East Bay Businessman Allegedly Hired Hit Man To Torture Ex-Worker
PITTSBURG (CBS SF) -- An Antioch business owner accused of trying to hire a hit man to attack a former employee allegedly plotted to have the man's genitals and tongue cut off as part of a brutal torture plan, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Joseph Mosis, 52, of Pittsburg, appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court on Wednesday on a felony charge of attempted aggravated mayhem.
Mosis, who owns plastic cutting and aluminum framing business Monsam Enterprises in Antioch, allegedly asked a co-worker several months ago if he could help him find "an enforcer" to harm a former employee, Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox said.
He wanted to get revenge on the employee, a fellow Egyptian expatriate who moved the Bay Area from the East Coast and whom he ended up hiring, Knox said.
At some point the working relationship soured and Mosis fired the employee, who later filed a complaint against him with a labor board and won back pay, the prosecutor said.
The co-worker with whom Mosis shared his grisly plan ultimately went to Pittsburg police, who sent an undercover officer posing as a hit man to meet with the defendant last Friday.
During their meeting, Mosis told the undercover officer he would be willing to pay between $1,800 and $2,000 to have his ex-worker's legs broken, his penis cut off and his tongue cut out, Knox said.
"He wanted him to suffer," she said.
Mosis gave the officer details about where to find the intended victim and the two parted ways.
A short time later police arrested the defendant on suspicion of attempted aggravated mayhem and took him to county jail in Martinez, where he remains in custody on $1.5 million bail.
He has no criminal record in the United States, according to Knox and Pittsburg police.
Mosis is set to return to court for further arraignment next Thursday.
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