As reported by the Messenger and other outlets, Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini recently held a press conference to congratulate himself for the arrests of Justin Smith and Lavain Creighton for the nine overdoses and six overdose deaths that occurred on eastern Long Island between August 5 and August 13. These overdoses and deaths were the result of drug dealers mixing fentanyl with cocaine.
Sini claimed that Smith and Creighton bear responsibility in the six overdose deaths. Omitted from the story was the fact that, if Sini was doing his job, these tragic deaths would never have occurred.
Smith was first arrested in 1995. I remember this case because I personally prosecuted it. That year, Smith — a known drug dealer — would offer to sell drugs to individuals and, when his customers showed up to the pre[1]arranged buy location with money, he would rob them at gunpoint.
In December 1995, he tried to rob an undercover cop posing as a buyer. Smith was shot and injured in the ensuing gun battle. He was arrested and charged with armed robbery. I arraigned Smith in the hospital and, despite his injuries, made sure to indict the case in the time allowed by law to ensure that he remained in jail. Smith pleaded guilty to the robbery and remained in jail for 12 years, getting paroled in May 2007.
In November 2007, Smith was once again arrested and charged with felony possession of narcotics with intent to sell. He pleaded guilty and received a sentence of three years in prison. This conviction made Smith a second felony offender under existing New York State law. If convicted of a third felony, the prosecutor can seek a very lengthy sentence, up to and including life imprisonment.
After Smith was released from prison, he once again went back to his drug dealing ways. Thankfully, the East End Drug Task Force was onto Smith, and in October 2020, a full ten months before anyone died, the Task Force was able to execute four separate felony drug buys involving Smith. Any one of these drug buys, if indicted by Sini, would have been enough to charge Smith with a felony and he would be facing life imprisonment. Smith was also charged with being in possession of cocaine and fentanyl, the same deadly cocktail that led to six deaths. Sini did not bother to indict him for drug sales and Smith was released.
In February 2021, a full half-year before those six victims lost their lives, the DA’s office executed a search warrant at a residence controlled by Smith and recovered felony amounts of cocaine and fentanyl. While the possession cases were indicted, the sale cases remained unindicted and Smith remained out of custody. Smith fell through Sini’s grasp again!
The same pattern was followed with Creighton. Creighton is a prior felon, meaning he too was looking at significant mandatory incarceration if convicted of another felony. The police managed to perform felony drug buys from November 2020 to April 2021, yet there was no indictment. In June 2021, they executed a search warrant at his house—cocaine and a “substantial” amount of money was recovered. Creighton was charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child for running a drug business out of the same residence where a young child resided. Still, no indictment.
On two occasions, the Task Force literally found in Smith’s residence the precise recipe for the overdoses, yet the District Attorney did nothing! The investigation revealed that Creighton and Smith were connected. As I have done throughout my career as a prosecutor, I would have acted swiftly and decisively to remove a dangerous predator from our streets at my earliest opportunity.
But what happened? The very real and predictable consequences of having an incompetent District Attorney — six young lives were lost.
At his bizarre and grotesquely self-congratulatory press conference, Sini urged lawmakers to pass tougher laws so he could properly prosecute Smith and protect the public. But Sini took a pass on several previous opportunities to do just that! Sini loves to tell others what they need to do, but appears to have no interest in actually doing his job. Given his incompetence, I am not even sure Sini realizes the degree of leverage his office held over Smith and Creighton.
It’s time for the public to turn tough on Tim Sini. We need to demand answers on why he failed to keep these monsters off the street!
My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Tim Sini failed you. Tim Sini failed Suffolk County.
We deserve better.
