6 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JANUARY 2020
IN THE NEWS
WEB BRIEFS LI AT A GLANCE
CALARCO REPLACES GREGORY
Suffolk County lawmakers have named a new
leader of their legislative body for the first time
in six years.
The county legislature voted Jan. 2 to make Legislator
Rob Calarco (D-Patchogue) the Democrat-led
chamber’s new presiding officer after his predecessor,
Legislator DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville),
stepped down to take a role on the Babylon Town
Board.
“Being the presiding officer is not an easy task,”
Calarco said after the vote confirming his appointment.
“I have a lot of respect for how hard it is to
manage this position.”
With six years at the helm of the 18-member body,
Gregory is the second-longest serving presiding
officer in the county’s history. The late former
Presiding Officer William Lindsay
served longest with eight years.
NEW NUMC LEADERSHIP?
Nassau University Medical
Center officials are
narrowing their search for
a new CEO that the East Meadow
hospital’s stakeholders hope will give NUMC stability
after it’s gone through four leaders in two years.
Hotelier and attorney George Tsunis is resigning
Jan. 17 from his position as chair of NUMC operator
Nassau Health Care Corporation, or NuHealth,
the public benefit corporation that Nassau County
Executive Laura Curran appointed him to in 2018.
He has also served as the hospital’s interim president
since October following the resignation of
Winnie Mack of New Hyde Park-based health care
group Northwell Health, who did a six-month stint
as NUMC CEO. And in 2018, the NuHealth board
named Dr. Paul A. Pipia its interim CEO after the
board voted to fire its previous president, Dr. Victor
Politi, who was appointed by former Nassau
County Executive Ed Mangano in 2014.
“Nassau County has an enormous financial stake
in the hospital’s proper operation,” Nassau County
Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport), who
leads the Democratic minority in the county legislature,
said while recently urging the body’s Republican
majority to hold hearings into patronage
at NUMC. He noted that Nassau taxpayers are the
guarantors of about $200 million in NUMC’s debt.
The 530-bed NUMC, founded in 1935, is the region’s
lone public hospital. It serves as a safety net for
uninsured patients and the neediest populations.
In an effort to turn around the financially strapped
medical center, Northwell Health in 2019 got New
York State approval to enter a management consulting
partnership with NUMC to help devise a
long-term plan for the struggling hospital.
The search for a new NUMC CEO has reportedly
been narrowed down to two candidates. They are
seasoned hospital leader John Gupta and ex-deputy
Nassau exec Tom Stokes, who worked for Tom
Suozzi, Newsday reported.
Will Tsunis’ replacement stay in the post longer
and give the hospital the steady leadership
that it needs? Stay tuned.
RECORD MS-13 BUST
Ninety-six members and associates of the ultraviolent
street gang MS-13 have been arrested in
what Suffolk County prosecutors are calling the
largest takedown targeting the gang in New York
State history.
The bust was the result of a nearly two-year joint
investigation between federal, state, and local law
enforcement agencies, officials said. The probe
culminated in a grand jury indictment against 45
gang members and 19 associates. The role of the
other 32 suspects nabbed in the dragnet was not
immediately clear.
“Our message is simple: To the residents of Suffolk
County, we will do what it takes to protect our communities;
not one of us should have to live amongst
these ruthless gang members,” District Attorney
Tim Sini said. “To MS-13: We are coming for you.”
The investigation thwarted seven alleged murder
plots by charging defendants for conspiracies
to commit murder before the planned slayings
occurred, authorities said. Charges also included
drug trafficking, weapons possession and sales,
gang violence, and other offenses.
LI NATIVE WINS SURVIVOR
A 26-year-old elementary school teacher originally
from Bayville is $1 million richer after winning the
Survivor: Island of The Idols grand prize during
the Wednesday’s 39th season finale of the CBS
reality show competition.
Tommy Sheehan, a fourth-grade teacher at Floral
Park-Bellerose Union Free School District, outwitted
and outlasted the competition with the help of
his background as a surfer and multisport athlete.
“I just want to give my fiancee the dream wedding
she always wanted,” Sheehan,
who proposed to his girlfriend
after returning home,
told Entertainment
Tonight of his plans
for the money, which
includes paying off his
student loans.
Sheehan, who lives in Long Beach, beat 19 other
contestants to come out on top this season, which
premiered in September and was filmed in Fiji.
SPOTA, AIDE CONVICTED
Ex-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota
and his former top deputy were convicted on Dec.
17 of conspiring to cover up police brutality following
a month-long trial at Central Islip federal court.
Following a day of deliberations, a federal jury
found found Spota and his former public corruption
bureau chief Christopher McPartland guilty
of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to tamper
with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding,
witness tampering and obstruction of an official
proceeding and accessory after the fact to the
deprivation of civil rights.
Federal prosecutors said Spota, McPartland, and
ex-Suffolk police chief James Burke conspired to
conceal Burke’s role in beating a suspect who
stole a bag of sex toys, pornography, and ammunition
from the chief’s SUV in 2012. Authorities
also said the three talked about using their power
to conceal the chief’s attempted cover-up of the
beating that Burke ultimately pleaded guilty
to in 2016. Burke has since been sentenced and
released from prison. Spota and McPartland,
scheduled to be sentenced April 30, are appealing
the convictions..
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