Old Timesheets At Issue
Nassau Undersheriff Moonlighted on Job

By REUVEN BLAU

Nassau County Undersheriff Michael Sposato worked as a process-server while claiming to be at his job as a jail cook at the same time, but was never disciplined after the allegations surfaced in 2003, THE CHIEF-LEADER has learned.

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES?: Critics of Nassau County Undersheriff Michael Sposato assert that his ties to ranking officials, including Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi (above), have allowed him to advance in the jail system despite skimpy qualifications and some questionable off-duty conduct.

Mr. Sposato's rapid ascension from jail cook to second-in-command at the East Meadow jail has been blasted by critics of the county, who speculate that his unprecedented rise is due to his political connections. They have questioned how Mr. Sposato, who filed for bankruptcy 10 years ago, can be qualified to manage various expenditures in the jail.

Client Got Served

The timekeeping issue surfaced after attorney Patricia A. Weiss discovered that one of her clients, who was facing two bank foreclosure actions, was served notice multiple times by Mr. Sposato at his lower Manhattan apartment.

"So I look into this and I couldn't figure out why my client didn't have notice," she recalled last week during a phone interview. "The affidavit of service shows there were like 10 trips made."

After a little research, she discovered that Mr. Sposato also worked as a fulltime cook for the Nassau County jail. "Now I have to ask for his time records, but it's not like somebody who works at Bloomingdale's," she remarked. "I had to pry into government records. You get a judge to order it."

In the interim, Mr. Sposato testified at a traverse hearing on March 26, 2003 that he personally visited the Manhattan apartment in several attempts to serve the legal documents. During that testimony, he detailed each trip to the apartment, noting that during one visit he waited outside for 35 minutes and that the superintendent let him into the building.

Two Places At Once?

Several weeks afterwards, Ms. Weiss obtained Mr. Sposato's timesheets from the county jail, which revealed that he signed in at 10 a.m. on several of the days he claimed to have worked as a process-server in lower Manhattan at 9:30 a.m.

By all accounts, it would be impossible to reach the East Meadow jail within 30 minutes, especially at that time of day. "I ask you, is that possible?" Ms. Weiss said. "And there were a few of these things."

Mr. Sposato did not return calls to the Sheriff's Office seeking a response.

At the next hearing, Mr. Sposato appeared in Suffolk Supreme Court with a criminal defense attorney by his side, she remembered. "I guess he was concerned that his previous testimony was perjury," she surmised.

Following that day, he changed his story, submitting an amended affidavit of service that stated that five of the 10 process-serving attempts were made by two of his colleagues, Anthony Schultz and Melvin Rolfe.

'Just Made Up Dates'

But Ms. Weiss and another attorney involved in the case, Irwin Popkin, remained skeptical. "Does this make sense that three people would be giving the papers back and forth to each other to try to serve them?" she asked. "Or does it make sense that Michael Sposato just made up dates and lied [about] when he was there?"

They also discovered that on five occasions Mr. Sposato called in sick to the Nassau jail on Saturdays, but records appeared to show that he worked as a process-server on those same dates. Ms. Weiss forwarded that information with copies of Mr. Sposato's affidavits and time records to the county, suggesting that the issue be reviewed. "I wondered how many other times this was happening," she remembered.

Nassau Investigations Commissioner Bonnie Garone said last week that the letters detailing the allegations were sent to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, which "elected not to proceed with a criminal prosecution."

Ms. Garone repeatedly stressed that she was not the Investigations Commissioner when that report was submitted to the county. "I did not investigate this," she said.

Not Pursued Internally

According to Ms. Garone, the matter was then brought to the Sheriff's Bureau of Investigations General Counsel, Elizabeth Loconsolo, who she said also never pursued the charges.

Asked whether Ms. Garone would reopen the investigation, she noted that the statute of limitations had run out for the time records covering the period of Sept. 22, 2000 through Feb. 8, 2001. Ms. Garone also pointed out that the DA's Office was still investigating allegations that Mr. Sposato improperly used his county-issued car during his work as a process server.

A veteran city investigator said it is common for a District Attorney to decline to bring charges in timesheet-dispute cases, but that they often then recommend that the county handle the disciplinary matter internally. "It's a use-of-resources thing," the source said, noting that any criminal prosecution against a first-time offender would likely not result in a jail sentence.

On Oct. 28, 2003, Nassau Assistant District Attorney Francis D. Quigley stated that based on a review, "it does not appear that a criminal prosecution would be viable," in a letter to Ms. Loconsolo, who formerly held the same position under ex-city Correction Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik.

Conflict of Interest?

But the letter concluded, "Consequently, we are closing our file and referring this matter to you for whatever administrative/disciplinary action you may deem appropriate."

Most municipalities have a zero-tolerance policy regarding employees who are found to have falsified their timesheets, but the county never pursued the allegations against Mr. Sposato.

Ms. Weiss also questioned how he could work both jobs. The county's rules concerning off-duty employment state: "Members of the division shall first and foremost devote their time and attention to the service of the department and shall not engage in any other business or calling which is unlawful or may create a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety."

Now Has 2 Side Jobs

A county official said Mr. Sposato no longer works for Allstate Process Service, but acknowledged that he's involved with a deli near the jail and also does security-related work at Jones Beach. According to county regulations, all off-duty employment must be officially approved by the Sheriff.

The disputed notice in the foreclosure case created havoc, Ms. Weiss said. "We ended up settling with both banks," she recalled. "It was unfortunate that a lot of time and money was wasted on litigating these various matters because usually, when a borrower falls behind in mortgage payments, the borrower has a chance to market the property at a fair price and then utilize those funds to pay off the loan, albeit with some penalties for late payments."

But Mr. Sposato's two affidavits caused her client, Donald MacPherson, "a lot of angst," she said. "It would seem to me that before he went to court to testify, that would have been the time to review his own records and personal diaries and determine if everything was in order, before swearing to the facts in court."

The Sheriff Officers' Association has also ripped County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi and Sheriff Edward Reilly for advancing the former jail cook to the system's No. 2 post. "In my almost-17 years in the department, I have never witnessed the likes of the mismanagement and political patronage that is currently occurring at the Correctional Center," asserted ShOA Secretary John Jaronczyk last winter.

A Suozzi Donor

Mr. Sposato contributed $2,125 to Mr. Suozzi's failed bid for Governor last year, Mr. Jaronczyk has pointed out. The former jail cook also has close ties to the county's Independence Party chairman, Bobby Kumar, sources said.

But the union said it was unaware of the timesheet issue. "We reserve comment on it because we are not privy to the information in these allegations," said Brian Sullivan, ShOA's first vice president.

Ms. Loconsolo has repeatedly defended Mr. Sposato's promotion, contending that he had received the proper law-enforcement training while he was working in the jail's kitchen.

Ms. Weiss, however, was more critical. "It is hard for me to imagine this person as Nassau's acting Sheriff when the real Sheriff is out of state," she said.