Paul Tonna files libel, defamation suit against North Shore Leader

Former Suffolk County Legis. and Huntington businessman Paul Tonna has filed a $50 million libel and defamation lawsuit against the North Shore Leader newspaper following publication of a September story raising questions about his alleged business dealings with developer Gregory DeRosa.

Calling the story "false and malicious," the suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Suffolk in October, charged that the newspaper, its publisher Grant Lally and several reporters defamed, libeled and harassed Tonna in a story entitled "Two Huntington Pols Enmeshed with $50m Melville Land Fraudster."

Tonna is the executive director of a leadership academy known as the Energeia Partnership and operates a consulting and public relations firm called Praxis. He is also chairman and commissioner of the South Huntington Water District and on numerous boards. 

The Leader story, according to the suit, constituted a "public campaign of harassment and defamation" of Tonna "which includes ... the publication of false and misleading statements."

Lally, publisher of the North Shore Leader, a weekly newspaper based in Locust Valley, said that while he hadn’t been formally served with the suit, the paper stands behind its reporting.

Tonna’s complaint "is nonsense and a violation of New York State’s Civil Rights Anti-Slap law," he said. "Everything that was published is absolutely true. We stand behind it."

The Leader’s story alleged that Tonna and Huntington Town Councilman Sal Ferro "used their official positions to support the rezone" of Melville properties owned by developer DeRosa, who is the subject of lawsuits alleging he defrauded investors of millions of dollars tied to Melville projects. 

Ferro didn’t immediately respond to messages left at his office Friday. Previously, his Commack-based attorney, Ron Alber, said Ferro "does not stand to benefit from any DeRosa projects in [the] Town of Huntington."

Tonna’s lawyer Christopher Cassar in a news release said the story falsely reported that Tonna "backed" and "spearheaded the attempted mass apartment rezone of Melville" on DeRosa’s behalf and that Tonna "misused" his position at the South Huntington Water District to advance it. The suit notes that the district has no land-use or regulatory authority over zoning decisions in Huntington Town.

The suit takes issue with the characterization of Tonna’s Energeia Partnership group as a "secretive private ‘invitation only’ land developers club," saying instead that the partnership brings together "ethical leaders from Long Island’s public, private and not-for-profit sectors to help address this region’s most complex issues."

The Leader story "falsely states that Energeia runs a ‘cultlike’ program of multiday initiation and training events to inculcate members and public officials with the dogma of mass-housing construction," the suit said. The suit also said the claim that he lobbied the Suffolk County Water Authority to sell a parcel of land in Huntington to DeRosa was false, saying Tonna had "nothing to do with" the sale.

"Most disturbing is that the defendants in the newspaper article have directly implied, falsely, that [Tonna] is involved in criminal conduct with his business and official relationships," the suit said.

The suit seeks $25 million in general damages, $25 million for "special damages," plus interest and legal costs.

Lawyers for Tonna in a news release said they sought a public retraction of the story but said the paper "refused to retract, recall or apologize."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.