Katuria D'Amato filed complaint with DA saying cops, husband harassed her
Katuria D'Amato speaks at her attorneys office on Friday, June 29, 2018 in Garden City. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The estranged wife of former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato has filed a complaint with the Nassau district attorney’s office alleging police “harassed and threatened” her while acting “in cooperation” with D’Amato and two of her Lido Beach neighbors.
Filed Tuesday, Katuria D’Amato’s complaint followed what she described as an argument an evening earlier with a male neighbor before Nassau County police came to their block.
“We have received a complaint and are reviewing it,” district attorney’s office spokeswoman Miriam Sholder said in response to a Newsday inquiry.
Alfonse D’Amato, 80, and Katuria D’Amato, 52, are in the midst of a heated child custody battle as they divorce.
Katuria D’Amato’s attorney, Thomas Liotti, also filed a notice of claim on her behalf against Nassau County and its police department. The legal action alleges Nassau police were “once again wrongfully colluding” with the former senator by threatening to arrest Katuria D’Amato on Monday for harassment unless she let them into her home.
“The senator is trying to have her arrested, almost on a daily basis,” the Garden City lawyer said Friday.
In January, Katuria D’Amato alleged in a different notice of claim that Nassau police “falsely imprisoned her” in a hospital while “acting in concert” with the ex-senator – causing her to lose custody of their children, now 8 and 10.
Former Senator Alfonse D'Amato leaves the Nassau County matrimonial court on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017 in Mineola. Credit: Howard Schnapp
But Stephen Gassman, an attorney for Alfonse D’Amato, said Friday his client was in Massapequa when he heard police were by his estranged wife’s house Monday and then drove to Lido Beach out of concern for their children, who were with her.
The Garden City attorney said his client saw police when he arrived and asked what had happened, before police said Katuria D’Amato had been in an altercation with a neighbor.
“This is nothing but a desperate and revengeful act orchestrated by Mrs. D’Amato and her attorney to cover up her own actions. And the senator strongly denies that there was any collusion with the police,” Gassman said Friday.
Details of the D’Amatos’ matrimonial strife have come out in court following a 911 response to their former family home in September, when police took Katuria D’Amato to a hospital on an involuntary basis.
A Nassau judge soon granted Alfonse D’Amato temporary custody of the couple’s children after the former senator questioned Katuria D’Amato’s mental stability – what she claimed was revenge for her divorce filing.
In her Tuesday complaint, Katuria D’Amato alleged the male neighbor “started telling my son how terrible I am,” before they exchanged words and he called police. She also included the man’s wife in her complaint.
Katuria D’Amato claimed police waited in the street for Alfonse D’Amato and “tried to hide around the corner to meet with him,” before police later came to her house and said she’d be “arrested for harassment.”
A Nassau police spokeswoman said Friday the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
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'No one wants to pay more taxes than they need to' Nearly 20,000 Long Islanders work in town and city government. A Newsday investigation found a growing number of them are making more than $200,000 a year. NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger reports.
