Suffolk County Legislator Pleads Guilty Waives Right To Appeal

DA SINI: SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATOR PLEADS GUILTY TO FILING FALSE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORM, VIOLATING SUFFOLK COUNTY ETHICS CODE

Defendant Failed to Report Outside Employment and $60k in Payments He Received Through Shell Corporation Created in Wife’s Name

(RIVERHEAD, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the guilty plea of a Suffolk County Legislator for filing a false financial disclosure form with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics.

Rudolph Sunderman, 51, of Mastic, has served as a Suffolk County Legislator representing Suffolk County’s Third Legislative District since January 2018. He pleaded guilty today in frontRudolph Sunderman, 51, of Mastic, has served as a Suffolk County Legislator representing Suffolk County’s Third Legislative District since January 2018. of Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony Senft, Jr., to Intentional Failure to File an Accurate Financial Disclosure Statement, an unclassified misdemeanor and a violation of the Suffolk County Code of Ethics. Pursuant to the plea agreement, he was sentenced to a conditional discharge, has waived his right to appeal, and will be required to pay a $1,000 fine.

“This legislator was told by the Suffolk County Board of Ethics that he was not permitted under the law to continue to get paid by the Centereach Fire District on top of his six-figure legislator salary,” District Attorney Sini said. “Instead of simply doing the right thing, he created a sham company in his wife’s name to try to get around the ruling. When the Board of Ethics started asking questions about this employment, he filed a false Financial Disclosure Form with the Board of Ethics concealing $60,000 in outside income paid to that company for his continued work for the Fire District.”

“After the Board of Ethics referred this case to my Office for investigation, our investigators and prosecutors meticulously gathered the evidence and presented it to a grand jury of the defendant’s peers, which indicted him with a series of crimes. For the next year and a half, we insisted on a criminal conviction either by plea or trial. That brings us to today, where the defendant admitted to his conduct in open court and pled guilty to a crime. As a result of today’s guilty plea, the defendant is a convicted criminal who is disqualified from holding the position of trust that he betrayed through his actions.”

Prior to his election to the Suffolk County Legislature in November 2017, Sunderman was employed as the district manager for the Centereach Fire District, earning approximately $175,000 a year, and as the district secretary for the Center Moriches Fire District, earning approximately $20,000 a year. On December 6, 2017, Sunderman received an opinion from the Suffolk County Board of Ethics that continuing to serve in these roles while serving as a legislator would constitute a violation of the Suffolk County Code. Sunderman resigned from his position with the Center Moriches Fire District.

Sunderman attempted to circumvent the Board of Ethics’ ruling with respect to his employment with the Centereach Fire District by creating a shell company, Now That’s Fire Management, Inc., in his wife’s name and arranging for the Centereach Board of Fire Commissioners to hire him through that company for $10,000 per month. Between January 2, 2018, and June 30, 2018, despite the Board of Ethics’ determination, Sunderman continued to work for the Centereach Fire District, resulting in $60,000 in payments to Now That’s Fire Management, Inc.

Following receipt of a complaint, the Suffolk County Board of Ethics began an investigation into Sunderman’s employment with the Centereach Fire District. On April 23, 2019, while the Board of Ethics’ investigation into his conduct was underway, Sunderman intentionally failed to disclose his outside employment as well as his wife’s income from the Centereach Fire District on a financial disclosure form filed with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics for the 2018 reporting year.

Following the investigation, Sunderman was indicted and arraigned on July 16, 2019.

Sunderman was represented by Raymond Perini.

This case was prosecuted by Bureau Chief Marc Lindemann and Assistant District Attorneys Kevin Ward and Sean Buckley, of the Public Integrity Bureau.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Stony Brook University's COVID-19 Distribution "Very Impressive"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The process of getting a vaccination at Stony Brook University to prevent COVID-19 was amazingly well-organized. I had been concerned about getting to the site where shots were being given on the sprawling Stony Brook campus but signage was abundant. And traffic was directed by National Guard soldiers and Stony Brook University Police. 

There was an enormous number of people at various stations inside the campus building being used for vaccinations—many of them drawn from the various Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook. They were consistently helpful. 

Quite an activation of resources! Very impressive!

Getting an appointment wasn’t easy but I kept trying by calling the state’s “vaccination hotline” (at 833-697-4829). And, finally, I landed a slot.

I was given the shot—of the Pfizer vaccine—by a team two young women who attend the Stony Brook School of Nursing. I told them, as the needle was prepared, about being a journalist and having written articles about the founding of their school in the early 1970s.

I suggested they Google the name of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino to learn about why, largely because of his leadership, the Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook—including the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Dental Medicine—are unusual. Dr. Pellegrino pioneered interdisciplinary health science education and clinical care at Stony Brook as its vice president for health sciences.

When the needle went in, I didn’t feel it. It was the thinnest needle ever poked into me. I was told there might be moderate pain in my upper arm afterwards. As I write this, the next day, any pain has disappeared.

After the shot I was directed to a big room in which the newly vaccinated were to sit for 15 minutes, to wait to make sure they were OK. Chairs were socially-distanced. On a big screen, a video program was being played on the history of health sciences at Stony Brook.

It was déjà vu time. It brought me back to covering Stony Brook way back—and getting to know its students, faculty and administrators—and especially the visionary Dr. Pellegrino. 

The arrival of Stony Brook University was a shock for some communities and people in Suffolk. There was “town-gown” conflict. The top administrators of the university met with the top editors of the daily Long Island Press and asked, an editor later told me, if they could assign a reporter who might be “sensitive” regarding the conflict and also what was happening at the university. At that time, 1969, I had begun this column, published every Sunday in The Press, reported on Suffolk politics and government and did investigative reporting. And this was added.

Watching that video, those years came rushing back. In it were people I had interviewed and programs I had written about—and a photo of Dr. Pellegrino.

I related in pieces back then Dr. Pellegrino’s story—how he was the son of Italian immigrants and faced problems getting into a medical school because of being an Italian-American. He spoke of a letter he received from one Ivy League medical school saying he would be “happier” with his “own kind.” His college advisor, he said, suggested he change his last name. He refused. 

But his father, in the wholesale grocery business, serviced a restaurant near NYU at which the dean of NYU Medical School had lunch regularly. Its owner introduced him to the dean, young Pellegrino applied to the school, was accepted and graduated in 1944. 

Dr. Pellegrino described to me his dream of integrating medical sciences with the humanities and social sciences. And the hospital he planned, he said, would be nurturing and patient-centered. He maintained that medicine is a “moral enterprise” with a doctor having a “covenant” with his or her patients. He was dissatisfied with the direction medicine was taking, with health care being turned into, he said, a commodity, a business. Stony Brook, he said, would be different. It has been.

Dr. Pellegrino went on to become president of the Catholic University of America, He taught up to the week of his death at 92 in 2013. He attended mass daily. He authored or co-authored 23 books and is considered a founder of the field of bioethics.

The 15 minutes up, I left Stony Brook, vaccinated and smiling.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

St. James Man Indicted For String Of Burglaries And Attempted Theft Of ATM

DA SINI: ST. JAMES MAN INDICTED FOR ALLEGED STRING OF COMMERCIAL BURGLARIES; DEFENDANT, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED FOR ATTEMPTED ATM THEFT 

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the indictment of a St. James man for allegedly committing a string of commercial burglaries in November 2020. The defendant and an accomplice are also indicted in connection with the alleged attempted theft of an ATM.

“These two individuals are alleged serial burglars who were targeting businesses and driving crime in our community,” District Attorney Sini said. “This was excellent work by our Major Crime Unit and the Suffolk County Police Department to apprehend these defendants and bring significant charges against them.”

Kieran Fichtner, 27, of St. James, is charged with three counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a class C felony; two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony; six counts of Burglary in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony; four counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Fifth Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, a class D felony; five counts of Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class E felony; Attempted Burglary in the Third Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree, a class A misdemeanor; two counts of Petit Larceny, a class A misdemeanor; and two counts of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree, a class B misdemeanor.

Michael Parise, 46, of Stony Brook, is charged with Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree, a class D felony; and Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class E felony.

Throughout November 2020, Fichtner is alleged to have committed numerous commercial burglaries while on supervised release with GPS monitoring for an unrelated pending charge for criminal possession of a weapon. The alleged burglaries took place on:

·         Nov. 4, 2020, at St. James Jewelry, located at 483 Lake Avenue in St. James

·         Nov. 19, 2020, at Center Gold East, located at 151 Route 25a in Sound Beach

·         Nov. 19, 2020, at Pattern Finders, located at 128 E. Main Street in Port Jefferson Station

·         Nov. 23, 2020, at R&S Jewelry, located at 285 Route 25a in Rocky Point

·         Nov. 24, 2020, at Raan Thai, located at 203 Terry Road in Nesconset

·         Nov. 25, 2020, at Subway, located at 43 Railroad Avenue in Ronkonkoma

On Nov. 28, 2020, Suffolk County Police Department Major Case detectives observed Fichtner and Parise allegedly attempt to steal an ATM from Chase Bank located at 705 Smithtown Bypass in Smithtown. Fichtner and Parise fled in a vehicle. The detectives initiated a pursuit with assistance from the Suffolk County Police Electronic Investigations Unit, Aviation Unit and K-9 Unit and apprehended Fichtner.

On Nov. 28, 2020, detectives executed a search warrant on Fichtner’s vehicle and recovered a loaded 9mm pistol, approximately one gram of cocaine, and a New York State Corrections jacket that the suspect had been observed wearing during several of the burglaries. A forensic analysis conducted by the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory concluded that the 9mm pistol had been used in two shootings in November in residential neighborhoods. No victims were injured in the shootings.

Detectives also executed a search warrant at Fichtner’s residence and recovered jewelry, art, two shotguns, trailers, motorcycles, and one Mercedes, which had all been reported as stolen. Police also recovered an eagle statue that had been reported as stolen from a World War II memorial at Washington Memorial Park Cemetery in Mount Sinai.

Parise was arrested last week on unrelated charges in connection with numerous alleged commercial burglaries, at which time he made admissions to police regarding his involvement in the November ATM theft. Parise also made admissions to detectives that Fichtner would fire the pistol in residential neighborhoods to distract police in order to commit burglaries nearby.

Fichtner was arraigned on the indictment in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Stephen Braslow on March 5 and bail was set at $150,000 cash, $300,000 bond or $500,000 partially-secured bond. Fichtner is being represented by George Duncan and is due back in court on April 9. Parise was arraigned today and bail was set at $150,000 cash, $300,000 bond or $400,000 partially-secured bond. Parise is being represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County and is due back in court on April 14.

If convicted of the top count, Fichtner faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. If convicted of the top count, Parise faces a maximum sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney James Scahill, of the Felony Offense Bureau’s Major Crime Unit.

A criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: March Is Decision Time For LIPA

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The model for contracting out LIPA’s responsibilities to a private company is a two-time loser,” says Fred W. Thiele, Jr., a leader in calling for true reform of the Long Island Power Authority. LIPA, says Assemblyman Thiele, needs to return to “the vision of its sponsors” and be a “public utility accountable directly to Long Islanders.”

LIPA is to make a decision later this month on going back to that vision—to be a true public power utility operating Long Island’s electric grid itself, not contracting that out to a private company.

London, England-based National Grid which earlier operated the grid for LIPA was fired after its massive failures in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened and pushed for National Grid to be replaced by Newark, New Jersey-based PSEG. In last year’s Tropical Storm Isaias, PSEG repeated National Grid’s storm failure with about half of LIPA customers left in the dark without electricity.

After these two big utility strikes, “There is no reason to think it would be any different a third time,” says Mr. Thiele of Sag Harbor.

LIPA, beyond suing PSEG for $70 million and charging “corporate mismanagement, misfeasance, incompetence and indifference, rising well beyond the level of simple negligence” for PSEG’s terrible Isaias performance, is now considering a return to the original vision of it being a full public utility.

LIPA describes that, in a report issued in December, as the “Municipal Management Model.” This, says the report, “is an alternative to LIPA’s present arrangement with PSEG Long Island.” LIPA lists economic advantages. “Rather than paying PSEG Long Island $77 million in management fees and $20 million in affiliate service charges annually, the LIPA management team would design, integrate, and bear the costs of the entire delivery chain.” It notes the “municipal management model” has “been successfully executed by numerous public power and cooperative utilities, many of whom are ranked among the best utilities in the country for customer satisfaction and reliability.”

Indeed, a good chunk of electric utilities in the United States are public power utilities, not private utilities with profit central often at the cost of public service. Public power utilities are in a better position to underground electric lines, a key to enhancing the reliability of electricity on often storm-battered Long Island.

The original model for LIPA was the Sacramento Municipal Utility District providing electric service to an area California with a comparable number of ratepayers as in LIPA’s territory. SMUD has an elected board of seven trustees, and LIPA was to have elected trustees, too. But Andrew Cuomo’s father, then Governor Mario Cuomo, undid that provision after LIPA’s formation in 1986 and replaced it with having LIPA’s nine trustees appointed, five by the governor and two each by the State Assembly speaker and State Senate president. Year after year, Mr. Thiele has introduced legislation restoring having LIPA trustees elected by Long Islanders.

The December LIPA report says under the “Municipal Management Model” and “given its direct accountability for operations, LIPA would be equipped to be far more transparent and responsive.” Important for this to be a reality would be having trustees of a strengthened LIPA elected. They would have to run for office, as do those at SMUD. And this way, electric service would be under the control of the people of Long Island. 

An outrageous example of the kind of utility governance that should never be is an entity called the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. It operates 90 percent of the electric grid in Texas.  How are the 15 members of the ERCOT board chosen? “Board members are appointed by a nominating committee made up of current members,” noted the Austin American-Statesman last month. An investigation by the Texas state capitol’s newspaper also found “one-third of its board lives out of state.” 

With frigid weather hitting Texas and freezing the blades of wind turbines, the anti-environmental governor of Texas blamed green energy for the weeks for electric outage that impacted 4.5 million ERCOT customers. But, as Forbes magazine (not known exactly for a green commitment) reported, for dealing with cold weather, wind turbines “are typically equipped with de-icing and other tools.” That simple fix was beyond the insider-board of ERCOT. Ah, anti-freeze!

Ah democracy! LIPA should decide to operate the Long Island electric grid itself—with the people of Long Island overseeing LIPA by electing the members of its board. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

DA Announces Charges In Wrong-Way Crash With Fatality On Sunken Meadow Parkway

DA SINI: FDNY FIREFIGHTER INDICTED FOR ALLEGEDLY DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED, KILLING MAN IN WRONG-WAY CRASH 

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the indictment of an FDNY firefighter for allegedly driving while intoxicated and killing a man in a wrong-way motor vehicle crash on the Sunken Meadow Parkway in November 2020.

 “This was a senseless tragedy caused by someone who was sworn to protect the safety of others,” District Attorney Sini said. “His blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit when he made the decision to get behind the wheel of a car – a decision that proved to have fatal, devastating consequences. There is no excuse for it. My Office will seek to hold him accountable and obtain justice for the victim.”

Joseph Norris, 38, of Babylon, is charged with Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, a class B felony; Vehicular Manslaughter in the First Degree, a class C felony; Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class C felony; Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated, a misdemeanor; two counts of Driving While Intoxicated, a misdemeanor; Reckless Driving, a misdemeanor; and Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree, a class A misdemeanor. Norris has been employed by the FDNY since 2006.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2020, Norris was allegedly driving a 2008 Chevrolet Colorado southbound in the northbound lane of the Sunken Meadow Parkway near exit SM3A in Smithtown when he struck a 2007 Mazda CX7 SUV. The driver of the Mazda, Anthony Mariano, 44, of Kings Park, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Norris was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore with serious physical injuries. A chemical test of Norris’ blood following the crash revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.29 percent.

Norris was arraigned on the indictment today in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Stephen Braslow and bail was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond. He is being represented by Anthony LaPinta and is due back in court on April 15.

If convicted of the top count, Norris faces a maximum sentence of eight and one-third to 25 years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Raymond Varuolo and Maggie Bopp, of the Vehicular Crime Bureau.

A criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.