Anthony Hall of Rochester NY: CONEA Theft, Assault, and Sentence

Anthony Hall of Rochester, NY, a former director of the city’s Pathways to Peace antiviolence program, was sentenced on April 28, 2025 to two years in state prison for assaulting a Rochester police officer, with a concurrent one-and-a-half-to-three-year term for stealing $33,500 from a neighborhood nonprofit. The sentences resolved two separate criminal cases, and his name also surfaced in a civil action by the New York Attorney General that shut down a different nonprofit he had led.¹

Who Hall Was Before the Charges

Hall served as director of Pathways to Peace, the City of Rochester’s gang intervention and antiviolence initiative, which sends outreach workers into targeted neighborhoods and pairs them with at-risk youth. Before that he worked as a gang specialist for the city’s Department of Recreation.² Local reporting described him as a well-known figure in Rochester’s violence prevention community.³ He left the city job in 2023 to become executive director of the Community Resource Collaborative, a nonprofit that would later be dissolved by court order.⁴

The Theft From CONEA

The Coalition of North East Associations is a small Rochester nonprofit focused on the Upper Falls neighborhood, funded largely through city and state grants.⁵ Hall volunteered there while working for the city. Between December 2018 and September 2019, he used the organization’s debit card to transfer $33,500 into his personal Cash App account without authorization.⁶

A grand jury indicted Hall on third-degree grand larceny, a felony carrying up to ten years, and the indictment was unsealed on August 14, 2024 after his arrest the day before. He was released on his own recognizance.⁷ In November 2024, he pleaded guilty to a reduced count of fourth-degree grand larceny, which carries up to four years. The plea agreement called for one and a half to three years in prison and $33,550 in restitution.⁶

The January 2025 Assault on a Rochester Officer

Just after midnight on January 2, 2025, Rochester police responded to a domestic disturbance and possible break-in at an East Main Street home. The woman who lived there had called 911 after Hall entered her apartment. Officers found him outside and repeatedly told him to leave. He refused, became argumentative, and advanced toward the officers and the door several times.⁸

As officers were letting Hall go after he agreed to leave, he shoved Officer Jeffrey Mirt with both hands, knocking him backward. Officers tackled Hall. During the struggle Mirt punched Hall twice in the head, later saying Hall was resisting handcuffing, and used pepper spray on him while placing him in a police vehicle.⁹ Mirt suffered a broken right thumb and a fractured finger, was hospitalized, and was expected to miss several months of work.¹⁰

Hall was arraigned on second-degree assault, obstruction of governmental administration, second-degree harassment, and trespassing.⁸

Body Camera Release and the FOIL Fight

The Rochester Police Department released more than eight hours of body-camera footage on March 17, 2025. The footage showed Hall appearing intoxicated and belligerent during the encounter.⁸

Before release, Hall’s attorney Elliot Shields had filed a separate lawsuit in Monroe County Supreme Court in February 2025 challenging the city’s refusal to turn over the video under New York’s Freedom of Information Law. Shields argued the police narrative was misleading and, once the video came out, contended that Mirt injured his hand by punching Hall in the head rather than from the shove itself.¹¹

Plea and Sentence

On March 24, 2025, Hall pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault. Assistant District Attorney Adam VanHeyst, deputy chief of the Major Felony Bureau, prosecuted the case under District Attorney Sandra Doorley. The other charges from the arraignment were resolved through the plea.¹²

Judge Tom Moran sentenced Hall on April 28, 2025 to two years in state prison plus two years of post-release supervision on the assault, and a concurrent one and a half to three years on the fourth-degree grand larceny.¹

At the hearing, VanHeyst said: “Anthony Hall has showed us again and again he has no regard for the law. I hope this sentence serves as a clear message that violence, especially against those who are entrusted with protecting us, will have serious consequences.”¹

Officer Mirt’s Civil Lawsuit

Four days before Hall’s sentencing, on April 24, 2025, Officer Mirt filed a civil suit against him in state Supreme Court, alleging negligence, assault, and battery. Mirt, who joined the Rochester Police Department in 2022, is seeking damages for his injuries, lost overtime, continuing medical bills, and emotional distress. His attorney is Jacob R. Ark.¹³ Local reporting called the move rare. Both sides declined to comment, and the case was pending as of late April 2025.⁹

The Community Resource Collaborative Collapse

Hall’s name also runs through the collapse of the Community Resource Collaborative, the nonprofit he led after leaving the city. The CRC had been chosen in November 2022 as fiscal sponsor of the Neighborhood Collaborative Project, an initiative funded with $7.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars from Monroe County over four years, meant to move money to twelve local organizations providing housing, food, and other essential services.¹⁴

A March 2024 forensic audit by EFPR Group, commissioned by the county, found that the CRC had failed to deliver nearly $244,000 of the roughly $1.07 million it received in 2023 to the intended community organizations. Executives used federal funds for personal expenses, including about $26,000 in Uber charges, $35,000 in rent and hotel costs, $18,000 in Amazon purchases, and loan repayments to founder Tina Paradiso. Auditors identified $20,000 in direct payments to Hall with “no apparent reason.”¹⁴

Attorney General Letitia James petitioned to dissolve the CRC on October 7, 2024, and a Monroe County Supreme Court judge ordered it liquidated on January 7, 2025. The court barred Hall, Paradiso, and fellow officer Janelle Snow from operating the organization or handling charitable funds.¹⁵ Hall was not criminally charged over the CRC’s finances; that action was civil.⁴

1
13WHAM. Former City of Rochester Employee Anthony Hall Sentenced for Assault, Grand Larceny
2
Rochester Beacon. Hall v. Rochester, Case No. 22-cv-6452
3
Democrat and Chronicle. Anthony Hall Sentenced After Assaulting Rochester Police Officer
4
WXXI News. Former Pathways to Peace, CRC Head Anthony Hall Arrested for Assaulting an Officer
5
CONEA. About Us
6
WXXI News. Anthony Hall Pleads Guilty to Theft From Neighborhood Nonprofit
7
Monroe County District Attorney’s Office. Unsealed Indictment Release
8
WXXI News. Body Camera Footage Shows Altercation Between Rochester Police, Former Anti-Violence Worker
9
WHEC. Rochester Police Officer Files Lawsuit Against Man He Arrested for Assault
10
13WHAM. Police Body Worn Camera Video Released, Former Rochester City Employee Accused of Assaulting RPD Officer
11
WXXI News. Lawyer Files Suit Over City’s Refusal to Release Anthony Hall Body Worn Camera Footage
12
Monroe County District Attorney’s Office. Anthony Hall Press Release
13
New York Daily Record. Rochester Police Officer Sues Man Over Injury
14
New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Takes Action to Shut Down Monroe County Nonprofit
15
Rochester Beacon. Judge Orders Community Resource Collaborative to Be Liquidated