NOTEWORTHY SETTLEMENTS AND AWARDS

Noteworthy Settlements and Awards

CASE: Keith Tyrone Bush v. The County of Suffolk, et al. 2:20-cv-03705 filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York August 14, 2020.
NATURE: Police and prosecutorial misconduct; wrongful arrest; coerced confession; unlawful withholding of exculpatory evidence; wrongful conviction

SETTLEMENT: On September 2, 2021, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; Susan A. Berland, Vice-Chair; William Spencer; Kara Hahn; Tom Donnelly; Leslie Kennedy; and Robert Trotta] voted 6 – 0 to authorize settlement of the matter in the amount of $16,000,000.  

On October 5, 2021, the Suffolk County legislature approved Resolution No. 859-2021 [Introductory Resolution No. 1814-2021] authorizing payment in the amount of $16,000,000 cover the cost of the negotiated settlement.  The settlement and payment were approved by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on October 8, 2021.  

SUMMARY

  • On January 11, 1975, 14-year-old Sherese Watson failed to return home from a nearby house party. The following day, her body was found in a lot in the vicinity of the house party. Sherese had been strangled and her pants were partially unzipped. A friend told SCPD that she saw Sherese at the party at around 1:15 a.m. talking to 17-year-old high school student Keith Bush. Other witnesses reported that Sharese left the party at about 1:30 a.m. Another witness reported seeing Sherese Watson leaving the party with Bush.

  • On January 14, 1975, SCPD removed Bush from high school on a ruse and transported him to the 5th precinct in Patchogue where he was interrogated by Detectives August Stahl and Dennis Rafferty. After several hours, Bush signed a confession to the murder and attempted sexual assault of Sherese Watson. Bush later insisted that the confession was coerced, that police kicked and beat him and would not allow him to call his mother.

  • On April 2, 1976, Bush was convicted of second-degree murder and attempted sexual abuse and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

  • In 1980, Bush filed an appeal citing the ruse that SCPD used to get him to go to the precinct. At a November 1980 evidentiary hearing, one of the witnesses, whose statement was used to establish probable cause, recanted her original statement and testified that police pressured her to place Bush at the party.

  • In 1985 Suffolk County Court Judge Stuart Namm wrote to Gov. Mario Cuomo to request the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into criminal misconduct by the police and the district attorney's office in their role in two homicide cases tried before him. Namm reported police and prosecutorial misconduct including flagrant perjury, destruction of evidence, abuse of subpoena power, evidence tampering and attempts to intimidate a sitting judge.

  • A 1986 Newsday investigation titled “The Confession-Takers” included allegations by multiple homicide suspects that detectives had beaten them with telephone books to secure false confessions.  Governor Mario Cuomo authorized an investigation into SCPD and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s handling of homicide investigations by the Temporary Commission of Investigation of the State of New York ("SIC"). 

  • In 1989, the Temporary State Investigation Committee investigation concluded, among other things, that Detective Rafferty was involved in other “highly suspicious” confessions.  SIC noted that Rafferty defended his failure to test a bullet in a murder case with the argument that “every black guy in Amityville has a .22.” SIC members were reportedly disturbed by Rafferty’s “convenient talent” for producing the exact testimony and evidence that he needed to close a case.

  • In 1996, Bush became eligible for parole but was not released because he refused to admit guilt. After his release he explained, “I refused to let them do to me as a man what they did to me as a boy.”

  • In 2006, Bush enlisted the help of the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project obtained court approval to conduct DNA analysis of fingernail scrapings that were recovered from Sherese’s body. The analysis excluded Bush as a contributor to the genetic material. Three years later, DNA analysis excluded Bush as a contributor to genetic material on a plastic hair pick that was involved in the murder.

  • March 2007, Bush was released from prison. He moved to Connecticut, was required to register as a level 3 sex offender, and was subjected to constant monitoring of his movements and access to the Internet.

  • Monitoring revealed that he was using his niece’s computer to write his memoirs and that the computer had Internet access. Bush was returned to prison for one year in 2014.

  • Additional evidence, including statements, obtained after Bush’s release provided additional corroboration of police and prosecutorial misconduct.

  • During an April 2019 Interview by investigators at his home in the German American Settlement League in Yaphank, which did not end its policy of barring residents who weren’t of “Germanic extraction” until 2017, Stahl, then 90, unburdened himself:  “That (expletive) n_ _ _ _ _ _ did it there is no doubt about it; he should have been executed for it.”  Stahl shared one of his regrets of old age with the investigators: “I can’t pound people the way I used to be able to.”  Court filings indicate that Stahl referred to murders in predominantly black neighborhoods as “misdemeanor homicides” and confided that the methods he employed as a detective would have gotten him indicted today.  Stahl said the quiet part out loud: “Why is this thing being opened again? I thought Tommy Spota took care of this." Tellingly, Stahl offered that some of the tragedies he experienced in his life might have been “payback for some of the bad things I’ve done in my life.”  

  • On May 22, 2019, Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony Senft vacated the 1976 murder conviction of Keith Bush, then a 17–year old who spent the next 33 years of his life in prison for a murder that he did not commit.  Evidence showed that Bush’s conviction was secured by a confession that was coerced by racist Suffolk homicide detectives (August Stahl and Dennis Rafferty) and the unlawful withholding of evidence of another potential suspect from the defense by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.  The findings of the review offer profound insight into a culture of abiding racism, abuse and contempt for the law:

  • In November 2019, Bush filed a claim with the New York Court of Claims seeking compensation for his wrongful conviction.

  • In August 2020, Bush filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages for his wrongful conviction.

  • Bush settled his state compensation claim in December 2020 for $5,250,000.   

  • County Executive Bellone offered a few thoughts: "This case also highlights the culture of corruption that Tom Spota nurtured, cultivated, facilitated and led in a variety of ways over the course of a career that began in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in 1971."
    Bellone said Gerard Sullivan, the prosecutor of Bush's case and a close friend of Spota's, failed to do his job, nor the "just and moral thing . . . [Sullivan] fails to turn over evidence to the defense that could have exonerated Keith Bush in 1975 . . . His fate, his perseverance, he is responsible for overturning the verdict that put him in prison for 33 years of his life . . . I spoke to Keith a couple of days ago for the first time. I will say publicly, what I told him privately. As county executive, on behalf of the people of this county, I am so sorry for what you unjustly endured here. And while I know this settlement and an apology from the county can not possibly make up for what you lost, even with that knowledge, it is important, right and it is just that we do this."
    Bellone said he recognizes the monetary cost to the public as a result of the settlement, but that there's more to it.
    "We don't get to see the devastation and despair of the people whose lives have been turned upside down," he said. "It's hard to calculate — maybe impossible — the full cost to communities — particularly communities of color that are disproportionately impacted from this kind of corruption."

    News Reports:

CASE: Martin Tankleff v. The County of Suffolk, et al. 09-CV-1207(JS) (AYS) filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York in March 2009.
NATURE: Police and prosecutorial misconduct – coerced confession and wrongful conviction 

SETTLEMENT: On April 19, 2018, at the recommendation of Suffolk County Attorney Dennis Brown, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Susan A. Berland; Robert Calarco; Leslie Kennedy] voted 5 – 0 to authorize settlement of the matter in the amount of $10,000,000.  Committee Chair Bridget Fleming is reported to have said: “We have to consider the exposure to taxpayers to large verdicts. This seemed like a fair settlement.”

On July 17, 2018 the Suffolk County legislature approved Resolution No. 586-2018 authorizing the issuance of $10,000,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement.  The settlement and payment were approved by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on August 1, 2018.  

SUMMARY

  • On the first day of his senior year in high school in September 1988, shortly after his 17th birthday, Tankleff woke up to find his parents stabbed and bludgeoned. His mother was dead; his father, Seymour, later died without ever regaining consciousness. Tankleff told Detectives that his father’s bagel store partner owed his father half a million dollars, had recently threatened his parents, and was the last guest to leave the house the night before. Marty Tankleff was taken into police custody where he was interrogated. Detective James McReady arrested him for the murder and produced an unsigned, incomplete “confession” that he (McReady) had written for Tankleff and that Tankleff recanted.  Tankleff was convicted on the basis of the confession and sentenced to 50 years in prison.  A week after the attack, the father’s business partner reportedly faked his own death and fled to California in disguise under an alias. SCPD reportedly did not pursue him as a suspect. 

  • In its 1989 report, SIC the Temporary State Investigative Committee reportedly found that Detective McReady had perjured himself on the stand in a murder case three years before the Tankleff murders.  Following Tankleff’s conviction, Tom Spota, then an attorney in private practice representing the SCPD Detectives Association, reportedly successfully defended James McReady at his trial for the beating of a bar patron.  

  • 1990 Tankleff is convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

  • In 2001, Tankeff persuaded a retired NYPD Detective to investigate his case. The investigator determined that the business partner’s son sold cocaine out of the bagel store and that the son’s drug enforcer had bragged about having participated in the murders. The investigation identified an accomplice of the enforcer who drove the getaway car on the night of the murders and ultimately led to the identification of those responsible for the attack.

  • August 2003. As reported by Newsday, Glenn Harris gives Tankleff’s lawyers a sworn statement that he drove Joseph Creedon and Peter Kent to the Tankleff house on the night of the slayings and that Creedon and Kent came out of the house with blood on them. Others come forward to implicate Creedon, Kent and Seymour Tankleff’s former business partner, Jerry Steuerman. None were ever charged.

  • 2006 a Suffolk County judge denies a motion for a new trial.

  • Between 2004 and 2007, SCPD Sixth Precinct Lieutenant Raymond F. Smith corresponded with CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin about Tankleff case. Lt. Smith emailed a “tip” to Toobin in which he contended that the homicide detective may have helped plan the murder and orchestrated a cover, that the District Attorney appeared to have an ethical conflict and was protecting the actual murders and that there was a history of documented abuses committed by the SCPD Homicide Squad.

  • December 2007, the NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department unanimously vacated the conviction of Martin Tankleff for the 1988 murder of his parents and ordered his case back to Suffolk County for a retrial “to be conducted with all convenient speed,” stating “It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit.” 

  • December 27, 2007, Tankleff was released from prison.

  • January 12, 2008, Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as special prosecutor in the Tankleff case. 

  • June 30, 2008, Attorney General Cuomo’s office announced it would not retry Tankleff, citing insufficient evidence to prove his guilt.

  • July 22, 2008, a State Supreme Court Justice dismissed all charges against Marty Tankleff in the murder of his parents, Arlene and Seymour Tankleff.

  • Tankleff ultimately spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.  He graduated Touro Law Center in 2014, passed the New York State bar exam in 2017 and was sworn into practice law in New York in February 2020. He is currently an associate attorney at Metcalf & Metcalf, P.C.

  • Tankleff filed suit against New York State in the Court of Claims for wrongful imprisonment with attorney Barry C. Schek, a founder of the Innocence Project, as lead counsel. The case settled in January 2014 for $3.375 million.  See: Tankleff v. State of New York, Court of Claims (NY), Claim No. 118655, UID 2013-045-038.

  • 2009 Tankleff filed the lawsuit against Suffolk County in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York alleging that detectives fabricated a false confession and suppressed exculpatory evidence.   

  • A member of Tom Spota’s law firm is reported to have represented Seymour Tankleff’s business partner in the late 1980s in a matter related to the sale of cocaine out of the store.  A baking supplies wholesaler is also reported to have testified in 2004 that he had frequently observed Detective James McReady and Seymour Tankleff’s business partner together in the store in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

NEWS REPORTS:

CASE: Joaquin Franqui III, Administrator of the Estate of Jack Franqui IV against The County of Suffolk, Suffolk County Police Department, Police Officer Karen Grenia, Police Officers John and Jane Does 1-10.  United States District Court Eastern District of New York 2:13-cv-05943-JS-SIL Filed October 29, 2013.
NATURE: Wrongful death in police custody

SETTLEMENT: On September 26, 2019, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Susan A. Berland; Robert Calarco; Leslie Kennedy and Rudy Sunderman] voted to authorize settlement of the matter in the amount of $2,800,000.  On November 26, 2019, the full legislature authorized the issuance of $2,800,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement. Introductory Resolution No. 1985-2019|Resolution No. 1052-2019. County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on December 5, 2019.  Settlement reached. Case Dismissed February 4, 2021.

SUMMARY

Plaintiff brought suit against Suffolk for Civil Rights Violations (Title 42 United States Code Sections 1983 and 1988 – particularly assault and battery, harassment, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, conspiracy and denial of rights to due process of law, right to counsel, libel, slander, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional duress, excessive force, cruel and inhuman treatment, denial of medical care, and negligent supervision). Additionally, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants subsequently lied to State investigators, fabricated and altered physical evidence to conceal wrongdoing, and harassed, intimidated and threatened decedent’s friend and the friend’s family.  The allegations relate to events of January 2013. Plaintiff alleges Jack Jr. and a friend were accosted by SCPD in front of the friend’s house, searched without a warrant or probable cause, that Police assaulted and injured Jack Jr., although he did not resist, and falsely arrested him for driving under the influence, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration. Police lodged Jack Jr. in a brutally cold cell in the Seventh Precinct where his pleas for medical assistance went ignored for hours. Officers removed his shirt after he first attempted to hang himself then continued to ignore his repeated impassioned pleas to be taken to a hospital reportedly deactivating a monitor and turning up the volume on a television they were watching.  Franqui ultimately hanged himself in his cell with his pants.  The statement of a witness to the event describes a depraved indifference to human life on the part of the officers involved that shocks the conscience.
The District Attorney’s office waited more than six months before commencing a grand jury investigation and then granted two police officers who were in charge of Franqui’s cell immunity to testify before a grand jury shielding them from any criminal responsibility for what occurred. 

Two detectives who were assigned to investigate Franqui’s death had previously obtained a confession from a Huntington taxi cab driver who was shot by a drunk off-duty Nassau County police officer.  That confession was subsequently discredited. 
The legislature and the County Executive approved a taxpayer-funded settlement payment of $2,800,000 after the administration obtained a confidentiality order that prevents the taxpayers from finding out what happened, how many times it has happened before and from being able to better understand what can and should be done to prevent it from happening again.

NEWS REPORTS:

 

CASE: McDonnell v. Suffolk County
NATURE: Wrongful death in police custody 

SETTLEMENT: On May 29, 2014, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Steven H. Stern, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Kate Browning; Robert Calarco; and John M. Kennedy, Jr.] authorized settlement of the matter in the amount of $2,250,000. On July 29, 2014, the full legislature authorized the issuance of $2,250,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement Introductory Resolution No. 1604-2014|Resolution No. 588-2014. County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on August 8, 2014.  

SUMMARY

May 5, 2011, Daniel McDonnell, a Lindenhurst carpenter who suffered from mental and physical health issues, was arrested on a criminal contempt charge for violating a restraining order after a dispute with a neighbor and taken into police custody.  McDonnel died in police custody the following day, May 6, 2011.  The State Commission of Correction, which investigates deaths in jails, prisons, detention centers and police lockups, conducted an investigation.  The findings of its June 18, 2013 report are sobering:

  • McDonnell died after First Pct. cops repeatedly applied an electronic control device (ECD) to him and pinned him to the floor with a riot shield after he yelled for his bipolar disorder medication and flooded his cell by stuffing his clothes in the toilet.  Officers had declined to give McDonnell medication his mother delivered because of a labeling problem.  The Commission report indicates that police did not call the pharmacy. 

  • Officers conducted security checks via security monitors rather than making required visits to McDonnell’s cellblock, ignored his screams for medical attention and failed to place him under one-on-one supervision in spite of his agitated state. 

  • The cause of death was “compressive asphyxia . . . sudden death following physical struggle and restraint in a person with bipolar disorder with excited delirium syndrome; hypertensive cardiovascular disease and obesity.”

  • McDonnell’s death was a “preventable” homicide.

  • SCPD the Suffolk County District Attorney and the medical examiner failed to properly investigate his death.  

    • “The Suffolk County Police Department failed to conduct a comprehensive internal investigation of its officers and the use of physical force that resulted from McDonnell’s death.”

    • The District Attorney’s office “failed to conduct any investigation of this incident even though it was ruled a homicide and no investigative findings were ever brought before an independent grand jury to determine whether the use of force was justified and lawful.”

    • It explicitly stated that the homicide squad’s investigation was “cursory and incomplete” and that “the [medical examiner’s] forensic investigation failed to adequately identify and examine blunt force injuries to McDonnell . . . and failed to adequately establish and examine the events.”

  • The report recommended that the NYS Attorney General “undertake a criminal investigation in to the excessive use of physical force by the Suffolk County Police Department resulting in the death of Daniel McDonnell.”

McDonnell’s wife, Danielle, said that police first told her that her husband died of a heart attack and that she became suspicious when the funeral director told her that he might not be able to cover up all the bruises on McDonnell’s body.  She later learned of the severity of the struggle that resulted in McDonnell’s death.  The McDonnell family’s attorney was unable to discuss the settlement.  The provisions of the agreement likely include a confidentiality order.
In October 2014, Newsday reported that Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, Suffolk County Attorney Dennis Brown and SCPD officials could not be reached for comment. 

According to Newsday, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which monitors state government, said that Schneiderman’s office should explain whether it acted on the Commission’s recommendations.  “The public should expect that the attorney general act on a criminal referral by a government agency and if they haven’t acted on it, I think the public needs to know why.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Spota issued a statement that characterized the Commission’s critique of his role as “inaccurate and baseless.” 

No fewer than nine police officers were involved in the incident, including Robert W. Bodeniller, who was hired December 1, 1986.  Nine months earlier, in August 2010, Bodenmiller shot and wounded Michael Moran in a Dunkin’ Donuts in West Babylon under dubious circumstances. Moran also sued Suffolk County and an unnamed police officer, who was later determined to be Bodenmiller, alleging that Bodenmiller shot him “without justification and despite no danger of physical harm.” 

NEWS REPORTS:

 

CASE: Glynice Simmons v. County of Suffolk, George Oliva, et al. 
NATURE: Wrongful death – excessive use of force 

SETTLEMENT: On May 10, 2018, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Monica Martinez; Robert Calarco; Leslie Kennedy and Rudy Sunderman] authorized settlement of the matter in the amount of $1,850,000. On June 5, 2018, the full legislature authorized the issuance of $1,850,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement Introductory Resolution No. 1484-2018|Resolution No. 422-2018 . County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on June 18, 2018.  

SUMMARY

July 2013, Dainell Simmons, a 5’ 9”, 240 lb. autistic 29-year-old was a resident of a Maryhaven Center of Hope group home on Currans Rd. in Middle Island. Simmons had been a resident of the Catholic Health Services facility for six years.  Simmons became agitated over not being given cake that other residents were eating and began throwing himself against walls.  Staff called 911.  When police arrived, Simmons had calmed down and was sitting on a couch.  He resisted and became violent when officers attempted to handcuff him and told him that they were going to take him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.  Officers reportedly used Taser electronic control devices (ECDs) and pepper spray to subdue Simmons then requested an ambulance.  Simmons was unresponsive when the ambulance arrived.  He was transported to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital where he died. 

NEWS REPORTS:

CASE: Calhoun v County of Suffolk (Index No. 8577/09). 
NATURE: Wrongful death – police pursuit – vehicle-involved fatality 

SETTLEMENT: On December 13, 2018, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Monica Martinez; Robert Calarco; Leslie Kennedy and Rudy Sunderman] authorized settlement of the matter in the amount of $1,500,000. On March 5, 2019, the full legislature authorized the issuance of $1,500,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement Introductory Resolution No. 11095-2019|Resolution No. 112-2019. County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on March 8, 2019.  

SUMMARY

On December 28, 2006, in Farmingdale, SCPD officers stopped a vehicle being operated by Richard Mair, whom they suspected to be driving while intoxicated.  Mair fled. The officers engaged in a high-speed pursuit.  During the chase, Mair lost control of his vehicle, drove off of the roadway and crashed into a house striking and killing William S. Calhoun, who was on a couch. 

Brian Calhoun, administrator of the estate of William S. Calhoun, brought the action against Suffolk Co.  Suffolk County protracted the litigation through the appeals process in an effort to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining copies of five audiotapes of Internal Affairs interviews of involved officers. 

The Calhoun family waited 13 long years to receive recompense while Suffolk County fought, in vain, to shield the disciplinary records of officers involved in a thoughtless and needless fatality from scrutiny. 

The Legislature should implement a vehicle pursuit – accident oversight mechanism to identify patterns and recidivist officers, perform periodic review of the SCPD pursuit policy and ensure modifications to prohibit practices that provide greater risk than benefit to public safety and public health.

NEWS REPORTS:

CASE: 
Narender Muppa (Estate of Viswhaja Muppa) v Amanpreet Singh Dhaliwal (County of Suffolk; P.O. Renee Garcia) (Index No. 14075/2013). 
Disha Gupta v Amanpreet Singh Dhaliwal; County of Suffolk; P.O Renee Garcia (Index No. 034775/2012) 
Tanya Kahn v Amanpreet S. Dhaliwal (County of Suffolk; P.O. Renee Garcia) (Index No. 15449/2013)
Jacqueline Dincil v Amanpreet S. Dhaliwal (County of Suffolk; P.O. Renee Garcia) (Index No. 35217/2012)

NATURE: Motor Vehicle Accident – fatality; multiple serious physical injuries 

SETTLEMENT: Minutes of meetings of the Ways and Means Committee from January 2016 through June 2017 reveal no indication of the committee taking up or approving settlement of the matter.  [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Monica Martinez; Kate Browning; Robert Calarco; Thomas Cilmi and Robert Trotta]. On May 30, 2017, the Budget and Finance Committee approved bonding $3,000,000 to fund the county’s self-insured obligation of a total settlement agreement of $7,500,000 (Introductory Resolution No. 1434-2017) indicating that settlement had already been approved by the Ways and Means Committee.  Record of Ways and Means approval is not available on the website. The balance to be paid by the county’s catastrophic insurance policy carrier. On JUNE 6, 2017, the full legislature authorized the issuance of $3,000,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement Introductory Resolution No. 1434-2017|Resolution No. 444-2017. County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on June 14, 2017.  

SUMMARY

On October 30, 2012, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, many streetlights on Long Island were not working.  SCPD Rene Garcia was operating a SCPD vehicle westbound on Rte. 347. The traffic light at the intersection of Rte. 347 and Rte. 112 was not working.  P.O. Garcia entered the intersection without stopping or activating the emergency lights and sirens of the police vehicle and traveling at such a rate of speed that he struck a vehicle that was occupied by Vishwaja Muppa, 21, a biology major at Stony Brook University; Jacqueline Dancil, Tanya Khan and Disha Gupta.  The force of the collision was so great that Muppa died at the scene; Dancil suffered multiple fractures of the pelvis and lumbar spine, some permanent; Kahn claimed “severe and permanent injuries;” and Gupta suffered permanent injuries to her spinal column which required surgery and extensive medical treatment. 

Khan’s attorney declined to comment and Dincil’s attorney did not return Newsday’s calls for comment indicating that the Settlement Agreement likely included a confidentiality clause. 

Review of the Suffolk County Legislature’s website for records related to the settlement revealed troubling practices.  The Minutes of the Budget and Finance Committee’s May 20, 2017 meeting indicate that the Ways and Means Committee had previously approved the settlement yet no date was given.  Review of Ways and Means Committee meeting minutes for the prior 18 months reveals no record of the Committee approving any settlement in the matter.  

In contrast to most of the meetings, the months prior to the Budget and Finance Committee approval of the bonding to pay the county’s portion of the settlement, minutes of the Ways and Means Committee meetings reveal that the Committee convened in Executive Session yet provided no information about what was discussed and or decided in those sessions.  

Examples of Minutes that do provide partial summaries of Executive Session actions: 

NEWS REPORTS:

CASE: Henry Morales v Suffolk County
NATURE: Unjustified Shooting

SETTLEMENT: On December 1, 2015, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Steve Stern, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Robert Calarco, Kate Browning, and Robert Trotta] authorized settlement of the matter in the amount of $1,500,000 Introductory Resolution 1834-2015|Resolution 1014-2015, which was introduced by the presiding officer (DuWayne Gregory) on request of the County Executive.  On December 1, 2015, the full legislature authorized issuance of $1,500,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the negotiated settlement.  County Executive Steve Bellone approved the settlement and payment on December 16, 2005.         

SUMMARY

On January 11, 2010, police received a 911 call reporting a robbery of a Taco Bell / Pizza Hut Express on New York Avenue in Huntington Station by three Hispanic men who fled on foot. About 20 minutes later, SCPD Police Officer Luis Mangual stopped a car that had three male Hispanic occupants, including Henry Morales, a 37-year-old restaurant worker from Honduras. Court pleadings indicate that P.O. Mangual reportedly approached the vehicle with his flashlight in his left hand and his service weapon in his right hand and ordered the vehicle occupants to put their hands up.  At deposition, Morales testified that he had his hands up.  Mangual said that Morales did not have his hands up.  Mangual fired two shots through a rear passenger window striking Morales, who was sitting in the back seat, in the spleen and stomach.

Morales filed suit against Suffolk County in 2013 alleging assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment and civil rights violations.         

Suffolk County spokesperson Justin Meyers said of the settlement: “The circumstances presented in this case were regretful . . . This settlement was the favored course of action for all parties.”

NEWS REPORTS:

 

CASE: The Estate of Teaisha Scales v. the County of Suffolk
NATURE: Police pursuit – fatal vehicle collision 

SETTLEMENT: On February 1, 2018, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Bridget Fleming, Chair; William Spencer, Co-Chair; Monica Martinez; Robert Calarco; Leslie Kennedy and Rudy Sunderman] authorized settlement of the matter for $1,500,000.  Resolutions authorizing the issuance of Serial Bonds to cover the cost of negotiated settlements often do not provide the identity of the recipients.  It is possible that the authorization for issuance of $1,500,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the Scales settlement was codified in Introductory Resolution No 1834-2015 | Resolution No. 1014-2015, which was authorized by the full legislature on December 1, 2015 and approved by County Executive Steve Bellone on December 16, 2015. If not, that is an additional $1 million+ settlement of a liability case against the county authorized in 2018.

Settlement resolutions are routinely opaque.  They do not specify the matter that is being settled or identify the person(s) to whom payment is being authorized. They are deliberately written to withhold information from the public in which the public has a compelling interest.       

SUMMARY

On March 12, 2008, Michael Peacock, then 22, was operating a vehicle that was allegedly being pursued by Suffolk County police officers Christopher Cummings and Christopher Sanchez.  Peacock’s vehicle lost control and crashed into a utility pole on John’s Neck Rd. near Fairview Drive in Mastic Beach.  Teaisha Scales, 21, a passenger in Peacock’s vehicle, sustained extensive injuries in the crash from which she died six days later.              

Peacock claimed that the pursuing police vehicle slammed into the rear of his vehicle causing him to lose control.  Officers Cummings and Sanchez said that they followed Peacock’s vehicle for about a mile because it had gone through stop signs and appeared to be speeding.  They said that they did not pursue Peacock and that they came upon the crash after it had already occurred.

The Suffolk County Crime Laboratory recovered two unidentified substances from the front bumper of the police car and the rear bumper of Peacock’s vehicle.  Analysis indicated that the substances did not match the respective vehicle’s paints.  According to an attorney for the Scales family, he does not know whether investigators compared the unidentified substances to each other because that analysis was not included in the records a court had ordered the crime lab to turn over to his firm. 

Newsday’s call to Suffolk County’s chief medical examiner was referred to County Executive Steve Bellone’s office.  Bellone’s spokesman declined to comment.  Acting SCPD Commissioner John Barry and County Executive Steve Bellone reportedly declined requests for comment. 

NEWS REPORTS:

 

CASE: Christopher Loeb v The County of Suffolk
NATURE: Police use of excessive force and prosecutorial misconduct [Christopher Loeb]

SETTLEMENT: On February 1, 2018, the Ways and Means Committee authorized settlement of the matter for $1,500,000.  It is possible that the authorization for issuance of $1,500,000 in Suffolk County Serial Bonds to cover the cost of the Loeb settlement was codified in Introductory Resolution No 1834-2015 | Resolution No. 1014-2015, which was authorized by the full legislature on December 1, 2015 and approved by County Executive Steve Bellone on December 16, 2015. If not, that is an additional $1 million+ settlement of a liability case against the county authorized in 2018.

Settlement resolutions are routinely opaque.  They do not specify the matter that is being settled or identify the person(s) to whom payment is being authorized. They are deliberately written to withhold information from the public in which the public has a compelling interest.       

SUMMARY

December 14, 2012, SCPD arrested Christopher Loeb for stealing a duffel bag containing a gun belt, ammunition, sex toys and pornography from Chief of Department James Burke’s police vehicle.  Loeb alleged that Burke and other SCPD officers beat him while he was in police custody.  An ensuing federal investigation culminated in the indictment, arrest and conviction of Burke, District Attorney Thomas Spota and Assistant District Attorney Christopher McPartland.  Burke admitted to assaulting Loeb and orchestrating a cover up, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.  Spota and McPartland were both convicted after trial. 
In 2015, Loeb filed suit against Suffolk County alleging that Burke and six other SCPD officers of civil rights violations and that Burke assaulted him.  

Suffolk County Attorney Dennis Brown explained: “In this particular case, we have an admission from the perpetrator of wrongdoing, so we don’t have a lot of defenses . . . His acts, even though he was the chief of police at the time, were not something that the county condones nor is it something that occurred within the scope of his employment . . . We’re looking at years of litigation, very significant litigation costs; there are multiple attorneys that the county is paying for various named defendants . . . If we were not successful in the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s attorney would also be entitled to attorney’s fees, so we could be looking at attorneys’ fees of a million dollars or more.”

DuWayne Gregory, then presiding officer of the Suffolk County legislature, commented: “It’s frustrating that the taxpayers of Suffolk County have to pay for the egregious actions of any individual that works for the county.” 

Suffolk County spokesman Jason Elan told Newsday that the settlement would be paid by floating a bond and that the interest on a $1.5 million bond would be $91,200 over five years. 

Suffolk County legislator Robert Trotta told Newsday that he would “absolutely not” vote to float a bond to pay the settlement and that County Executive Steve Bellone should pay it.  “Steve Bellone violated the trust of every taxpayer by hiring and supporting Jim Burke despite his history of misconduct. Now the taxpayers of Suffolk County will pay yet again for another Bellone blunder.”

Newsday has reported that Bellone was warned in an anonymous letter about issues with Burke, but received assurances about Burke’s character from Tom Spota. 

NEWS REPORTS:

 

CASE: Rafael Weizmann v Suffolk County, et al. U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York 2:07-cv-05369-LDW-ETB filed July 21, 2008.  
NATURE: Police use of excessive force 

AWARD: $460,000 ($188,000 medical expenses, $250,000 for pain and suffering, $25,000 for punitive damages) against SCPD P.O. Everett Wehr, Jr.

SUMMARY

September 25, 2006, 60-year-old Rafael Weizmann, a hairdresser from Queens who had purchased a second home months earlier in Coram, pulled his car over near Paul’s Path in Coram to check email.  SCPD was conducting an undercover sting operation for the purpose of arresting men soliciting prostitutes in the vicinity.  Weizman was arrested for soliciting prostitution and driven to a processing area nearby where, while handcuffed, SCPD PO Everett Wehr, Jr. allegedly forcibly slammed him to the ground causing serious injuries and called him a “!@#%  Jew.”  Weizmann was taken to Saint Charles Hospital where medical personnel allegedly colluded with the officers to deny medical treatment until several hours later when he was re-examined and the extent of his injuries were documented including six broken ribs, a broken collar bone and a punctured lung.           

Weizmann sued Saint Charles Hospital and Suffolk County. Saint Charles Hospital, and the medical personnel, reached a pre-trial settlement with Weizmann. 

Suffolk County took the matter to trial.  A Jury found officer Wehr liable for excessive force and awarded Weizmann $188,000 in medical expenses, $250,000 for pain and suffering and $25,000 in punitive damages against Wehr. That would not be the only lawsuit against Everett Wehr, Jr. that Suffolk would defend. See Olsen v Suffolk Co.

NEWS REPORTS: 

 

CASE: Philip Datz v Michael Milton, in his individual and official capacities, and the County of Suffolk 12 Civ. 1770 (LDW)(WDW) Filed April 11, 2012 in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York.  
NATURE: Police use of excessive force; civil rights violation 

SETTLEMENT: On May 8, 2014, the Ways and Means Committee [Legislators Steve Stern, Chair; William Spencer, Vice-Chair; Robert Calarco; Kate Browning and John M. Kennedy, Jr.]  authorized settlement of the matter for $200,000.     

SUMMARY

On July 29, 2011, Philip Datz, a professional photojournalist was videotaping a scene involving police activity in a public place when SCPD 5th Pct. Sergeant Michael Milton arrested him, charged him with Obstructing Governmental Administration in the Second Degree and seized his videotape equipment.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office subsequently dismissed the criminal charge against Datz.    

Datz filed the federal lawsuit against Milton and Suffolk County alleging that he was arrested without probable cause and in violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.  The suit sought damages and equitable relief in the form of training practices by SCPD relating to the constitutional rights of the public and press to observe, photograph and record police activity from locations open to the public. 

May 2014 the parties executed a settlement agreement which obligated Suffolk County to pay Datz $200,000 and SCPD to implement prescribed training protocols.

Notably, the agreement contained the following standard stipulation:

“No Admission of Liability. This Stipulation and Order of Settlement and the performance of the obligations referred to herein shall effect the settlement of all claims in the Action, all of which claims are denied and contested, and nothing contained herein nor the payment of any consideration provided herein shall be construed as an admission of any fact, wrongdoing or liability of any kind by Defendants.  This stipulation shall not be admissible in nor is it related to, any other litigation or settlement negotiations.”

NEWS REPORTS: 

 

Pending police / prosecutorial misconduct cases

Shawn Lawrence: Prosecutorial misconduct – unlawful withholding of exculpatory misconduct.

2017 (May) Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kutzrock resigns in wake of revelation that he engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense in a murder trial. 

  • 2018 (February) The murder conviction of Shawn Lawrence, who was convicted of murder in 2010 and sentenced to 75 years to life in prison, was thrown out and Lawrence was released from prison after serving nearly six years. The judge who dismissed the case noted that prosecutors withheld 45 pieces of evidence from the defense that would have tended to exonerate Lawrence. 

  • 2018 (April), Lawrence filed a $20 million notice of claim against former Suffolk County, former DA Tom Spota, Glenn Kurtzrock, Robert Biancavilla, Laura Newcombe and eight detectives.  The claim alleges: “Mr. Spota essentially encouraged, tolerated, and ratified a culture of lawlessness within the Suffolk D.A.’s office that resulted in prosecutors systematically violating the Constitution and the laws of the United States and the State of New York and the due process rights of criminal suspects and defendants.”

  • Ultimately, five murder convictions were vacated due to such prosecutorial misconduct.

  • The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department suspended Kutzrock’s license to practice law for two years. 

  • May 2019 Lawrence filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against police and Suffolk County seeking damages for his wrongful conviction. He subsequently also filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims.

News Reports:

Related reporting: “egregious” prosecutorial misconduct