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Remember last year in April when Long Island's new Democratic senate delegation stood proudly together before cameras in Garden City to announce: "We didn't roll over for NYC." Newsday reported that the Long Island Six said Republicans had it wrong when they predicted a Democratic majority in Albany would cater to the interests of New York City. "For eight years, four election cycles, we heard from our friends on the Republican side that there would be calamity and catastrophe if the New York State Senate went to the Democrats in the majority," Nassau and state Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said. "All sorts of terrible things would happen, and of course we would be owned lock, stock and barrel by New York City..." Newsday reported. But the Democratic senators that day made no mention of the new bail reform laws they had just approved as part of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget. You know, the bail reform and criminal justice ...

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran is recommending that a "personal" consultant for prison and jail movies be hired as the county's new sheriff. James E. Dzurenda assists directors, producers and actors "in recreating real life prison and jail scenes" for productions in New York City and Los Angeles, according to the resume submitted to the county legislature. Actually, Dzurenda appears to have a lot of real life experience as well, working and overseeing correctional facilities in Nevada, Connecticut and New York City, but his role in movie production is the most glamorous part of his lengthy resume. Dzurenda would replace former sheriff Vera Fludd if approved by the legislature. Dzurenda's resume indicates he currently is consultant for the city of North Las Vegas to construct a jail system after serving two years as director of prisons for the state of Nevada. Before that, he was a first deputy commissioner for New York City's department o...

The Siena College Research Institute put out another poll today on how downstate suburbanites -- Long Islanders -- view bail reform. They don't like it. A poll taken Feb. 15 through Feb. 20 found that 65 percent of suburban voters believe that eliminating bail for most crimes is bad for New York. It also found that 65 percent of upstate voters don't like it and even 51 percent of New York City voters think its bad for the state. Statewide opposition grew to 59 percent overall, compared to 55 percent in favor of bail reform in April 2019 when the new progressive Democratic majority in Albany approved it as part of Andrew M. Cuomo's budget, along with other changes to the state's criminal justice system. Since the changes took effect Jan. 1, there have been daily reports about alleged drug dealers, gang members, burglars, spouse beaters, repeat drunk drivers and other offenders being arrested and released only to allegedly commit more crimes. Some of the suspects ...

Nassau's Inspector General last month identified "statutory conflicts" for three of the five county ethics board members and questioned Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's vetting process. Inspector General Jodi Franzese in a Jan. 16 report noted the county charter calls for four of the five board members to be appointed by the county executive and confirmed by the county legislature. By charter, the county attorney is the fifth member. The four outside members are not paid for their service. She said the charter dictates that no member of the board shall hold any public office or have business dealings with the county. But, she wrote, two of the current board members "have had ongoing business dealings with the county and the third has held two disqualifying public offices since their 2018 appointments in apparent violation" of the charter. Franzese did not identify the members by name but county records show that Ethics Board Chairman Kenneth...

Nassau ended 2019 with a $12.8 million surplus in sales taxes, much higher than anticipated in December by the administration of County Executive Laura Curran. The Legislature's Office of Budget Review says that the state's final sales tax check to Nassau for 2019 shows that collections increased $42.7 million over last year, a 3.6 percent increase. That brings total yearly sales tax revenue to $1.244 billion. Because of accounting rules, the county must defer approximately $1.9 million of the surplus until 2021, which gives Curran $10.9 million in extra revenues for this year's expenses. Oddly, Curran's office of Management and Budget projected no increase in sales taxes in its last report to the county's fiscal control board, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority. A November finance report, issued Dec. 23, predicted flat sales tax revenues and an overall county operating surplus of $215,823 by the end of last year. The office has yet to issue a report for...

Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder has been blasted by critics ever since he suggested a link between the murder of an MS-13 witness to criminal justice reforms that require witness names and addresses be turned over to suspects. "The tragic death of (the MS-13 witness) is, unequivocally not the result of the  new discovery laws," the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County said in response to Ryder's Feb. 5 news conference, according to Newsday. " We've reviewed the court docs: he was completely wrong," a New York Times reporter tweeted on Feb. 6, referring to Ryder. New Yorkers United for Justice has been running a television commercial accusing the police commissioner of misleading the public:  "Ryder's disregard of the truth was reckless, irresponsible and exactly why criminal justice reforms are needed  to protect the rights of innocent people,"  the narrator says. Ryder was forced to issue a statement saying he knew of no ...

Tomorrow is the last scheduled court hearing prior to a March 6 trial date for a class action lawsuit challenging the legality of  Nassau's residential property tax reassessment.   A Manhattan law firm,  Wolf, Haldenstein, Adler, Freeman & Herz, has submitted papers indicating that six of its attorneys will appear in court to represent Democrat County Executive Laura Curran's administration. The six include senior partner Regina Calcaterra, a former chief deputy for Democrat Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and former executive director of the short-lived Moreland Commission on public corruption where she was considered the eyes and ears of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Calcaterra has filed a 15-page answer to the lawsuit filed by Sands Point resident Eric Berliner and three other Nassau homeowners, who contend the reassessment was secretive, arbitrary and violates state constitutional guarantees of equal protection. Calcaterra essentially denies all their claim...

Now that a 17-year-old from New Cassel  has been arrested and charged with allegedly murdering an MS-13 witness earlier this month, let's see what Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder actually said about the beating death of Wilmer Maldonado Rodriguez and its connection to changes in New York's criminal justice laws. Advocates of the changes -- approved by the progressive Democratic majority in Albany last year -- lashed out en masse against Ryder last week for linking Rodriguez'  death to new rules that require witness names and addresses to be given to suspects within 15 days of arraignment. Led by members of the Democratic state senate press office, advocates insisted Ryder had put out fake news: Yes, Nassau County Court Judge Helene Gugerty had turned over identifying information to MS-13 lawyers about Rodriguez, who was scheduled to testify against gang members in an upcoming trial. But the lawyers say they never gave that information to their clients. Ryder ...

Nassau District Court Judge David McAndrews was considered a hero by critics of New York's new bail reform law last month when he demanded $10,000 cash or $20,000 bond from an accused two-time bank robber. Back-to-back bank robberies are not considered enough of a crime to require bail under the criminal justice laws written and approved by the Democratic majority in Albany last year. At the time, the suspect also was awaiting sentencing in Central Islip federal court for violating his supervised release from a 2012 crack-trafficking case, according to the New York Post. That too did not warrant bail under the Democratic reforms. But McAndrews, a Republican, told suspect Romell Nellis of Hempstead, "I don't want you walking around my neighborhood." McAndrews decision to require bail was quickly overturned by fellow Republican judge Chris Quinn, who orderd Nellis released with a ankle-monitor. Nellis was back in court his week after police say he cut off t...

It almost seems like all New York Democrats got the same memo to use the same talking points whenever anybody, particularly Republicans, criticize the criminal justice law changes approved by the Democratic majority in Albany last year. You know, the changes that eliminated bail for most crimes, leading to daily reports about alleged drug dealers, wife beaters, bank robbers, repeat drunk drivers, confirmed gang members being immediately released after arrest only to go out and allegedly commit the same crimes. Included are costly and cumbersome discovery changes that require prosecutors to turn over all crime evidence, including names and addresses of witnesses and victims, within 15 days or risk the case being tossed out of court. No matter that witnesses and victims don't want suspects to know who they are or where they live for fear of being assaulted or raped again. With Democratic popularity plunging in the polls, the memo apparently advises Democrats to go on the offen...

No surprise here. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has denied Nassau Republicans' request for an audit of County Comptroller Jack Schnirman's office after police recovered $710,000 in taxpayer money scammed from the county fiscal watchdog. Not only is DiNapoli a Democrat like Schnirman,  but DiNapoli endorsed Schnirman in 2017 when the former Long Beach City Manager ran for county comptroller -- an elected official responsible for watching county spending. It took 16 months for DiNapoli to audit Long Beach and excessive separation payments made to Schnirman and other members of his management team even though DiNapoli's own office had said that most audits take six to nine months to complete. And DiNapoli's office only got involved after angry Long Beach residents in April 2018 demanded an investigation. And his audit basically confirmed what the residents, the Long Beach Herald and Newsday already reported: that Schnirman's $108,000 in termination pay was ...

A Nassau deputy medical examiner on Monday said backlogs and turnaround times in crime testing have ballooned since the Democratic majority in Albany amended the state's criminal justice laws. Besides eliminating bail for most crimes, progressive Albany Democrats also directed that most evidence relating to the alleged crime be turned over to suspects and their lawyers within 15 days of arraignment--the date when the suspect pleads guilty or not guilty. But many crime laboratory tests, such as those used to identify seized substances or to confirm that a driver was impaired by drugs, takes more than 15 days,  Carolyn Kelly, deputy medical examiner for laboratories, told the Nassau County legislature's Public Safety Committee.  "When this legislation was drafted, 15 days was not realistic by any measure," she said. Legislator Steve Rhoads (R-Wantagh) asked, "In an ideal world is it possible to meet a 15-day time frame?" Kelly responded,...