Cop bites man at rooftop bar, Philly police say
Anthony Santulli, a Highway Patrol officer, is not the first Philly cop involved in an off-duty biting incident. The alleged victim, a security guard, needed a tetanus shot, sources said.
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Officer Anthony Santulli was allegedly drunk, armed, and itching to get back inside the Hotel Monaco’s rooftop bar. He would not be deterred.
Santulli, 31, had already been kicked out at least once earlier Saturday evening, according to Philadelphia police records and law enforcement sources.
But about 1 a.m. Sunday, the off-duty officer made another effort to rejoin the party atop the hotel at Fifth and Chestnut Streets. A security guard stopped him and attempted to escort him downstairs.
That’s about the time, police say, when Santulli started biting.
According to police records and sources, Santulli foiled the guard by pressing a bunch of buttons on the elevator, which caused it to return to the rooftop bar again, instead of the hotel lobby.
Then, Santulli allegedly punched the guard in the head and tackled him. Soon after, he chomped down on the guard’s hand or arm, “thereby breaking the skin, requiring medical treatment,” according to the arrest report.
The guard went to Jefferson Hospital and received a tetanus shot, sources said.
Santulli, a member of the Philadelphia Highway Patrol, an elite unit within the Philadelphia Police Department, has been charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, public drunkenness, and related offenses. A lawyer representing him did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said Santulli has been placed on desk duty. Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office, confirmed the arrest, but declined to comment on what she described as an “active and ongoing investigation.”
Santulli joined the Police Department in 2012. Last year, he earned about $130,000 in salary and overtime.
In 2015, Santulli and another officer received “Tactical De-Escalation” awards for their restraint in responding to a mentally ill man with a butcher knife in North Philly. In 2020, he graduated from the Philadelphia Highway Patrol Wheel School, according to the group’s Facebook page.
The highway patrolman’s arrest comes a month after another officer, Sgt. James Graber, was charged with aggravated assault and other crimes for allegedly hitting three people during a Roxborough bar fight after someone turned off the country music on the jukebox.
Santulli is not the first Philadelphia police officer to be arrested in an off-duty biting incident.
In 2012, then-Officer Aisha B. Pleasant was fired for allegedly biting the hand of an Atlantic City police officer during a struggle at Caesars’ Pier.
Although Pleasant pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and was fined $15,000 through a pretrial intervention program, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police fought for two years to have her reinstated. An arbitrator ruled against Pleasant and the FOP in that case.