LEGAL
The Case of the Missing Secret Tape
Mystery stalls gay ex-cop’s suit against Long Island LGBT Network
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
A lawsuit brought by a
retired NYPD detective
that charged Long Island’s
LGBT Network
and its chief executive with defaming
him has been stayed while
attorneys in the suit spar over a
recording of the chief executive
that was made by a witness in the
case.
The 2016 lawsuit charged that
David Kilmnick, the president of
the Network, instructed an employee
at the agency to create social
media accounts that said that
Tom Verni, an out gay 22-year veteran
of the NYPD who retired in
2013, was a pedophile who was using
his status as a former detective
to lure underage kids into sexual
encounters. Allegedly, Kilmnick
was angered after Verni organized
a group of former employees, board
members, and donors in 2015 to
complain to the social services
agency’s board of directors about
Kilmnick’s leadership.
Anthony Colleluori, who was Verni’s
lawyer and of counsel at Raiser
& Kenniff, a Long Island law fi rm,
introduced Michael Serao, who
was originally a defendant in the
lawsuit and is now just a witness,
to a private investigator who wired
Serao so he could record a conversation
he had with Kilmnick. Serao
paid the private investigator $600
for the service. Serao’s 2018 deposition,
which was fi led online in the
lawsuit, suggests that he thought
he was making the recording at
Colleluori’s behest and to aid the
Network’s best interests. The tape
was made in August 2016.
Oscar Michelen, a partner at
Cuomo LLC who represents Kilmnick,
has been seeking a copy of
the tape in discovery for at least
GAY CITY NEWS FILE PHOTO
Tom Verni, a gay retired NYPD offi cer, is suing
David Kilmnick, who heads the LGBT Network,
alleging Kilmnick orchestrated a smear of him
in retaliation for Verni raising questions about
Kilmnick’s stewardship of the agency.
a year, but Colleluori has not
produced it, saying the tape was
never in his possession and was
never his to produce. Michelen has
sought to have the case dismissed
at least twice alleging that Verni’s
lawyer has engaged in misconduct
over his handling of the tape.
The descriptions of the recording’s
contents in court records indicate
that Kilmnick did not implicate
himself in producing the Verni
social media posts, so that could
be helpful to the defense.
The Nassau County Supreme
Court judge in the case, Robert
Bruno, ordered Colleluori to produce
the tape last year or explain
his efforts to obtain it and why
they were unsuccessful. Colleluori
has said that he has heard the
tape, but does not have a copy of
it. His efforts to get a copy of the
tape from Serao or the private investigator
have been unsuccessful,
according to statements he has
made in court records. In June of
this year, Michelen, to whom the
Network referred Gay City News’
questions and who declined to
comment, sent subpoenas for the
tape to Serao and to the private investigator
and to Colleluori and his
law fi rm.
Serao declined to tell Gay City
News if he has a copy of the tape
and referred questions to Yetta
Kurland, his attorney, who did not
respond to messages seeking comment.
The private investigator, Edward
Dowd, did not respond to a
message seeking comment.
In May of this year, Bruno ordered
an evidentiary hearing for
July 31 that was meant to discover
if Colleluori ever possessed the recording,
if it has been lost or destroyed,
if Colleluori “intentionally
or negligently failed to preserve the
recording in the face of knowledge
that Kilmnick was entitled to discover
it,” and “the extent that any
loss or disposal of the recording
was not intentional.” The hearing
would also determine if “the conversation
was relevant to Kilmnick’s
defense.”
On July 17, a second judge,
Bruce Cozzens, stayed the evidentiary
hearing and instead required
Colleluori to appear for a deposition
by Michelen at the offi ces of
Raiser & Kenniff on July 30. It is
highly unusual for an attorney to
become a witness in a lawsuit in
which he previously represented
one of the parties.
“He’s claiming that we destroyed
a tape that we never had,” Colleluori
told Gay City News. “Serao
hired the investigator… I heard the
tape, but I was never given a copy
of it… The tape belongs to Serao.
Somehow or other, the investigator
or Serao lost the tape.”
Serao’s deposition gave some
ammunition to Verni’s case. He
testifi ed that he heard Kilmnick
say publically that Verni was a pedophile
on several occasions at the
Network offi ces or events.
Kilmnick has not been deposed
in the lawsuit. Adam Lombardi,
the former Network employee who
was allegedly directed by Kilmnick
to create the social media accounts
that accused Verni of being a pedophile,
has begun giving a deposition
in the lawsuit, Colleluori said.
“It was horrendous against
Kilmnick,” Colleluori who is now
on disability and is no longer representing
Verni, said of Lombardi’s
deposition.
Another attorney, Ethan Irwin,
at Raiser & Kenniff is now representing
Verni.
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