Peter D. Kramer

pkramer@lohud.com

Vadim Imperioli, whose father, Michael Imperioli, played hotheaded mobster Christopher Moltisanti on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” has been arrested in the Nov. 20 spray-painting of a swastika in a dorm at Purchase College.

Capt. Doug Larkin of the New York State Police confirmed the arrest.

“We assisted SUNY Purchase police,” Larkin said Wednesday. “He was arrested for the swastika incident.”

The captain said the 19-year-old Imperioli faces a charge of criminal mischief in the fourth degree at his scheduled arraignment on Jan. 17.

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College officials said Nov. 21 that they were investigating the painting of swastikas in a dorm the day before. The vandalism was discovered on a bulletin board, according to Betsy Aldredge, a spokeswoman for the college. A second incident in the same time-frame involved the scrawling of "Black Lives Don't Matter" somewhere on campus; that incident is still being investigated.

In an email to the campus community on Nov. 29, campus Police Chief Dayton Tucker wrote: “I am pleased to announce that the NYS University Police has made an arrest in one of last week’s graffiti cases involving the rendering of swastikas.”

The chief’s email did not name Imperioli or give other specifics, and the college spokeswoman declined to provide details.

Robert Wolf, spokesman for the Westchester County District Attorney, has said only that “the assistant district attorney in our bias unit is in contact with authorities there and the investigation is ongoing.” He declined further comment on Tuesday.

On-campus offenses at Purchase College are handled by the campus police and, if charges are brought, they are dealt with in Harrison Town Court.

Imperioli was at court on Tuesday to answer an unrelated petty larceny charge involving the unauthorized use of a car Oct. 13. He sat quietly with his grandparents, occasionally leaving the court to confer with his attorney, Russell Smith of White Plains.

The swastika incident was referenced obliquely during the court proceedingwhen Assistant District Attorney Catalina Blanco Buitrago asked Judge Pasquale Gizzo to double Imperioli’s $5,000 bail. Buitrago told Gizzo that Imperioli had served three years’ probation for vandalism in California and had been involved in a case of “criminal mischief since his last time in this court.”

“He (now) has two open cases in this court,” the assistant district attorney told the judge. “He has a disregard for the property of others.” She said of the criminal mischief investigation that "there is consideration of it being upgraded to a felony.”

Gizzo, in response, raised Imperioli’s bail by $1,500, scolding the teenager for getting into new trouble while facing the petit larceny charge.

“This is not the direction a person should move in,” the judge said.

While Imperioli’s Facebook profile lists him as a film student at Purchase, his attorney told the judge on Tuesday: “I don’t believe he’s still going to that school.” He did not clarify whether Imperioli was expelled or left by choice.

Smith, the lawyer, did not respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

Actor Michael Imperioli was born in Mount Vernon and graduated from Brewster High School. He shot to fame playing Christopher Moltisanti, the nephew of mobster Tony Soprano in HBO’s “The Sopranos,” a role for which he won a best-supporting actor Emmy Award in 2004.

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The younger Imperioli, who bears a striking resemblance to his father, graduated from Santa Barbara High School in California and was a cinema-studies undergraduate at Purchase. His Facebook profile suggests he was a freshman at the college.

In a stand-up routine recorded when he was at Santa Barbara High School and viewable on YouTube, Vadim Imperioli joked: “They say you are what you eat. I don’t remember eating a huge letdown to my parents.”

This past June, father and son appeared on a teen-advice video podcast called “Journals Out Loud,” discussing dreams, high school crushes and relationship rebounds.

The November incident was not the first time swastikas were seen on the Purchase campus. Authorities investigated a similar incident in March 2015, when swastikas were found painted in a dorm room.

In that case, 18-year-old Raymond Turchioe, of New York City, was arrested by Purchase College police and charged with first-degree aggravated harassment, a felony. He was arraigned the same day in Harrison Town Court and sent to the Westchester County jail on $15,000 bail or $25,000 bond.

Asked why one defendant was arraigned immediately with his name and mugshot released to the media, while the other will not be arraigned for weeks with his name not released, Tucker, the campus police chief said: “The college did not release the name or mug shot of the suspect in the 2015 incident. It was the D.A.’s office which made that public and released it to the media.

"Now, as we did then, we are following the lead of the D.A.’s office as to not hamper their case.”

The end result of Turchioe's criminal case was sealed, as he received youthful-offender status from the court. Without naming him, college spokeswoman Aldredge said the student involved in that incident had been expelled.

Staff photographer Frank Becerra Jr. contributed to this report.