Smithtown VFW Post 10870 hosted a Veterans Day Ceremony Nov. 11. Community members joined veterans, scouts and elected officials to honor those who have served at Smithtown’s Veterans Plaza.
Smithtown community commemorates Veterans Day
Rita J. Egan
Ward Melville Patriots move on to semifinals
On Nov. 5, the Ward Melville Patriots football team took on Sachem North in a Suffolk County Division 1 quarterfinal game at Stony Brook University’s Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. At the end of the night, the fourth-seeded Patriots emerged the winners with a score of 35-7.
The Patriots will go up against Walt Whitman High School on Nov. 13. Game starts at 1 p.m. at Walt Whitman High School.
Pictured clockwise from above, the Patriots take on Sachem North; sophomore Griffin Kramer goes for a touchdown; Patriots move in on a Sachem North player; Chris Pussen with ball in hand; and Dylan Moore prepares for a tackle.
St. James community celebrates local veterans
St. James community members stepped out of their homes and businesses to celebrate local veterans the morning of Nov. 11.
VFW Post 395 in St. James hosted its annual Veterans Day Parade. Elected officials, scouts, Smithtown school district bands and members of the St. James Fire Department joined veterans to march down Lake Avenue from Woodlawn Avenue to the St. James Elementary School.
A ceremony honoring the veterans capped off the event.
Smithtown resident runs NYC marathon for a good cause
Among the 30,000 or so runners crossing the finishing line of the New York City Marathon Nov. 7 was Smithtown resident Julia McNeill, who was running not only for herself but her sister Caroline. The 26-year-old said in a phone interview before the event that her goal was to not only complete the race, but also to raise awareness about Marfan syndrome and raise funds for The Marfan Foundation. The genetic condition is one that affects her sister.
McNeill took part in the race, her first marathon, with a team of eight others, which included members from all over the country and one from Amsterdam. Each of the team members has a loved one who has Marfan or other related genetic aortic and vascular conditions. Caroline McNeill, 23, was 3 years old when she was diagnosed with the genetic condition. Marfan affects Caroline’s body’s connective tissue and has resulted in lifelong cardiac concerns.
Julia McNeill said even though this past Sunday was her first marathon, she has always been athletic and played softball for Hauppauge High School and in college.
“I always liked running,” she said. “It was always on my bucket list to run the marathon, and I figured why not do it for a good cause, raise awareness and educate people about it and just reach as many people as I can.”
Before the race, McNeill, who is a Stony Brook University Hospital nurse, said she surpassed her fundraising goal of $3,000 and credits her family for the fundraising support. As of Nov. 10, she had raised more than $6,200, and the fundraising page is still open for donations on the Marfan Foundation website.
She originally planned to run in the more-than-26 miles marathon in 2020, but it was canceled due to COVID-19. McNeill said she was training last year and then stopped running for a while and just continued working out regularly at a local gym. Once the summer hit this year, she started training hardcore again for the marathon. She soon found she could run 21 miles, even though it was difficult at first.
“It’s nothing like a game of softball,” she said. “A softball game lasts, what, an hour and a half?”
Training included running four days a week, and one of the days was for long-distance running. She said at first those long-distance runs were less than 21 miles. In the beginning of training, McNeill could complete six miles, then each week the distance would increase. She hit her peak four weeks before the big day.
Sibling bond
McNeill said she was only 6 years old when her sister was diagnosed so she doesn’t remember much, but the elder sister said she recalls being checked out by a cardiologist as the whole family needed to be evaluated to see if they also had the genetic condition.
‘It was always on my bucket list to run the marathon, and I figured why not do it for a good cause, raise awareness and educate people about it and just reach as many people as I can.’
— Julia McNeill
Like others with Marfan, the odds are her sister may need open heart surgery one day. Caroline McNeill, who is more than 6-feet tall and thin, which are symptoms of the condition, said throughout her life people have always been curious about her build and asked questions such as, “Do you play basketball?” or “Why are you so tall?”
The younger sister said while Marfan affects her, she doesn’t see her life being that much different than others.
“I see it as I have Marfan syndrome, but I’m able to excel in all these other areas as a result,” she said. “You know, other kids don’t play sports, not because they have conditions or heart conditions. It’s just that they don’t like sports, it’s not something they excel at.”
She added when she was younger she found interests outside of sports, and she belonged to the art club in high school and loved going to concerts with friends and supporting her sister at games.
“It’s not anything that’s going to impede you or restrict you in any way, but it’s just going to create new, and sometimes even better, opportunities,” she said.
Caroline McNeill, who is currently studying to become a speech pathologist, added she’s not sure what her life would be like now if she didn’t have Marfan and believes it played a role in her choosing a career in the speech field.
“I don’t think I would be as empathetic toward other people, because I know how I want to be treated, and I want to make sure that other people are treated the same way,” she said.
Julia McNeill describes her sister as “the most intelligent, kind-hearted, down-to-earth person” she knows. McNeill added her sister also has had the strength to overcome any obstacle she met and is her role model.
“She goes above and beyond in everything, and the least I can do is train for four months and do something, just make more awareness and everything for her condition,” she said.
The admiration is mutual. Caroline McNeill said that Julia has always been her protector, and she couldn’t ask for a better sister or sibling relationship.
“I feel like that’s a common theme of us both being like, ‘Oh, you’re my inspiration,’ ‘But no, you’re mine,’” she said.
Caroline McNeill said she was proud of her sister and knew she would complete the marathon based on her athletic abilities.
“She’s a born-and-bred athlete, and the fact that she wanted to do it and run for The Marfan Foundation just made it that much more special,” Caroline McNeill said.
The big day
In an email after the marathon, Julia McNeill said she completed the race in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds. She made it just under her goal of 5 hours. Cheering her on were her sister, parents, grandmother and boyfriend, who met her four times along the route to refill her water pouch and help her refuel with bananas.
She said running through the city was like nothing she has experienced before.
“The energy from every single person was like no other,” McNeill said. “Every single block you would turn, there would be people lined up shoulder to shoulder just screaming at the top of their lungs cheering you along even if it was mile 1 or mile 26.”
She said many people along the way would hand out tissues for chilly or runny noses, and even offered bananas and orange slices.
“I just felt so much support from thousands of total strangers,” she said. “It was without a doubt the greatest experience of my life.”
To contribute to Julia McNeill’s fundraising efforts, visit the website give.marfan.org/fundraiser/3351331. The money raised goes to The Marfan Foundation’s mission to advance research, raise public awareness and serve as a resource for Marfan syndrome, VEDS, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and other genetic
aortic conditions
Setauket Fire Department dedicates badge number 729 to honor Culper Spy Ring
Members of the Setauket Fire Department stopped by the Three Village Historical Society’s History Center on North Country Road Nov. 6 for a special presentation.
The department dedicated badge number 729. The number is associated with the Culper Spy Ring, and the badge is now mounted on a plaque and displayed in the center. The number was assigned by Benjamin Tallmadge, the organizer and leader of the local Revolutionary War spies, to signify Setauket in coded messages.
Historical society board members as well as state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and Town of Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) were also on hand.
Englebright said the awareness of the spy ring, which he called “part of our American fabric,” is growing thanks to the historical society, and he thanked the fire department for helping to spread the word about the Setauket spies for future generations.
Kornreich said the history “is very much alive in our everyday lives,” given examples of local residents who can trace their roots back to Revolutionary times, including the Strongs who can trace their family history back to Anna Strong, a member of the ring.
“That history still lives within the blood of our community,” Kornreich said. “I think that what we’re all here today to recognize is something deeper and much less obvious, which is a spirit and a tradition that exists in Setauket of people who when the time came and the call came stepped up to answer and face danger.”
He added just as the spies faced danger, so do the firefighters who “rush into the flames to make sure we get out.”
Fire Chief Scott Gressin thanked Assistant Chief Charles Regulinski for helping to see the project through. Regulinski read part of the message on the plaque for those in attendance. A replica of the plaque will also hang within the fire department. After a minimum of a year of probation and service, members receive a badge.
Gressin said when he joined the department in 2002, he became aware of the connection between the “729” symbol, which appears on a few of the Setauket Fire Department trucks based out of the department’s headquarters and the spy ring.
“As we moved forward and realized we were going to approach badge 729, we recognized the symbolic connection,” he said. “That number sat on our trucks, and one of our past chiefs had the forethought to set aside that number and not issue it to a member but to reserve it for a ceremony such as this.”
The event kicked off the historical society’s reopening for its museum after being closed to the public due to COVID-19. The Three Village Historical Society will be open for exhibits:
Mondays from 12 to 2 p.m.
Tuesdays from 2 to 4 p.m.
Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m.
Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.
Suffolk County Legislator ‘Doc’ Spencer indicted, pleads not guilty
Suffolk County Legislator William “Doc” Spencer (D-Centerport) was indicted Nov. 8. The indictment includes drug and prostitution-related charges. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Spencer, 54, who is currently serving as legislator for the 18th District, was arrested Oct. 20, 2020. According to police, authorities had arranged a sting operation, and the Centerport resident allegedly planned, via text message, to meet a prostitute, who was an undercover agent, in the parking lot behind the Goodwill store in Elwood to trade sex for the pills. Spencer was allegedly found with two oxycodone pills, a legal form of opioid, in his possession.
According to a press release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the county legislator is also facing charges for allegedly filing false information in a police report. In the report, he claimed to be a victim of an extortion scheme involving prostitution.
The charges include criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree; criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree; tampering with public records in the first degree; falsifying business records in the first degree; offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree; perjury in the second degree; making an apparently sworn false statement in the first degree; patronizing a person for prostitution in the third degree; and attempted patronizing a person for prostitution in the third degree.
“Following his arrest, my office conducted an extensive, thorough investigation in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, which resulted in this grand jury indictment,” District Attorney Tim Sini (D) said. “Investigators found that multiple women had allegedly been paid in either cash or drugs for sex acts with the defendant over the course of several years, as corroborated by text message exchanges and other evidence.”
According to the DA’s office, in July of 2020, Spencer filed a complaint with the Suffolk County Police Department. In the complaint, he said he had been the victim of an extortion scheme. In a written statement to detectives he said, “I have not sought the services of prostitutes or call girls.”
After his October 2020 arrest, he agreed to the suspension of his medical license “during the pendency of the case,” according to the DA’s office. Spencer is a physician who operated a private medical practice in Huntington and was also chief of otolaryngology at Huntington Hospital. He is married and has three children.
On Nov. 8, he was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court on Dec. 8. He faces a nine-year maximum sentence in prison if convicted of the top charge. Attorney Anthony LaPinta, of Hauppauge, is representing Spencer.
LaPinta said the indictment wasn’t a surprise.
“We were all aware of the investigation and the witness involved,” the attorney said, adding his office has been doing its own investigation.
“Up to now, there’s been only the prosecutor’s version of the facts,” LaPinta said. “There’s a different side to these facts that we will in time come out with.”
Spencer, who has served nearly 10 years as county legislator and was Democratic majority leader and chairman of the legislative health committee, decided not to run for reelection this year. Town of Huntington Councilman Mark Cuthbertson ran on the Democratic ticket for the district but lost the race to Republican Stephanie Bontempi.
Updated Nov. 10 to included quotes from Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini and Spencer’s attorney Anthony LaPinta.
Book Revue employee ready to start next chapter
A couple of months after the Book Revue in Huntington village closed its doors for the last time, a former store manager is ready to start a new chapter.
Mallory Braun, of Stony Brook, launched a Kickstarter campaign Nov. 1 to raise funds for a new bookstore in the village in the spirit of Book Revue. Her goal is to raise $250,000 in 45 days on the crowdfunding platform, and she plans to call the business The Next Chapter.
Opening her own business is something that the 28-year-old started thinking about seriously after the Book Revue’s owner, Richard Klein, announced the store was closing this summer.
“It was never something that was on the front burner, but it’s been something that I have had interest in for quite some time,” she said.
Braun said she enjoyed working at the Book Revue and learned a lot when she was employed there. For less than a year she was a bookseller, before going on to be manager, a position she held for more than five years. After a while, Braun said she specialized in used and rare books
She said the plan is to open a store within walking distance of the former Book Revue storefront. Right now she has a store in mind and if her fundraising attempts are successful, she believes she’ll have the funds necessary to open the store in that location. If not, she has two other locations she has considered as a backup.
Klein has been helping her through the process.
“He’s advising me on all business matters,” Braun said. “He’s using his connections from 44 years in the business to help me, and he’s generally being there in a support role.”
The Book Revue, like many businesses in the state, had to close temporarily during the height of the pandemic. It was closed to customers for about three months, but the business tried to be innovative, she said, in order to survive.
“We still sold books every day that we were shut down,” Braun said. “We were selling books on Instagram, on social media, and we were selling books by cracking the door open.”
She added that customers would call and pay by credit card and then would pick up orders curbside.
“You have to be flexible, and you have to be able to change with the times,” Braun said. “And that was what I was thinking then and that’s what I’m thinking now.”
Right now, she is juggling a few jobs. In addition to preparing to open a new business, she babysits for a family in Roslyn and also works for an online business called J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians, a rare book online business in Syosset.
Through the years Braun, who holds degrees in journalism and Italian studies, has learned about the importance of juggling responsibilities, which she says require discipline and good time management.
“I have to be pretty disciplined, but I’m lucky because I have a lot of people who are really looking out for me and are willing to be flexible,” she said.
Braun said she learned a lot from Klein and her experience has taught her “to find people whose opinions you trust and also to keep your own counsel.”
Klein said he told Braun that opening a business is something one has to really want, and he feels she does, adding he wouldn’t be providing moral support if he didn’t think so. He said it’s important for a person to have tenacity and determination when opening a business.
“You don’t let anything stop you, and you don’t let obstacles bother you,” he said. “You just keep going. And you will face all kinds of difficulties and defeats along the way, but if you just keep getting up and keep working at it, that’s more than half the battle. First, you decide to act, and then the rest is tenacity.”
Klein said Braun is energetic, smart and determined, and “she has a lot of good ideas.”
He also feels The Next Chapter will continue the legacy of Book Revue.
“When she gets this off the ground, I think it’s going to be a place that people are going to enjoy coming to,” Klein said.
Braun said the new bookstore will deal in used, remaindered, rare and collectible books as well as vinyl records. Slowly but surely, she has been acquiring books and records that people have been donating or selling to her.
The number of new books will be limited, at first but her plan is to increase the selection over time.
The budding entrepreneur said she also plans to have workshops, classes, author readings and book signings “to reincarnate the spirit of Book Revue.”
She said she believes the new store will add some character to the village.
“I think people will be pleasantly surprised when they come to a new space and look around,” she said.
To donate, visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/bookrevue/book-revue-the-next-chapter. As of Nov. 3, more than $50,000 has been donated from over 420 backers. If the goal of raising $250,000 is not met in 45 days, all funds will be returned to donors.
Suozzi has big decision to make
During a virtual press conference Nov. 4, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY3) said he has a lot to think about before the end of the month.
Suozzi said he has been seriously considering running for New York governor in 2022, but he said he will not make a decision until the end of November.
“I’d love to be the governor of New York State, and I think I’ve got a great record of accomplishment,” he said. “I think I’d be great at the job. I have a vision for the state of New York. I know what needs to be done.”
Over the next few weeks he will meet with political consultants to determine if he has a good chance of winning. He added he believes he could win a general election but he wasn’t sure about a Democratic primary.
To date, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Leticia James and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have stated their intentions to run in the Democratic primary in June of 2022.
Leslie Kennedy looks toward next term as Democratic opponent stops campaigning
For the past six years, Suffolk County Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) has represented Legislative District 12, which includes the southern section of the Town of Smithtown and western Brookhaven. This year she is running once again, and while Mike Siderakis will be listed as the Democratic candidate come election day, the candidate who ran unsuccessfully for state senator against Mario Mattera (R-St. James) last year stopped actively campaigning this summer.
Before taking on the role of county legislator, Kennedy worked for 13 years as a legislative aide for Donald Blydenburgh (R-Smithtown) and her husband John Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), who for the last six years has been Suffolk County comptroller. When her husband won his bid for the comptroller’s seat, she stepped into his former position in a special election six months before she had to run again.
“I love my job,” Kennedy said during a recent phone interview with TBR News Media.
COVID-19
Kennedy said the last two years have been tough dealing with the issues the pandemic has presented as well as the restrictions that went along with it to curb the virus. She said the changing rules made it challenging.
“It created all sorts of new issues,” she said.
The former nurse said she believes in wearing masks and getting vaccinated, but she did take issue with the state’s shutdown orders of businesses. The legislator and her office staff were busy earlier in the year helping residents get immunized when it was first difficult to find appointments. She said they secured more than 500 vaccination appointments. “I think that our purpose should be to aid and assist human beings and not to torture them,” she said.
Kennedy also said she is concerned with some of the anti-mask and anti-vaccine rallies and some of the information and arguments that are out there, even though she respects everyone’s rights to express their concerns and opinions.
“They have the right to their opinions, but let me tell you my opinion and how I feel the way I do,” she said. “And then you can keep your opinion or you can think about mine.”
Legislative bills
Kennedy said regarding sponsoring bills she chooses wisely. “I tried to put in a limited amount of bills and just do more government,” she said.
She is most proud of her initiatives that have helped preserve land, and the legislator said it’s important to get out there and meet with all of the people involved and discuss all the options with them.
An example of her preservation efforts is the 2018 acquisition and preservation of the Hauppauge Springs that she led along with Seatuck Environmental Association. The 42-acre property is located on the south side of Route 347 in Hauppauge and there had been a builder interested in constructing eight houses on land at part of one of the headwaters of the Nissequogue River.
Kennedy said she made sure to meet with both the owner of the property and the builder’s lawyer. It was an issue the county legislator was extremely familiar with, as she said it was on the county’s list of environmentally sensitive priority properties for more than 20 years.
“Putting up those houses would have been the end of the Nissequogue River,” she said, adding waste from them would go into the headwaters.
County budget
With more money coming the county’s way in 2022 due to COVID-19 aid, Kennedy said she agrees with paying off pension debts and other monies the county borrowed. However, she said Suffolk should also save as much as possible because she fears it will run out of funds by 2023.
“I would love to give everybody who wants things everything, but we can’t,” she said.
The 12th Legislative District includes Smithtown, Nesconset, Hauppauge, the Village of the Branch, Lake Grove and parts of St. James, Commack, Lake Ronkonkoma and Centereach. The district is bounded roughly by Route 25 to the north, Commack Road to the west, Townline Road to the south, and Oxhead Road to the east, with Veterans Memorial Highway running through the heart of the district northwest to southeast.
Tim Sini and Ray Tierney butt heads in DA race
The race between Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini (D) and prosecutor Ray Tierney, who is running on the Republican and Conservative lines, has been a contentious one. At the forefront, Tierney has questioned whether Sini has been as tough on crime as the DA himself has said, especially regarding the MS-13 gang.
The two sat down with TBR News Media’s editorial staff Oct. 11 to discuss several issues including the biggest ones facing Suffolk County.
Meet the candidates
Sini was first elected to the DA’s office in 2017 and is running for his second term. His background includes being an assistant attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York where he ultimately specialized in violent crimes, which included prosecuting murder trials. He went on to serve as Suffolk’s assistant deputy county executive for public safety and was appointed to the county police commissioner position in January of 2016.
“I love my job,” Sini said. “I wanted to serve in my own backyard.”
Tierney also grew up in Suffolk County. He began his law career in the Suffolk DA’s office under DA James Catterson (R).
The challenging candidate left the DA’s office in 1999 and went on to work for a private firm and returned to the DA’s office in 2002 and remained for another six years.
He then worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York as an assistant attorney for more than 11 years.
He left the office in 2019 to become an executive assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s office where he was in charge of the violent criminal enterprises bureau, crime strategies unit and body worn camera unit.
In order to run for Suffolk County DA, Tierney had to leave the Brooklyn office and is currently Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.’s chief counsel for compliance and enforcement.
Statistics
Sini said crime since he became police commissioner and even as DA has gone down each year. He said since he’s been in office violent crimes are down by about 30% and overall crimes more than 20%. He added year-to-date crime is down 7%.
“We’ve been very effective in keeping Suffolk safe, and also moving the criminal justice system in the right direction, but we knew that we had to reform the DA’s office and that’s why I ran initially,” he said.
Weeks before his election Sini’s predecessor, former DA Tom Spota (D), was arrested. Sini said the office has been reformed in various ways. There has also been the hiring of more than 100 people, an increase in diversity and an overhauling of the training program.
Tierney disputed Sini’s crime statistics saying shootings are up in Suffolk County, and he wants to use his experience in crime strategies to bring those numbers down.
“Statistics can be manipulated,” Tierney said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to index the crimes.”
Tierney has criticized Sini’s approach during his campaign. He said the DA’s office will announce numerous indictments via press releases but he said the office doesn’t send out as many announcements about convictions.
“I don’t dispute for a fact that he has very splashy arrests,” Tierney said. “I’m talking about results.”
He also criticized Sini for the number of times his office has used plea bargaining, giving the example of a drug dealer that Sini charged with a top count in 2021. However, he said, a year earlier that same dealer was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance and then allowed to plea.
“If he’s a kingpin in 2021, why do you give him a misdemeanor in 2020?” Tierney said.
Sini said pleading in certain cases is not unusual, and the DA’s office may not have the evidence needed in 2020.
MS-13 gang
Tierney said Sini talks about the biggest MS-13 gang busts and asked for defendants’ names, pleas and sentences. He also asked why not one was charged with murder.
“If you have a crime strategies unit, if every two weeks you’re letting the statistics come out the stats will speak for themselves,” the prosecutor said.
Tierney said doing so is an example of being independent from the police and county executive.
Sini said his office has been part of one of the largest MS-13 takedowns, where 96 people were indicted in one county. The case involved three years of wiretapping investigations. The takedown netted a multitude of arrests, and Sini said his office is now prosecuting the cases and is having a lot of success.
The DA said the reason why many were charged with murder conspiracy instead of murder was because law enforcement was able to stop the killings from happening due to the wiretaps used in the investigation.
“Our detectives would go out and stop the violence, and then we charged the defendants in some cases with murder conspiracy,” he said. “We stopped 10 murders from happening that way.”
He said the office, in addition to murder conspiracy pleas, has received pleas to assault and criminal possession of weapons, which have significant sentences attached to them.
“We’re making a difference in terms of MS-13 on Long Island, there’s no denying that,” Sini said. “And it’s not just the DA’s office, and we’re not suggesting otherwise. It’s a collaborative effort from the local police department, all the way up to our federal government.”
Tierney said there were 46 gang members on the indictment, and each one was responsible for two murders, which Sini interrupted and said it was murder conspiracy.
“Now he said he thwarted 10 murders,” Tierney said. “Now how exactly did he thwart those 10 murders? By arresting them? Well, the manner in which he arrested them was, he had this big splashy takedown after two years and then he arrested all 96 at once. So, in order for that statement to be true, that would have meant that as he prepared his press release, as he called all the media, as he got everything all ready for the takedown, the night before 10 murders became apparent. And then he took those individuals down.”
Tierney said he has a problem with that style as “that’s not how it works when we do our MS-13 indictments.”
“We take them down as soon as possible,” he said. “We don’t care about the indictment. We care about the results, and you can’t thwart 10 murder conspiracies, all at once, it’s an impossibility. There’s no way that 10 murder conspiracies come to fruition at the exact date of the takedown.”
Tierney said Sini seals his cases because he doesn’t want the public to see the plea bargains that he has given.
Sini said that was false since indictments are public, except for certain cases that may need to be sealed due to cooperators or under certain circumstances, and it’s appropriate to do so.
Drug epidemic
Sini said the drug epidemic has been one of the most significant public safety problems for more than a decade. He said the approach is investing in prevention, treatment, recovery and law enforcement.
“Law enforcement even plays a role in treatment, too, because you can create and implement diversion programs, where you get low-level offenders who are suffering from addiction into treatment programs,” he said.
He added drug offenders also need to be aggressively investigated and prosecuted.
“We’ve done that,” he said. “I’ll give you two examples, both in terms of bringing operators and major trafficker charges the top felony counts, these are significant prosecutions, and we’re leading the state on doing that.”
He said the sentences can be 25 years to life.
Tierney said he feels the most significant public safety problem is the rise of crime in the county, whether gun violence or the opioid epidemic.
He added it’s important to keep an eye on the U.S. southern border as powder fentanyl is being brought into the country. The powder form is sprinkled into cocaine unbeknownst to the buyer.
Summing up
Sini said that Tierney has criticized him for not having as much trial experience as he, and said that’s just an issue of age, since he is younger than the challenger. The DA said that while prosecuting is part of the job there is more to it.
“We’re running to be a CEO of a major law firm,” he said. “I have significant managerial experience with a track record. He has zero.”
Sini said he believes his office has done “great work on a number of different fronts,” and he’s running on his record.
“We brought some of the most significant cases in the region on a variety of public safety fronts — the drug epidemic, gang violence, human trafficking, environmental crime.”
Tierney said he never thought he would get involved in the political process.
“I think what we’re seeing is our leadership is gaslighting us,” he said. “We’re being told everything’s great, everything’s wonderful. They are talking points.”
Tierney said the main function of the office is to prosecute.
“We are dismissing cases,” he said. “We’re not indicting cases. This is the management of the office, but to say you’re a CEO and a manager’s office, it is the prosecutor’s office. We need someone to prosecute those cases.”
The winner of the DA race will hold office for the next four years.
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