In Caracappa probe, dig deep

At the start of this year, the new presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, Kevin McCaffrey, made two startling comments to Newsday.

First he said that Nicholas Caracappa, the legislature’s only Conservative Party member, would become majority leader of the Republican-dominated caucus because such an alliance between the two parties would help Republicans win elections. Admitting the party gave away a key post in exchange for future endorsements from Conservatives is another pernicious example of the ability to trade ballot lines for jobs.

But is there another bargain that benefited Caracappa personally?

Caracappa won a special election in the Fourth District in November 2020 to finish out the term of Tom Muratore, who had died. But just a month later, Caracappa was arrested and charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, for violating an order of protection obtained by his wife and "misdemeanor criminal obstruction of breathing related to a domestic incident." Police records said that during the Dec. 8 incident in his Selden home, Caracappa "grabbed and pushed the victim … up against a wall and squeezed her neck and prevented her from breathing."

At the time, Caracappa’s attorney said the charges were "100% untrue" and the legislator won reelection in 2021. In the Newsday interview, McCaffrey also was asked why he elevated the junior lawmaker to the No. 2 post in the legislature with the charges still pending. McCaffrey apparently had no qualms; Caracappa, he said, would soon be "vindicated." How would McCaffrey know, with such astonishing certainty, about the inner workings of the Suffolk County district attorney’s office?

Soon after McCaffrey’s mess, newly elected Suffolk County district attorney Ray Tierney quickly and properly requested a special prosecutor from Nassau County to handle the Caracappa prosecution. Tierney is off to a good start fulfilling his campaign promise to keep the beleaguered office above politics.

Now the newly elected Nassau district attorney, Anne Donnelly, who made a similar promise about being a straight shooter, has to determine whether she will move forward with the prosecution.

Domestic violence cases are complicated. Victims often are reluctant to see a breadwinner, and a parent to their children, face criminal charges. But Donnelly does have a sworn statement from the estranged wife, whose name is not disclosed because it is a domestic violence case. Photos and medical records usually are available as evidence.

More importantly, Donnelly has to determine why Caracappa’s estranged wife does not want to cooperate. Her LinkedIn page says that in January 2021, she started a new job with the Suffolk Off-Track Betting Corp. Donnelly might want to investigate how her hiring as an OTB maintenance worker, at $46,000 a year, with health care and pension benefits, came about. Did she sign a statement refusing to cooperate before she went on the payroll? Did any Suffolk political players broker her hiring?

Tierney passed off a hot potato. Now Donnelly must show what she can do with it.