The owners of the controversial Taste of Italy restaurant are lawyerless after the firm representing them got permission to withdraw as counsel in an ongoing defamation case.
Jennifer McCanney, a lawyer who represented Frank and Alyssa Cappello, first requested to be taken off the case in August. The court granted that motion last month, which hasn't been previously reported.
McCanney cited an "irretrievable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship" in her request to withdraw as counsel.
The defamation suit against the Cappellos was brought by a Capital Region food blogger, Jacqueline Silvestri-Edwards of 518 Foodies, who alleges Frank Cappello spread rumors about her online and that Alyssa Cappello called and threatened her.
Documents show the Cappellos were paying McCanney $400 per hour. George LaMarche, a founding partner of the firm where McCanney works, was making $475 per hour.
In text messages posted to his Facebook account, Frank Cappello previously said the couple would be hiring another attorney.
"We didn't feel like we were getting far with George [LaMarche]," Frank Cappello wrote.
"If anyone should have sued anyone it would have been us," Frank Cappello continued. "But we are not sue happy people trying to take from other families. We were upset and emotional but the fact she's [Silvestri-Edwards] suing us is weird and gross."
Taste of Italy was the subject of protests and boycotts after Alyssa Cappello posted an Islamophobic Facebook comment in response to the drowning death of a 7-year-old boy in Menands in June.
The Times Union reported Sunday that Taste of Italy had closed and other entrepreneurs had taken over the lease to open a new restaurant.
