The owner of Aroma Cellars in downtown Hollister has been arrested for failing to register as a sex offender.
The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday arrested Gaetano Addamo (AKA David Addamo) because he’s a sex offender who failed to register, according to the sheriff’s office.
As of Wednesday night, Addamo, 46, remained in custody at the San Benito County Jail pending arraignment, according to the sheriff’s office.
Read the updated story here, while some information below was added to the original article.
Court records indicate Addamo committed sexual battery in May 2017. The Napa County district attorney initially charged him with separate felony and misdemeanor charges alleging sexual battery by restraint, while a felony conviction could have resulted in a prison sentence of two to four years.
But Addamo accepted a plea deal for the misdemeanor sexual battery charge, and was sentenced in June to probation for three years and a requirement he register as a sex offender. He served one day in jail, according to records.
He was also ordered to serve 240 days of community service and is prohibited from possessing a firearm for 10 years.
The court document indicates law enforcement accused Addamo of touching an intimate part of a victim while she had been unlawfully restrained. The records show an accomplice was involved, but do not identify that person.
Aroma Cellars was opened in 2017, with a fictitious business statement filed with the county clerk under David and Nicole Addamo.
Addamo is a winemaker and viticulturist. His LinkedIn page shows he is from Hollister but also recently owned a winery in Santa Maria where he has been a winemaker.
The sheriff’s office arrested Addamo and Jonathan Fidone on Wednesday for the same failing to register charge. Fidone is the Hollister man recently released from prison after an appellate court ruling, which found his local attorney had not provided an adequate defense.
