Doc's Case in Jury's Hands
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HERALD________________ GLEN COVE _______________ Gazette Cirque du Soleil Special Section: There’s a new goes extreme Summer sheriff in town Page 23 Fitness Page 7 Vol. 27 No. 20 MAY 17- 23, 2018 $1.00 ‘Drug dealer’ doc’s case in jury’s hands By ERIK HAWKINS “I would like to see [Belfiore] [email protected] go to jail,” Claudia Marra said last year. She hired a lawyer After a month-long trial, a after her husband’s death, with jury is expected this week to the intention of taking Belfiore decide the fate of Michael Belfio- to court. However, she said, she re, a Merrick physician accused was advised that she would need of writing hun- a doctor as an dreds of opioid pre- expert witness to scriptions for profit testify against him, and causing the e allowed and that it would d e at h s o f t wo be difficult to pit South Shore men. H an alcoholic “doctor against Records indicate doctor” in court. that Belfiore also with a serious Also, she said, she prescribed fentanyl addiction problem was afraid her hus- to Glen Cove res- band would simply taurateur Mario to leave his office be painted as a Elisa Dragotto/Herald Gazette M a r r a — t h e with a month’s drug addict. Even- owner and chef at tually she dropped A hero honored the popular eatery supply of high- the effort. Liam Dall, 15, presented U.S. Navy veteran Rocky Imerti, with the Knot Board award in honor of his M a r r a ’s — o n dose, legal heroin. “I said, ‘You service at the Heroes Among Us charity dinner on May 3. More photos, Page 9. March 7, 2009, eight know what, let me days before he died take it back, and let of an overdose. His BRADlEY KING me just deal with w i f e , C l a u d i a it,’” Marra said. “I Marra, who had Assistant U.S. attorney was working full- w i t n e s s e d h i s time as a teacher, Meet Glen Cove’s first female years-long struggle with an and I was raising two boys. I was addiction to painkillers, guessed a mess, and I just wanted to get that Belfiore wrote Mario the through the day, so I kind of took Harbor Patrol officer prescription for 10 fentanyl that back. I regret it.” patches “probably just to shut Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad- him up.” ley King delivered a nearly two- By ZACH GoTTEHRER-CoHEN Later in the process, after a to another at speeds of more Medical records in Marra’s hour PowerPoint presentation to [email protected] rigorous vetting process and, than 40 mph. case were subpoenaed, but jurors in U.S. District Court in finally, an appointment by Mayor After 12 years of living in charges relating to his death When Anne LaMorte applied Tim Tenke, the 55-year-old La- Glen Cove and working for the were not filed against Belfiore. CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 for a job with Glen Cove’s Har- Morte learned that she would city’s development agencies, bor Patrol almost a year ago, she become the first woman ever to LaMorte, a mother of three was thinking mainly about two be an officer in the Harbor grown children, decided that it things. For one thing, “It was Patrol. She also learned how to was time to get back to her sea- something I was qualified for,” interview and sometimes arrest faring roots. “I grew up with she said, and for another, “I have dangerous boaters, how to bring boats,” she said. “I’m a scuba a passion for the water, so I defi- a speeding vessel to a fast stop diver, and I love to water ski, I nitely knew I’d like it.” and how to jump from one vessel CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 2 Nedbor-Gross, Murphy, Sekelsky win BOE seats By Zach Gottehrer-cohen with her own. [email protected] In the comments on the picture, in between accusations and name calling Gail Nedbor-Gross will be returning from many of the group’s members, to her seat, which she has held for 10 Nedbor-Gross explained that she had and counting, on permission from t h e G l e n C ove the property owner School District’s to post her sign Board of Educa- school district there, while her tion. Former dis- opponent did not. trict employees Budget Vote Some of those Rosemarie Sekel- assembled at the s k y a n d M a r y Yes: 863 No: 271 high school specu- Murphy have oust- l a t e d t h a t t h e e d i n c u m b e n t tumultuous weath- May 17, 2018 — GLEN COVE HERALD GAZETTE 2018 — GLEN COVE 17, May t r u s t e e s A m y school Board er on Election Day, F r a n k l i n a n d with its torrential Maria Venuto. election p o s t - w o r k d a y The district’s rains, drove down $88 million budget Rosemarie Sekelsky: 765 t u r n o u t . T h e also passed by a Mary Murphy: 645 stor m did leave Photos by Zach Gottehrer-Cohen/Herald Gazette f a c t o r o f j u s t Gail Nedbor-Gross: 545 Connolly School — under two-to-1. one of the dis- assistant superintendent Nedbor-Gross’s Amy Franklin: 486 trict’s two polling dr. Michael Israel and district win came on the places — in a 10 staff members rushed the bal- heels of an appar- Maria Venuto: 470 minute blackout. lots from Connolly School into ent mudslinging Daniel Rios: 273 At a work ses- the high school’s main office effort by a fellow sion of the City to be counted. school board trust- Council on the eve- ee, Robert Field, ning of election superintendent Maria whose seat was not up in this election. day, Mayor Tim Tenke noted that he cast The day before the election, Field posted his ballot in the dark. According to dis- rianna tallied up the votes in the Glen Cove Neighbors Facebook trict officials, during that time, the elec- on a whiteboard in the hall- group — without comment or context — trical ballot readers operated on emer- way of the Glen Cove High a picture that appeared to show Nedbor- gency generators capable of sustaining School while candidates and Gross moving the campaign signs of them for about two hours. their families watched in one of her opponents and replacing it silent anticipation. THE OCLI GLEN COVE TEAM SERVICES OFFERED WELCOMES JOSEPH BACOTTI, MD • Laser Cataract Surgery • Glaucoma Management & Treatment • Dry Eye Disease Management & Treatment • Diabetic Eye Exams • Neuro Ophthalmology • Comprehensive Eye Exams JOSEPH BACOTTI, MD SIMA DOSHI, MD SCOTT VERNI, MD Evening Hours Saturday Hours Come see the OCLI difference. Schedule your eye exam today. 15 Glen Street, Glen Cove, NY 11542 516.674.3000 OCLI.net Most insurance plans accepted East Meadow East Setauket Garden City Glen Cove Hewlett Huntington Lynbrook 950239 Manhasset Massapequa Mineola Plainview Port Jefferson Rockville Centre Valley Stream G.C. beaches (almost) ready for summer 3 GLEN COVE HERALD GAZETTE — May 17, 2018 17, HERALD GAZETTE — May GLEN COVE By ZACH GOTTEHRER-COHEN Department of Parks and Recreation, said [email protected] would require state and local permitting from environmental agencies, and more City officials expect that Glen Cove’s intensive work. Belyea said she expected Pryibil and Crescent beaches, belea- the city and the Village of Lattingtown, guered by winter storms and sewage run- which share a stake in East Beach Road’s off, should be open for public use by the fate, to begin that process in the fall. start of summer, with some caveats. Even if the road had stayed safely pass- The public segment of Crescent Beach, able, the beach it led to, until the week of through which a thin stream of polluted May 7, was short about 1,500 tons of sand, water has run unremediated for nearly a thanks to the a quadruple-whammy of decade, will soon be reopened for sun- nor’easters that lasted into late March. bathing. Swimming and fishing will The sand has since been trucked in remain prohibited until the state’s and distributed by bulldozers along the Department of Environmental Conserva- beach. Belyea, who is charged each year tion pinpoints the source of the pollution. with re-sanding the city’s beaches for the To that end, the DEC, Nassau County summer, was said by colleagues to be and code enforcement officials for the city Zach Gottehrer-Cohen/Herald Gazette “thrilled” and “over the moon” about the are in the middle of a weeks-long investi- THIS BULLDOZER WAS used to spread 1,500 tons of sand across Pryibil Beach, to replace quality of the sand, the top layer of which gation of the pipes, which appear to be the sand that was washed away during four winter storms earlier this year. is extremely fine and soft — the same depositing sewage into freshwater marsh- kind that is used for golf course sand lands that feed the Sound-bound stream. “It’s my hope,” said Mayor Tim Tenke, the summer season. traps. Fiber-optic cameras, which techni- “that over the coming weeks we can pin- While this fix is expected to last during Pryibil Beach will open on May 26, cians run up the pipes to locate the prop- point and rectify the issue so that we can the warmer months, the pothole and ero- with the celebration of the second annual erties where they originate, have been reopen Crescent Beach for swimming in sion problems on East Beach Road have Flip-Flop Appreciation Day, at which the “discovering new things every day,” said July or August.” persisted over the years, in large part city will give out flip-flops to the first 100 Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, of Glen Cove, the In anticipation of the reopening of because of frequent flooding from the people to show up at either Pryibil Beach county legislator who helped secure fund- Crescent Beach, the city has repaved and swampy marshlands west of the street, or Morgan Memorial Park Beach.