While New York’s 2019 “Bail Reform” laws have been a topic of constant discussion, the debate has reached new heights in the wake of the Babylon dismemberment case.
Last week, human remains were found scattered in public parks across Babylon Town and in Bethpage State Park. The first remains were found by high schoolers walking to school near Southards Pond Park. Police arrested four suspects, one of whom is said to be homeless, in connection with the dismemberment and concealment of two adult corpses.
The four were subsequently released without bail as New York’s bail laws prohibit prosecutors from doing so for these charges. All were issued GPS monitoring devices, an order that has remained in effect according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney (R), were ordered to surrender their passports, and report to probation weekly.
The female corpse has been identified as Donna R. Conneely, 59, whose last known address was in Yonkers. The male corpse has not yet been identified, pending review of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.
The four suspects have not been linked to the presumptive murders.
Local elected officials convened at the Suffolk County Legislature building on Thursday, March 7, to collectively call for significant changes to the bail reform laws that allowed these suspects to be freed hours after release. County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) headlined the press conference.
“When I became County Executive, I made a commitment to bolster the public safety of this county to make it safer,” said Romaine.
Romaine mentioned that since his term began January 1, the County has promoted sixty-eight members within the Suffolk County Police Department and has allocated funds for additional officers to be patrolling the streets, among other accomplishments.
“But we also have to deal with the fact that you can carve up someone and walk out of the court and not have to post bail or not be held. You have to think that perhaps we’ve gone a little bit too far with the bail reform, that perhaps we’ve favored too much the perpetrators of crime and that we do not do enough for the victims of crime. I want to send a clear message that as long as I’m County Executive, I am always going to weigh in on the side of the family and justice. The lack of bail for the suspects and the lack of the ability to hold them, speaks about a weakness in our criminal justice system based on our state laws that were changed.”
Presiding Officer of the Suffolk County Legislature Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) said that the recent case exposes “potholes” in New York’s criminal justice system.
“The criminal justice system is now tilted in favor of the criminal and not the victims or law-abiding citizens, who have to live with this anguish and fear of not knowing what will happen next in their communities,” said McCaffrey. “We are standing together to say it is time that the scales of justice should be now weighted back towards the victims. We can hire more police officers, detectives, and supervisors, but unless there’s changes in that criminal justice system, that will be for naught.”
McCaffrey also drew light on some of the other charges that are not bail eligible, such as: possessing illegal quantities of fentanyl, material support for terrorism, bribing a witness or juror, aggravated cruelty to animals, and dog fighting.
Deputy Presiding Officer and Chair of the Public Safety Committee Steve Flotteron (R-Brightwaters) echoed the sentiments of his colleagues and added that people simply don’t feel safe anymore.
“The victims and their families are the ones who are suffering,” said Flotteron. “Lock your houses, be safe; we’re going to change this.”
Senator Mario Mattera (R-St. James), of the Second District, largely leads the fight against bail reform in Albany.
“Governor [Hochul (D)], stop the bleeding, you need to put this in the budget: repeal bail reform,” said Mattera. “She could put this in her budget to repeal these laws. Governor, look what just happened: body parts. We had a little girl walk into school and she had to find a body part. What do you think that little girl is going to be going through the rest of her life seeing this?”
Mattera also mentioned the recent assault on NYPD officers at the hands of illegal immigrants, who were later released and fled the city, a problem that he says is the fault of New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).
“There’s a reason why I voted against a lot of the budgets, because of the cashless bail provisions,” Mattera continued. “All we did was take the tools away from our police officers. Our constituents care about public safety, and they’re frightened. There’s a reason why we tell our kids to not open the door when somebody knocks; it wasn’t like that when I was growing up.”
President of the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association (PBA) Lou Civello called for the restoration of judicial discretion. Under the bail reform laws, judges have largely had their abilities to demand criminals remain detained compromised.
“We have to have some faith in our judges,” said Civello. “A judge needs to have the ability to assess dangerousness. Just like Senator Mattera said, we had a group of illegal immigrants who viciously beat police officers. Don’t you think a judge might want to be able to look at something like that?”
During the round of questions, one reporter mentioned Governor Hochul downplaying the situation. Hochul said that “maybe the DA [Tierney] should have done a more thorough investigation and brought murder charges, conspiracy to commit murder, or even assault charges, because all of them are bail eligible. I encourage the DA’s office to go back and build your case.”
“We have one of the best DAs in the state,” said Executive Romaine. “And Democrats and Republicans will tell you that. When you’re a DA, you can’t charge people unless you have the evidence. We have enough evidence to arrest them, not to charge them with murder, but to charge them with dismemberment. I would hope the Governor would have known that. I’m sorry that the Governor, who served on a town council, County Clerk in Erie County, the United States House, Lieutenant Governor and now as Governor, would have known that a District Attorney has to use discretion. If she wants to ask about a District Attorney, she’d ask about a District Attorney from New York County [Bragg] who allowed people who beat up police officers in Times Square to walk free and leave the state. Maybe she should focus on that.”
When asked if this year’s budget negotiations will be delayed more than a month as they were last year, mainly due to intraparty fighting between Hochul and Albany Democrats on bail reform rollbacks, he said that the Governor “created” the situation with NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D), and that she’s “trying to find monies all over the place to pay for this disaster.”
Mattera also mentioned that the National Guard patrolling NYC subways is also a product of the bail reforms.
The Messenger pressed Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) for answers regarding his votes to enact the bail reform laws in 2019 during his time in the New York State Assembly.
“This is an issue that should be a standalone bill,” said Englebright, referring to how New York State budgets are effectively omnibus packages full of policy in addition to typical annual budgetary measures.
“It shouldn’t be mixed in with state aid for school and environmental programs in the way that it was; it deserves to be debated on the floor,” continued Englebright. “By putting bail reform into the budget with everything else, it lost the ability to really be debated in the manner that it deserved, and as a result, we are handcuffing our police instead of the criminals.”
Englebright also mentioned that after he voted to pass the budget that enacted bail reform, he “called for judicial discretion.”
The Messenger caught up with several legislators for their thoughts on the matter.
Legislator Chad Lennon (R-Rocky Point), a U.S. Marine, said that the “best thing that ever happened to bail reform was COVID because bail reform went out of the news.”
“They were amending this from day one and it still hasn’t been properly done,” said Lennon. “This is what happens when you put legislation through and then think about it later. Ray Tierney has been doing his job, it’s time that Albany does their job to help keep us safe.”
Legislator Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue), a former EMS professional, said that “our most basic job in government is to protect people.”
“Once again, another hideous crime has happened with the criminals being favored and walking out of our jails,” said Thorne. “We are not protecting our people, not because we don’t have great officers or great emergency services, but because we have a state that favors criminals over good, hard working Americans here in Suffolk County, and we will not stand for it.”
Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga), a former SCPD Detective said that the bail reform laws are a “social experiment gone wrong.”
“Left-wing Democrats thought this was a good thing, and maybe in some cases it is, but you can’t take jurisdiction away from a judge; it’s absurd,” said Trotta. “It’s evident by the fact that we have the National Guard patrolling our subways, almost like a third-world country.”
The Messenger also discussed the matter further with Suffolk PBA President Lou Civello.
“This law is obviously not a rational law,” said Civello. “When you can take a human head and drop it in a park for kids to find and be released hours later, something is broken in the system. This law was not passed in the interest of public safety. This law was passed to please a fringe group and it’s playing out now in all these tragedies we’re seeing.”
Also in attendance were Suffolk County Legislators Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville), Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset), Tom Donnelly (D-Deer Park), and Stephanie Bontempi (R-Centerport), as well as Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy (R-Nesconset), and the new President of the Suffolk Deputy Sheriff’s Police Benevolent Association Tom Bivona.
