A former Cumberland County school custodian accused of contaminating children's food with bodily fluids and bleach was ordered held in jail Thursday.
"I'm doing the devil's work," Giovanni Impellizzeri says in at least one video he posted of his alleged acts, according to information released during a detention hearing.
It was Impellizzeri's "own hubris" that led to the charges, the judge noted, as the defendant apparently posted his actions in a chat room via the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
He talked of having previously mixed feces in with taco meat that was later served to children, and taking a sponge from the sink in the teacher's lounge to use to clean bathrooms and then putting it back, according to information presented in court.
Impellizzeri's charges include aggravated assault by attempting to cause significant bodily injury to multiple students for spraying the bleach into food that would later be served to them.
"They're going to get so (expletive) sick," he says as he notes how heavy the bleach smell is in one video, according to the complaint.
He adds that he added bleach to the children's food previously and "they were fine."
"Oh, well, not my problem," he adds.
One video involves an infant, while another has pre-pubescent boys, Assistant Prosecutor Lindsey Seidel told the judge.
Public defender Emily Bell said when she heard the allegations "what screamed out to me was mental health, crisis, mental illness" and that her client needs treatment.
"This guy’s going off the rails," she tells the judge. "He’s screaming for help."
Bell said he previously was getting treatment.
"If he’s out, he can go back to his doctors for treatment," she said.
"Treatment he was receiving while these acts were taking place," Judge Cristen D'Arrigo interrupted.
Bell said she was still waiting for records back to see details of the treatment, including times.
Impellizzeri's acts were not limited to the school, Seidel said, noting he posted about ripping up a pillow at a tanning salon and then urinating on the floor behind a tanning bed.
Impellizzeri has no prior criminal history, which resulted in the public safety assessment giving him the lowest score possible and recommending he be released without conditions.
The PSA is used under bail reform to help determine whether a defendant will be held in jail.
That determination illustrates how the system does not always take the entire case into consideration, D'Arrigo said as he ordered Impellizzeri held.
"It runs its algorithms and it generates a recommendation," the judge said of the PSA. "But that’s just that, it’s a recommendation. There is still the justice system and the people involved who have to make decisions."
Impellizzeri will remain in the Cumberland County Correctional Facility.
