Bradenton councilman fires back at Jodat Law Group for sharing of his wife’s fatal accident

Bradenton City Councilman Gene Gallo was sitting on his porch Thursday afternoon thinking about the love of his life he lost in 2016.

His late wife Patricia would have turned 77 in a few days. She loved to work outside in the yard and Gallo was thinking about the loss that fateful day, Dec. 15, 2016, in a tragic and unusual accident.

He tried to pull up his personal blog to record how he was feeling but couldn’t access it for some reason. So he Googled it and came upon a Facebook post by Jodat Law Group. The law firm had posted about his wife’s death on Facebook and Twitter after the accident, asking that people beware of “roll away vehicles.”

Since Jodat Law Group is a personal injury firm, it came off as an advertisement to Gallo and many others.

“I’ve been home for a month,” Gallo said, referencing his self isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. “This month will be 58 years since I met Pat. I’ve been thinking about how she always loved to work outside so I sat out there thinking a lot about her. All of a sudden I saw this thing and I clicked on it.”

On the day Patricia died, she arrived home with Christmas gifts and began to unload them in the garage. Her vehicle somehow came out of park, rolled into her and trapped her. She succumbed to her injuries.

Two weeks after her death, Gallo publicly shared the story of their extraordinary love affair that spanned five decades.

Gallo posted what he found on his own Facebook page and the backlash was quick and severe. The Jodat Law Group has since removed the postings, but said Friday that they were not advertisements.

Both posts were made shortly after the news of Patricia Gallo’s death. But how they were used, complete with questionable wording and photos of the scene, made the pain brand new for Gallo who were seeing them for the first time.

“They were not recent posts,” said Gary Jodat. “First of all, it wasn’t an advertisement. I talked to my marketing director and I was totally unaware of this. This incident happened in 2016. We are extremely sorry to upset anyone with this, but it wasn’t an ad. It’s not uncommon for businesses to share newspaper articles.”

When asked about the wording “beware of roll away vehicles,” that could be perceived as a promotion for an injury law firm, Jodat said, “I don’t know anything about that. It may have said that. I talked to my marketing director and we are just both sick to our stomach about anyone being upset about this and we immediately took it down.”

Jodat said he understands loss, having lost a daughter and the untrue things that were said on social media at the time.

“It’s a horrible situation and we just apologize that anyone would be upset from this horrific incident,” he said. “He felt at the time, he was sharing a newspaper article, but we apologize for any sadness this has caused.”

It was the wording the law firm used that upset Gallo.

“That really turned me upside down,” Gallo said. “I know that more than likely what they did is not illegal, but it was very insensitive and very cruel.”

Gallo said he is not likely willing to accept an apology.

“It hurts,” he said. “It really hurts.”

Jodat said there was no harm intended, but the nature of the internet is that things never go away.

“I hate the fact that we are faced with this, but all we did was basically resend an article from the newspaper,” Jodat said. “At first we didn’t understand why people were calling because it was that long ago but once we understood, we immediately took it down.”

The social media backlash was swift and harsh with people using words like, “despicable,” “disgusting,” and “lowest of the low.”

Jodat said he understands the pain Gallo feels and also understands these are emotionally challenged times as it is. He insisted it was not an advertisement, however.

“We shared an article,” he said. “There was no intention of hurting anyone.”