Probe targets Long Island cops accused of brutality

NEW YORK – Prosecutors are investigating what they say is a pattern of police brutality in a popular Long Island summer destination, including one claim that officers attacked a tourist during a spat over a littering ticket.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said he has sent out subpoenas and is preparing a case to be presented to a grand jury after tracking complaints about excessive force and other misconduct involving the Ocean Beach Police Department on popular Fire Island since 2003.

“This is very, very disturbing,” Spota told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I have never seen anything on a scale like this. Many of the reported incidents are turning out to be true.”

He said he stepped up his investigation after a former Manhattan software executive sued the village and its police last year in federal court, seeking $22 million.

Samuel Gilberd, who has since moved to Los Angeles, says he was repeatedly kicked by Ocean Beach police officers and needed to be hospitalized after a dispute over a littering ticket they gave him, said his attorney, D. Carl Lustig III.

At least seven lawsuits have been filed against the Police Department since 1995.

Ocean Beach is sometimes called the Land of No because of odd ordinances banning conduct such as eating cookies on public walkways.

There are two full-time officers and 24 part-time officers to police 138 year-round residents, with up to 6,000 day-trippers in the warmer months.

One plaintiff, Anthony Esposito, said police woke him in the middle of the night and “beat the daylights” out of him for staying in a room registered to a friend who had left the village. He said the case was settled for $15,000.

Ocean Beach Mayor Joseph Loeffler said his village has a “very good” Police Department.

“I think they do a very good job,” said Loeffler, who took office in July. “I think we have very few problems.”

A man who answered the phone at Police Department headquarters said no one would be available to speak about the accusations until today.