By Nick Buglione
Vandals and vagrants have long had the run of the woods that line the Meadowbrook Parkway from East Meadow to Merrick, tearing up walking paths with dirt bikes, dumping mounds of garbage, holding keg parties and spray-painting graffiti. As a year-long Herald series revealed in 2002, many of the county's homeless have also taken up residence in the woods, living in makeshift tents and lean-tos.
Some of them are mentally ill; others are war veterans fearful of re-entering society. Some of them, though, are dangerous.
Last week's murder struck a chord with local civic activists and elected officials who have advocated preservation of the parkway woodlands and voiced concerns that the homeless living there pose a threat to themselves and nearby residents.
The crime
Robert Lundy, 40, was allegedly stabbed to death in Eisenhower Park by Bernard Ordover, 40, another homeless man living in the makeshift encampment along the Meadowbrook, at about 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 23.
This is the first murder at the usually serene park.
"This incident goes back about a week prior to the murder," said Detective Sgt. Dennis Barry, of the Nassau County Homicide Squad. What eventually ended in murder started as a dispute over $4 in beer money, Barry said. About a week earlier, Lundy's girlfriend, Pam Robertson was hanging around with Ordover and other homeless men in "Tent City," as the encampment is known, according to police.
"She gave $4 to these guys, who left with her money with the pretext that they would buy beer," Barry said. The men didn't return, however, and Robertson "trashed" their tents in retaliation, the detective said.
Lundy took responsibility for his girlfriend's actions, allegedly confronting Ordover and the other men twice during the week leading to his murder. Both times, Lundy took a beating.
"On the night of the murder, he went back and had another confrontation with Ordover," Barry said, this time in Eisenhower Park's field 2, not far from Tent City. There, Ordover allegedly stabbed Lundy several times with a six-inch hunting knife.
The victim was rushed to nearby Nassau University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:22 p.m. Ordover was arrested the next day and charged with second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty, claiming he killed Lundy in self-defense. He faces 25 years to life if convicted, said Rick Hinshaw, spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney Dennis Dillon.
Ordover is being held without bail in the Nassau County jail. He was scheduled to appear in court Aug. 27, after the Herald went to press.
Part of a larger problem
Last year's Herald series examined the trouble-plagued woodlands that line central Nassau's Meadowbrook, Southern State and Wantagh parkways.
Civic activists and elected officials repeatedly underscored the prevalence of homeless encampments in the woodlands, and the safety and health issues associated with them.
Often living in camps only yards from residential neighborhoods like Merrick's Old Lindenmere section, the homeless do pose a potential threat to residents, officials and activists say. In Wantagh, one homeless man living in the woods attempted to kidnap a child two years ago, according to a county source and civic leaders.
"This is an ongoing problem," said Richard Schary, a North Bellmore environmentalist. "The filth of these homeless encampments is unbelievable."
Aside from the health risks, the homeless often light fires in the winter that can easily burn out of control, said Schary, who has toured numerous encampments throughout the county.
"Some of the camps are even booby trapped," Schary said, noting one site in the Massapequa Preserve that had a 15-pound log suspended from a wire that ran to the ground. If Schary, a scavenger or unsuspecting passerby had stepped on the wire, the log would have come crashing down.
The homeless living in Tent City often frequent Eisenhower Park, particularly the picnic areas, where they can rummage through trash cans and panhandle for food, according to Nassau County Legislator Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow).
"I was in the park not too long ago at a Kiwanis function, and we had three individuals who were homeless come to the picnic looking for food," she said. "Of course, we accommodated them."
Al O'Rourke, president of Friends of the Park, an organization dedicated to preserving and improving Eisenhower Park, said that on weekends the homeless roam the park, drinking and partying. He believes the severely understaffed park security force isn't doing enough to keep them out of the park after dark.
"That park on the weekend is dangerous," said O'Rourke, who has come to Eisenhower for 50 years and was there the night of the Lundy murder. "There should have been nobody in that area at 9 p.m."
The state owns the Meadowbrook woodlands, and state troopers and Nassau County police have worked together to drive the homeless out of the area. In the wake of the Lundy murder, the county has again urged state officials to step up their efforts. "We've been working with the state police, and we have put them on notice that this is a problem that's been going on for a while," Gonsalves said. "Despite efforts of Nassau County police to disperse them, they continue to come back."
Gonsalves said that periodically sending police into the woodlands to clear out the homeless is a "band-aid approach" to solving a larger, recurring problem. "We've got to find a way to address it," she said. "Many of the homeless are fearful of going to the shelters, so they pitch tents."
Both Gonsalves and Schary sit on the Woodlands Task Force, an intergovernmental committee formed after the Herald investigative series that includes state, county and town officials. The task force has proposed transforming the Meadowbrook woodlands into a gated network of hiking and bicycle trails. It's believed that a regular presence of concerned citizens could curb illegal activities that often go on there.
