A reputed Philly mobster was one of the people charged for brawling at Chickie’s and Pete’s

One of the men charged with taking part in a brawl at Chickie’s & Pete’s in South Philadelphia earlier this month is a reputed Philly mob figure with decades-long connections to the city’s underworld.

John “Johnny Chang” Ciancaglini, 68, was charged with crimes including simple assault, conspiracy, and reckless endangerment for his role in the Aug. 2 melee at the sports bar and restaurant on the 1500 block of Packer Avenue.

Charging documents say Ciancaglini showed up at the restaurant around 5 p.m. and almost immediately tried to punch a 37-year-old man in the head. That action sparked a wild sequence of events, the documents say: Two restaurant employees were choked and punched while trying to prevent the fight from spiraling further, Ciancaglini’s wife later showed up with a 3-foot metal pipe and began threatening people with it, and another man went on to punch a police sergeant in the face.

By the end of the episode, authorities said, four other people — including Ciancaglini’s wife, Kathy — would face charges.

Ciancaglini’s arrest, however, was hardly his first brush with the law.

In 2001, Ciancaglini, then a reputed mob captain, was convicted of racketeering alongside purported boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino. Ciancaglini served about eight years in federal prison.

Years later, in 2014, a meeting between Ciancaglini and Merlino at a Boca Raton cigar bar led a judge to send Merlino back to prison for a few months — the terms of Merlino’s supervised released barred him from associating with reputed mobsters.

To hear Ciancaglini tell it, though, he certainly isn’t involved in La Cosa Nostra now — and never was.

“No sir,” he said Friday, when reached by phone. “Don’t believe everything you read.”

Ciancaglini was equally mum when asked about the fight at Chickie’s & Pete’s. “Nothing I can say,” he said, citing the pending court proceedings.

An affidavit of probable cause for the arrests in the case gave this account of what happened:

Around 5 p.m. on Aug. 2, Ciancaglini walked into Chickie’s & Pete’s, went directly to a table where Michael DiBella was sitting with other people, and took a swing at DiBella’s head. Ciancaglini missed, but several people had to get involved to try to restrain the men from fighting further.

Two Chickie’s & Pete’s employees were among those seeking to calm the situation down — but both ended up getting assaulted in the maelstrom. One of them was shoved into a wall by DiBella and placed in a chokehold by DiBella’s brother, Richard, 45. After that, Michael DiBella punched the other employee in the jaw, a strike that knocked her to the floor, made her “woozy” and caused her to struggle to move.

Still, the situation calmed down, and everyone involved stayed on the scene until police arrived. Officers detained the DiBella brothers and one of their friends, Joseph Baldino, 39, who “continuously obstructed the officers’ attempts to adjust the situation and conduct their initial investigation,” the affidavit says. After about an hour, officers advised everyone that they could leave and told them not to return. No arrests were made.

But just after 7 p.m., John Ciancaglini returned with his wife, who “re-ignited the situation as she was armed with a large metal pipe,” the affidavit says. She began waving it and “holding it in a baseball batter’s stance” while looking at a crowd that included the DiBella brothers and Baldino.

Officers had to intervene to prevent the groups from attacking each other. And when they moved to arrest people, including Baldino, he punched a sergeant several times in the face.

Baldino, of Packer Park, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, and related offenses.

Kathy Ciancaglini, 62, was charged with disorderly conduct and related crimes.

Richard and Michael DiBella, ages 45 and 37, respectively, were charged with offenses including aggravated assault and simple assault.

Ciancaglini is due back in court next month for a status listing, court records show.