Committee favors borrowing to pay $45 million to pair exonerated in Lynbrook teen’s murder

A Nassau legislative committee voted Monday to borrow $45 million to pay a court judgment, which was won by two men who were exonerated in the 1984 rape and murder of a Lynbrook teenager.

The Rules Committee unanimously approved moving the bonding authorization to the full legislature, and recommended that the county instead use money set aside by the Mangano administration to cover the amount, according to Newsday.

The county has until Feb. 7 to comply with a court order that requires it to pay John Restivo and Dennis Halstead $36 million in damages, as well as legal fees and interest.

Restivo, Halstead and another man, John Kogut, were convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, and spent nearly 18 years in jail. They were exonerated in 2003 after the discovery of new DNA evidence. Kogut originally confessed to the crime, but it was rescinded in a retrial.

County Executive Laura Curran, a former county legislator for Baldwin, voted with fellow Democrats in July 2016 against a GOP measure to borrow the money to fund the award. At the time, Curran said, Nassau had enough money in reserves, and in a litigation fund, to finance the measure. She said she would now like to pay it over a 15-year period.

“The circumstances are very different today than they were last summer,” Curran said in an emailed statement to the Herald. “At that time, funds were needed to secure the right to appeal the court’s decision, not to pay a final judgment. If it had been a final judgment last summer, I would have supported bonding. One of the most important things we do is pay our employees and vendors for the services they provide. We need cash to do that. I want to bond this judgment now to protect the county’s cash position through October 2018. We need to be able to pay our employees and our vendors.”

In 2006, Restivo and Halstead filed a federal civil rights suit against the county, claiming the police department fabricated evidence, buried leads, and lied to prosecutors, judges and juries. Kogut was excluded from the suit.

A 2014 jury verdict against the county that awarded more than $43 million to Restivo and Halstead was upheld in federal appears court in January 2017. The 2014 ruling found that Restivo and Halstead “suffered grave harm from their 18 years of wrongful incarceration.” Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the county’s appeal.

If the bonding is approved by a 13-member supermajority of the legislature at its meeting on Jan. 29, the payment still must be approved by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state monitoring board that is in control of the county’s finances.