Officer: Attacker admitted he was hired to kill woman

The first police officer on the scene in Franklin Square after resident Patricia Battisti was stabbed said Tuesday that he overheard the attacker say "Tony" had hired him to kill her.

Nassau Sgt. Joseph Pizzimenti - testifying in the attempted murder trial of Anthony Battisti, 43, Patricia's ex-husband - said he arrived at Rath Park on Jan. 23, 2009, to see two men restraining Timothy Gersbeck, 39, of Levittown.

The two men were Damian Perez, Patricia Battisti's son, and Brian Dashner, her boyfriend - each of whom has testified that they chased Gersbeck when he ran away after stabbing Patricia in the neck with a sharpened screwdriver outside her home.

"I was hired by Tony," Pizzimenti testified he heard Gersbeck tell Perez and Dashner.

Prosecutor Carolyn Kelly has told jurors that "Tony" is Anthony Battisti, a New York City police officer who also is charged with second-degree conspiracy. He hired Gersbeck to kill his ex-wife, Kelly said, because he was tired of paying alimony and fighting for custody of the couple's young son.

The testimony of Pizzimenti corroborated what Perez, 22, Dashner, 35, and Gersbeck told jurors earlier in the trial before Nassau County Court Judge John Kase in Mineola.

Gersbeck, who pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder for his role, is cooperating with Nassau prosecutors.

Anthony Battisti's attorney, Stephen Scaring of Garden City complained bitterly to the judge that prosecutors had not turned over Pizzimenti's notes until May 19, two days after the start of opening arguments. The delay, he said, damaged the defense's case.

Kase agreed but refused Scaring's request that Pizzimenti's testimony be removed.

In his cross-examination of the sergeant, Scaring attempted to show that Pizzimenti could have jotted down Gersbeck's utterances to Perez and Dashner any time between Jan. 23, 2009, and May 18, 2010 - when Pizzimenti discovered that he had information that could help the prosecution's case.

Pizzimenti acknowledged that there was no date on the page upon which he wrote Gersbeck's impromptu confession. The ink, Pizzimenti said, may have been different from other notes he wrote on the same case. Pizzimenti said he carried several pens in his car.