Barely Legal in the Hamptons

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
-- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
-- Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)

Once again, the system of justice is being questioned in Suffolk County and in the Hamptons. While it is easy to hurl invectives and make wild claims of police misconduct and prosecutorial immunity in the face of grave injustices, no area harbors the huge amounts of investment for a resort community compared to the property tax influx experienced by the Town of Southampton and its host Suffolk County – and seems to care so little about civil rights.
This week, the New York State Investigation Commission, an agency that reviewed the Suffolk County Police and issued a scathing report of misconduct and actual criminal activity on the part of police and prosecutors, acknowledged that the Marty Tankleff case was under review.
From the inception of this heinous crime and wrongful prosecution to the recent attempts to prevent its re-trial, the Commission has advised that they will conduct in investigation.
Whatever the smarmy facts are that will be uncovered; the fact that D.A. Spota appears to have some personal interest in the case will be an interesting study.
Certainly, review of prosecutorial conduct and clearly unconstitutional behavior will come under more scrutiny if a Special Prosecutor is appointed.

This comes on the heels of the Cicciaro/White case, which will bring Al Sharpton to Riverhead on January 5th. The cast of characters involved in the trial, given the Tankleff fiasco, is just short of amazing for political junkies. Every church and religious group in the Tri-state area (not just African-American) will sign on and make their presence known. This, in an area that has seen very little in the way of demonstrations for the neglect of civil rights.

This sentiment will hopefully reach into the Town of Southampton, where business-as-usual indicates that those attorneys who do business in Justice Court need to be on the same “approved” list as the list which exists in the County’s “Halls of Justice” when it comes to dishing out sentences or dismissals for clients. The Town Attorney, the recently resigned Garrett Swenson, has been backed up by a cast of characters and a specially appointed Assistant D.A., -- who represents Spota's office in the Town court.
Lest we not be naïve, “approved” lists are also a fact of life in the Hamptons, where garnering zoning variances, contracts for Town construction, and, most egregiously, for plea deals or dismissals in criminal cases – for “special” friends of the D.A.’s office or the Town Attorney’s office – are well known but not spoken of in the Press.
Corruption, as NOT reported by the Southampton Press or Suffolk Life, is alive and well in Southampton.

This brings us to the Storm Troopers, known benevolently as Code Enforcement. With a rental law that is about to take effect January 1st, written hastily and unconstitutionally by Garrett Swenson, that brilliant legal mind who was reverently referred to by women in local government as “Heaney’s Neanderthal,” we have years of illegal break-ins (using badges and guns to implement the new disguised anti-Latino policy) to look forward to in our little nirvana – know as the Hamptons.

Whether Code Enforcement, a group of police who focus on housing violations – and who are allowed to carry badges and guns – are more like the Imperial Storm Troopers of Star Wars or the Sturm Abteilung of Hitler’s Third Reich, remains to be seen. The level of intelligence in this “rubber gun squad” (no responsibility for policing real crime) is hardly an issue. When you break into a house at 5 a.m., roust the tenants with “GIF US YOUR PAPERZ” the difference is moot. Can the rousting of Jews be far behind?
For police to break into a house, write up a code violation report about how many people are sleeping there and write a report about which smoke detectors are missing batteries -- in a million dollar house in a resort community -- AT 5:00 IN THE MORNING – can Kristalnacht cannot be far off. Jews, Blacks, Latinos, gays, New Yorkers, Democrats – lock your doors!

The Hamptons, for the last several decades, has been about who has been here longer. The potato farmers who had lived here since the 30’s resented the artists and summer people, until they sold their development rights for millions. The émigrés who moved to Southampton in the 50’s and 60’s had children who now have conveniently forgotten that Black people were being burned out of their houses in Hampton Bays in the 60’s and forced to move to Riverhead for safety.
Even summer people who bought homes in the 70’s have adopted an “I’ve been here since…” attitude.
Lots of cops and firemen from the city moved to Hampton Bays, lived in cheap houses and commuted to Manhattan.
Many in law enforcement and several prosecutors in the Hamptons are from somewhere else. It wasn’t the right wing politics. It was the power and the money. Don’t let anyone kid you about that. And, it was easy money.
While cops were being shot at in the South Bronx, in the 70’s, near where some of us involved with the courts at Probation and Parole on 163rd and River Avenue, linked euphemistically to Fort Apache (the police station) – Southampton Town police were arresting summer people for D.W.I’s – at two and three times the money.
While a drug arrest in the Hamptons consisted of the danger in taking an ounce from a blonde on the beach with her top off, Serpico was being shot in the head by corrupt cops on a Manhattan drug bust. The blonde-bust made lots more for his dangerous assignment.

The focus on civil rights, constitutionality and legality – not to mention prosecutorial misconduct – will now come under further scrutiny. The investigations by the State Commission will be thorough and extensive and there may be a Special Prosecutor, as there should be. But, the lessons from the last investigations that occurred in the 1980’s are that the same people are still involved in law enforcement. The same patterns have emerged.

When the investigators finish their work this time, the cleaners have to come in to do their work. If the investigators work from the “approved” lists and compare pleas, dismissals, contract awards, and special variances – things will change.

And, then they will move on to prosecutorial misjudgments and targets – and, those who implemented the illegal searches and seizures.
Only then, will the real lawsuits begin and spur the interest of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Hamptons Tidbits:

The Inn at Quogue recently sold for $8 million and one of the “principals”[who was the old man’s mistress] is being pursued – not for her charms, but for accusations of dipping into funds.

A rumor has surfaced that the Village of Westhampton Beach is seriously considering the purchase of the Dune Deck parcel on Dune Road for $12 million – carrying with it a tax arrears liability of $7 million – to expand its beaches. That's a total tune of $20 million.

One of the Integrity Party’s principals, Bob Olson, is an activist who was a moving force in the Marty Tankleff victory. Not only have he and Darren Johnson been successful in providing Linda Kabot with the margin that gave her victory in the Supervisor election, but also they now have established this new party as a major force for reform in local government.

Snow may be on hold in Riverhead, as the Riverhead Resorts vote is postponed until Jan. 2. In addition to residents objecting to the 350 foot refrigerated mountain, Mr. Sater, of Bayrock is once again a cause for concern.

Resident and
A.D.A. Leonard Lato, ensconced in the Tankleff case as well as the Nursing home matter which has been plaguing Spota’s office, has been “philosophical” about the recent release of Marty Tankleff, according to locals. It should be noted that Schumer and his bloated campaign fund is also suffering the after burn.