Ex-Girlfriend: Cat Killer is Violent

Though the jury was deadlocked over whether the 205-pound Joseph Petcka deliberately killed a 7-pound cat, the Daily News spoke to a former girlfriend, who has experienced his anger directly: He slammed a door on her fingers, with one finger so badly injured it was partially severed. The woman, who speaks to women about domestic violence, says the prosecution never contacted her about testifying. they did find him not guilty of harassing the cat's owner, his then-girlfriend. Also, the Post reports the jurors might be called back to deliver the harassment verdict since a juror said he didn't realize they were allowed to deliver a partial verdict--and apparently the jury didn't tell the judge they had a verdict on harassment charge. As for holdout juror Francisco DeFlaviis, he asked reporters to respect his privacy.

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By Jen Chung in News on September 28, 2008 4:05 PM

Comments [rss]

leftylib

This guy is a real psychopath. I think at heart he wants to kill a woman. He's got fucked up mommy issues.

Spirit of 76

[12] Zero comments? Maybe because it was a fresh post at the time. There's a lot more than zero now. So how's your perspective?

[10] We may not have been in the courtroom (or rather the jury room), but eleven other jurors were, and they all gave the same story, that this creep decided he was far smarter than everybody else and screwed up the trial. Remember, De Flaviis told the judge he couldn't be impartial then told the judge he could. Should have kicked his butt off the jury and used an alternate. We've seen this story before, about jurors who refused to listen to testimony, who refused to debate but rather just sat there so smugly sure that only he knew the truth.

Amanda Harletsch

"Zero comments so far in the Chinese-food delivery guy story." is there somebody charged for that dead?

Is there a trial?

Hope this Patcka bastard gets some really bad rep. as a minimum.

Felix Hoenikker

Oh yes, talk of harassing a juror and his family over a freaking cat are entirely justified.

Zero comments so far in the Chinese-food delivery guy story.

Great perspective guys.

contro

How many stories of this cat-killer do we need?

PeeDeeQ

I am not too terribly interested in this case, what i am more interested in is the public response...to see what kind of comments are showing up here is disturbing.

It seems that all of you would agree that if anything about this is offensive to anyone, then they should not read the comments nor contribute to the conversation. that is nonsense.

I am afraid that you all need to be told that you are going way overboard at this point. Before you proceed in stalking and harassing the hold out juror, please take a second to step back and breath deeply; your emotions are getting the best of you.

Those of you who would condone any aggressive actions against this man are seriously misplacing your anger. Get a grip...if it bothers you so much, then sure, go volunteer at your local animal shelter, or collect donations, or answer your jury duty summons, or start a blog...but do not form an angry vindictive mob and violate the rights of a citizen who has done nothing wrong. He did not kick the cat and you were not in that court room to see what actually happened.

NYC123

In response to #3 and #4, the press and the bloggers haven't uncovered too many details because they have been spelling his name incorrectly. Francesco De Flaviis was the name of the holdout juror. He is a Marketing Director for De'Longhi America. Use Google to look at the cache of his LinkedIn profile if you want more information.

ninefornorman

Hello - Thanks to Gothamist for reporting on this story. I've been following this trial from the beginning, and can't get the details of Norman's senseless, brutal death out of my mind. From reading comments on blogs and sites like this one, I'm struck by how many other people feel the same way. Why not harness all that outrage to try to accomplish something positive, in Norman's memory? Imagine if everyone who felt outrage over this terrible case were to donate $9 in Norman's memory to their local SPCA or animal shelter..... "Nine for Norman!" It would add up pretty quickly! ... Let's not just talk about this case... let's make "Nine for Norman" a grassroots effort. www.ninefornorman.com

mihow

Yes, this story needs daily updates.

If you don't like it, how about you not click the link and how about you not leave a comment?

Seriously. Move on. Plenty of other stories worthy of your awesome commentary.

Thanks, Gothamist for following this story. Many of us do care.

Roquentin

Does this story really merit daily updates? Once or twice was enough, give it a rest.

JacqueMehoff

how come the press didn't mention his occupation?

Spirit of 76

As for holdout juror Francisco DeFlaviis, he asked reporters to respect his privacy.

Should have thought of that before you screwed up a high-profile trial with your irrational stubbornness. Maybe the reporters will and maybe they won't, but I can pretty much guarantee you bloggers and the like won't. This is the age of the Internet and the traditional news media is hardly the only or even primary source for information and there'll be nothing you can do about it. Anything about DeFlaviis will probably be splashed all over the Web as soon as it's known, and with a distinctive name like that, it's a cinch something will get out. Hope you haven't made any other enemies in the past, Francisco.