 58, as saying.

At Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said the publisher was “using a newspaper she’s connected to as a sword to convince someone not to testify in the case.”

Adams was freed Wednesday on $150,000 bond after being charged with witness tampering.

Lead image via YouTube.