Nassau agrees to pay cabdriver shot by cop $2M

Nassau County has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a decadelong lawsuit filed by a Huntington Station cabdriver who was shot without cause by an off-duty Nassau police officer in an alcohol-fueled road rage incident.

County legislative committees on Monday approved the payment to Thomas Moroughan after then-Officer Anthony DiLeonardo wounded him twice on a night when DiLeonardo had been drinking in 2011.

The settlement comes three weeks after Newsday’s Inside Internal Affairs investigation described the shooting in detail, recounted how the Suffolk Police Department shielded DiLeonardo by wrongfully arresting Moroughan, and revealed that top leaders in the Suffolk department thwarted an effort to hold two sergeants accountable in connection with Moroughan’s arrest.

Moroughan’s attorney, Anthony Grandinette, said he also has reached a settlement with Suffolk County, though he cannot disclose the amount until it’s formally approved by both counties. The settlements have to be approved by their full legislatures.

Stating that Nassau and Suffolk were compensating Moroughan for "egregious police misconduct," Grandinette wrote in a statement that "Moroughan is looking forward to moving forward with his life, but sadly will never fully recover from this ordeal or be able to trust the police again. It is our joint hope that Mr. Moroughan’s lawsuit will foster significant internal reforms necessary to prevent such an injustice from occurring again." The lawsuit against the counties originally sought $30 million in damages.

In a statement, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman wrote: "I believe this is a reasonable settlement in light of all the factors surrounding the 2011 incident. The officer, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was terminated, and institutional controls have been put in place" since the shooting.

Suffolk County spokesman Derek Poppe said the county would disclose its settlement terms at a court hearing still to be scheduled and did not answer further questions.

The shooting entangled the internal affairs bureaus of Long Island’s neighboring county forces in separate investigations.

The Nassau department dismissed DiLeonardo three years after the shooting. The county did not provide him legal representation.

DiLeonardo’s attorney, Bruce Barket, said Monday that DiLeonardo won’t pay as part of the settlement.

Separately, Nassau punished fellow officer Edward Bienz, who had been drinking with DiLeonardo and was at the scene of the shooting, with the loss of 20 days’ pay. He since has been promoted twice and now is a lieutenant.

The $2 million settlement passed two legislative committees Monday.

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) abstained from the vote in the Rules Committee.

He said he found it "very disturbing" that Bienz had been promoted twice since the shooting. He also didn’t believe the department had implemented changes since the shooting.

"I felt uncomfortable voting yes without the proper reforms or corrective actions taking place," he told Newsday after the vote.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) recused himself from the Rules Committee vote because one of the defense attorneys is a former colleague.

After the shooting, Suffolk police investigators initially accepted DiLeonardo’s account that he had shot Moroughan in self-defense. They charged Moroughan with assault after detectives took a hospital-bed statement in which Moroughan purportedly exonerated DiLeonardo and incriminated himself. At the time, doctors had administered narcotic medications to dull Moroughan’s pain. Moroughan was released from the hospital later that day.

Suffolk police ruled there was no misconduct by any member of the force and ordered no discipline.

In finding no fault, then-Commissioner Edward Webber overruled the department’s internal affairs chief, who had called for filing misconduct charges against a sergeant and a detective sergeant.

Former Chief of Detectives William Madigan pressed internal affairs commanding officer Michael Caldarelli to delete evidence from a report that Caldarelli considered crucial to supporting the charges, including accounts that DiLeonardo smelled of alcohol and that Moroughan had been given morphine, according to notes handwritten by Madigan in a report obtained by Newsday.

With Candice Ferrette

By David M. Schwartz

dschwar1@newsday.comschwartznewsNY

David Schwartz covers environmental issues. A native Long Islander, he's worked at Newsday since 2013.