Ice cream man out of cooler on drug charges

Talk about your brain-freeze.
For who-knows-how-long, Domenico Pedalini was selling more than ice cream out of his Mr. Softee truck around northeast Queens. He was also allegedly selling cocaine and marijuana, according to undercover narcotics cops - right in front of a public school.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, the 29-year-old Pedalini, who lives at 146-28 Bayside Avenue in Flushing, is charged with numerous drug counts as well as endangering the welfare of a child.
If convicted of the charges, Pedalini faces up to 25 years in prison. If only convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, he would have to submit a DNA sample.
Brown alleges that Pedalini was first observed by undercover cops on Tuesday, September 18, at the intersection of 41st Avenue and Francis Lewis Boulevard, which is directly in front of P.S. 130 in Bayside.
The criminal complaint against Pedalini alleges that at about 6 p.m., he sold a $20 bag of marijuana to an undercover narcotics cop, while operating a Mr. Softee truck at the location.
Narcotics cops returned to the location on Friday, October 5, at about 6:30, at which time the ice-cream man served up “… a folded paper containing cocaine in exchange for $30 (in) United States currency” from the Mr. Softee truck, according to cops.
The next day, the undercover officers, from the New York Police Department’s Narcotics Borough Queens unit, caught up with Pedalini and his rolling drug-and-dessert supermarket near Bowne Park, at the southwest corner of 159th Street and 29th Avenue in Flushing.
This time, Pedalini and the undercover cop allegedly exchanged one clear plastic bag containing cocaine in exchange for $20, “which was pre-recorded buy money.”
Each of these times, the criminal complaint says, “there were numerous children less than 17 years of age waiting on line for ice cream and in the immediate vicinity.”
After he was arrested, cops say they found the marked money in Pedalini’s possession. They also say that they recovered a “partially smoked marijuana cigarette from the center dash board in plain view” near the driver’s seat of the ice cream truck.
The stoner soft-ice-cream vendor isn’t cooling his heels in jail, though.
At his arraignment, Judge Mary O’Donoghue set bail at $12,000. Pedalini was out on bail on Tuesday, October 9.
A spokesperson in Brown’s office refused to characterize the amount of bail, and would only say that Pedalini was due back in court on Wednesday, November 28.