Blame for the crime wave sweeping across the state was laid squarely on Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York’s Democrat lawmakers by a coalition of Suffolk officials and law enforcement in the wake of the now infamous Babylon Body Parts case where the suspects were released without bail.
“When you can cut up someone and walk out of the court and not have to post bail, l don’t think that’s right,” said County Executive Edward Romaine at a Hauppauge news conference. “This is a weakness in our criminal justice system that needs to be changed,” he said in calling on Hochul to repeal the cashless bail laws put in place under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The case burst into the national spotlight after children walking to school came upon body parts at Southards Pond Park and the subsequent discovery of human remains at two other locations. Suffolk Police arrested four suspects on mutilation charges, hindering prosecution, and illegally disposing of body parts but pending murder charges, they could not be held under the current bail laws. Police have identified one of the victims as Donna R. Conneely, 59, with a last known address in Yonkers. A second victim, a male, has not been named.
“Unfortunately, due to ‘Bail Reform’ passed by the New York State Legislature in 2019, charges relating to the mutilation and disposal of murdered corpses are no longer bail-eligible, meaning my prosecutors cannot ask for bail,” said Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “This is yet another absurd result thanks to ‘Bail Reform’ and a system where the Legislature in Albany substitutes their judgment for the judgment of our judges and the litigants in court.”
Tierney’s comments in the case set off a tit-for-tat with Gov. Hochul who faulted the DA for not immediately bringing murder charges that would be eligible for bail. See related story and editorial in this week’s South Shore Press.
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| County Executive Edward Romaine leads a group of Suffolk officials and law enforcement in calling for the repeal of the state’s bail laws in the wake of the Babylon Body Parts case where the defendants were released without bail. Robert Chartuk |
Following the body parts discovery, police arrested four suspects after finding the grisly aftermath of the crime at a house in Amityville. Linking the suspects to the mutilation and the disposing of their remains, Tierney was able to press the no-bail charges but has yet to build a murder case. While the investigation is pending, the suspects were fitted with GPS monitoring devices and had their passports seized.
“Governor, stop the bleeding; repeal the bail laws,” said state Sen. Mario Mattera. “We had a little girl walking to school and she had to find body parts?” he asked incredulously. “What do you think she will be going through for the rest of her life from seeing that?”
According to Mattera, the governor could quickly change the system by putting new laws into her budget resolution in the same manner cashless bail was approved by Cuomo, who quickly signed the rules when they reached his desk in the middle of the night at the end of the 2019 legislative session. The senator listed some of the crimes no longer eligible for bail: “Selling drugs near a school, manslaughter in the second degree, and now we have body parts.” He noted that under the current bail system, the suspects recently arrested for attacking two police officers in Times Square were released before the officers had left the hospital where they were treated for their injuries.
State Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano (R-C-Medford) has participated in numerous rallies and press conferences pushing his Democrat colleagues to repeal the bail laws. “We need to create a system that’s fair and doesn’t embolden criminals,” he said. “At the very least, judges should be given discretion in setting bail for defendants in all crimes, including drug dealing, manslaughter, and the disposing of body parts.” The assemblyman noted that the 2019 bail legislation also added evidence and discovery rules that also hamper law enforcement. “We need to repeal this mess and start over again.”
Appearing at the press conference was Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who drew flak for voting for cashless bail when he was in the assembly. “I’m in favor of considering bail reform changes as a separate piece of legislation, not in a budget resolution, so the changes can be vetted and heard publicly,” he said, pointing out that the original bills were part of a broader package. Jumping into the debate, Democrat lawmakers Senator Monica Martinez (Brentwood) and Assemblyman Steve Stern (Huntington) said they will introduce legislation to add “concealing a human corpse” to the list of crimes eligible for bail, a move panned by critics since it only scratches the surface of the bail reform issue.
The leader of the Assembly Republicans, Will Barclay (R-C-Pulaski), noted another recent case that highlights the need to repeal cashless bail. In Monroe County, a suspect was arrested for attempted kidnapping and attempted sex abuse after an incident at St. John Fisher University where a female victim was held at knifepoint, according to Barclay. “While out on bail, the same suspect was charged with stalking from multiple prior incidents. Incredibly, he is currently out on the street because New York remains the only state that does not allow judges to consider a dangerousness standard when assessing the release of a criminal suspect, pre-trial.” The incidents come on the heels of a recent John Jay College of Criminal Justice report detailing how the state’s bail laws put citizens at risk, Barclay said.
Arrested in the Suffolk case were Steven Brown, 44, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, and Amanda Wallace, 40, all of Amityville, and Alexis Nieves, 33, who is homeless. Prosecutors said a meat cleaver and other cutting tools were found at the crime scene. Piping in the home, which was shuttered as uninhabitable, was clogged with blood and other human remains, investigators reported. Using cadaver sniffing canines, additional body parts linked to the case were found in a wooded area of West Babylon and Bethpage State Park.
“This case highlights what we have been saying for years, that our bail laws are not rational,” said Suffolk PBA President Louis Civello at the press conference. “We need to restore judicial discretion, not laws to appease a fringe group.” Thomas Bivona, president of the Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs PBA stressed that the bail laws “embolden criminals and put the men and women of law enforcement at risk.”
Also appearing at the media event were: Suffolk Legislators Stephanie Bontempi, Steven Flotteron, Leslie Kennedy, Chad Lennon, Anthony Piccirillo, Dominick Thorne, and Robert Trotta, along with County Comptroller John Kennedy.