Islip officials were asked about debris at park fields
Inez Birbiglia, former Islip Town spokeswoman, testified Wednesday in a Suffolk dumping trial that she asked town officials why heavy equipment was at park soccer fields being renovated in 2013. Credit: James Carbone
Two former Islip Town officials charged along with four others in connection with the discarding of tons of contaminated debris at a Brentwood park were asked several times about an unusually large renovation project on the facility’s soccer fields, according to court testimony Wednesday.
Inez Birbiglia, a former Islip Town spokeswoman, testified in a father and son’s dumping trial that a Newsday reporter asked town officials in late summer 2013 about payloaders, bulldozers and large green trucks at the Roberto Clemente Park fields. Birbiglia said she then looked for answers from town officials at several meetings.
“I wanted to get to the heart of the matter,” Birbiglia told Assistant District Attorney Mark Murray Wednesday during the Central Islip trial of Thomas Datre Sr. and his son, Thomas Datre Jr. “I wanted to know why the material was there.”
The Datres are currently on trial for charges of criminal mischief; endangering public health, safety or the environment; and operating a solid waste management facility without a permit.
The pair, along with four others, including former Islip Town Parks Commissioner Joseph J. Montuori Jr. and his then-secretary, Brett A. Robinson, were indicted in December 2014 on charges related to the dumping of contaminated dirt and debris at four sites, including Roberto Clemente Park.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota has said the six conspired in a scheme to dump contaminated construction debris containing cancer-causing chemicals, broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick debris trucked from Queens and Brooklyn demolition sites to four Suffolk locations.
In January 2014, after a county legislator inquired about “a potential hazardous situation” involving a child sledding at Clemente Park, Birbiglia said she questioned Montuori Jr., about debris in a recharge basin near the soccer fields. He gave her several different answers, she told Murray Wednesday.
Montuori blamed a local church involved in the renovation, Birbiglia testified. He blamed Robinson, she said. Montuori told her it was the Datre’s fault. He also said he didn’t know why the debris and equipment was on the fields.
“He was all over the place, his answers were conflicted,” Birbiglia testified about her conversation with Montuori at the meeting. “He hit the table many times, he was very agitated. He was evasive . . . I got no real answers from him.”
Islip Park Ranger Brendan Kearns testified that between April 2013 and April 2014 — when most of the dumping at Clemente Park was believed to have occurred — he witnessed trucks on several occasions dropping off debris. The park ranger told Murray he wrote six to seven reports and sent them up the chain about what he’d seen.
Kearns said he saw the fields in differing states, from having top soil with grass growing in the summer 2013 to debris with glass, ceramic tile, metal, bricks and rocks by that September. By December boulders had been dumped on the fields, Kearns testified.
In September Kearns said, he asked his dispatcher to summon parks officials. Robinson and a deputy parks commissioner, Ed Smith, responded to inspect the fields. In December, when Kearns said he saw the boulders, he called Robinson, who told the park ranger he would take care of it and notify Montuori Jr.
During cross examination, Datre Jr.’s attorney, Kevin Kearon, attempted to highlight “inconsistent statements” made by Kearns. As evidence, Kearon offered up several field reports Kearns had filed over those months, detailing what he had seen.
Kearon pointed out the language he used on the reports indicated “soil” and “dirt,” but never “debris” or any other “dangerous” materials.
“It doesn’t change what it was,” Kearns told Kearon. “It doesn’t matter how I simplified it in a report. What was on the field was on the field.”