Victim of false accuser: A 'career criminal' brought to justice

Robert Zafonte, the longtime president of the East Meadow Civic and Community Service Association, pleaded guilty on Friday to a variety of charges more than 18 months after he was arrested for falsely accusing several people in East Meadow.

Zafonte, a retired police officer for the New York City Housing Authority and former chief investigator for the Town of Hempstead attorney’s office, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 1. According to the Nassau County district attorney’s office, County Court Judge Jerald Carter has committed to sentencing Zafonte to six months in prison followed by five years of probation. 

“This defendant maliciously accused innocent people of horrible crimes because they dared to oppose him, resulting in costly and humiliating investigations for his victims, and now jail time for himself,” Rice said in a statement on Monday.

Zafonte pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and seven counts of first-degree falsifying business records, both class E felonies, as well as eight counts of second-degree aggravated harassment and five counts of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, both class A misdemeanors.

Following his arrest on March 18, 2009, District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Zafonte targeted several “enemies,” sending threatening anonymous letters to several government agencies, between mid-2002 and November 2007. One of the victims was retired East Meadow School District Superintendent Leon Campo, a longtime administrator.

Rice said that in the case of each letter, the false claims were thoroughly investigated and proven to be unfounded. She said that investigators from her office obtained a sample of Zafonte’s DNA and
compared it with DNA found on the letters. The genetic profiles were a match. In addition, investigators found Zafonte’s fingerprints on two of the letters.

Marc Gann, Zafonte’s attorney, did not respond to requests for comment. 

The incidents