Suffolk clerk IT chief Peter Schlussler signals intent to sue Steve Bellone for defamation in cyberattack case

The computer director of the Suffolk County clerk’s office has filed papers in state court signaling his intention to sue Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and other administration officials over allegedly “defamatory statements” they made falsely blaming the director for a 2022 ransomware attack that crippled county services.

The petition filed in State Supreme Court in Riverhead Tuesday asks for permission to file a late notice of claim on behalf of the clerk’s information technology director, Peter Schlussler, to include allegedly false and defamatory statements made by Bellone and others after closure of the 90-day window required by state law for Schlussler to sue. Bellone placed Schlussler on paid administrative leave in December. 

Court papers also reveal Schlussler’s lawyers filed a separate notice of claim in August, claiming Bellone and his staffers “defamed [Schlussler] by falsely stating to the press” that he “committed gross misconduct” and committed perjury during a hearing before the Suffolk County Legislature. Many of the remarks cited in Tuesday’s petition were made by Bellone beginning in December. 

Schlussler in interviews, public testimony and a 157-page report on the ransomware event has steadfastly denied Bellone’s assertions of blame and obstruction of access to the clerk's systems. Schlussler has pointed to numerous “red flags” missed by the county’s main IT department to head off the ransomware event, which shut down a range of county services and exposed personal data of some 500,000 residents and employees.

Newsday has reported that Schlussler was the first to alert county officials of the attack on Sept. 8, with emails to officials showing he limited ransomware exposure by shutting down the clerk’s computer systems more than four hours before all county computer systems were shut down.

Bellone spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle said in an email Wednesday: “While we await Schlussler’s latest frivolous claim, we continue to eagerly await the day in which he finally appears for a deposition because his alternative set of facts will not hold up while under oath.”

The filing says Bellone, a Democrat, “falsely accused Schlussler of obstructing the implementation of a security upgrade” in the clerk’s office, leading to vulnerabilities in the network that Bellone has said provided the entryway for the attack.

The notice also alleges Bellone “falsely stated that [the] ‘Clerk IT director refused the offer to implement the existing security technology, and importantly as of this date, still has not implemented the $700,000 in security upgrades that were authorized by the IT steering committee.’”

The statements were “demonstrably false,” said Schlussler’s lawyer, Amy Marion, accusing Bellone and his staff of “completely destroying” Schlussler’s reputation.

Paul Sabatino, a former chief deputy Suffolk county executive and onetime counsel to the county legislature, said Schlussler may face an uphill battle given the history of such legal claims in the state.

“Defamation cases are really tough to win in New York, particularly with a public figure,” said Sabatino. "You have to show a willful, reckless disregard for the truth." Sabatino said Schlussler may avoid the higher bar for proving defamation of a public figure because Schlussler "has been converted into a bit of a public figure" by Bellone "with the relentless accusations against him." 

But Marion said: “I don’t think you can get a better defamation case than this. It’s pretty hard not to win when [county officials] are making statements that are demonstrably false that directly defame somebody’s reputation in the workplace which is exactly what they did.”

The petition alleges that the “purpose of Bellone’s and his staff’s, agents’ and employees’ statements was to falsely blame Schlussler as the person most responsible for the intrusion, and to protect [Bellone’s Department of Information Technology] staff from the consequences of their own non-feasance and malfeasance in the face of warnings from Schlussler and other [clerk] staff of known network vulnerabilities.”

Schlussler was put on administrative leave with pay by Bellone on Dec. 21, alleging he obstructed the county’s attempts to restore clerk systems and failed to implement certain technology upgrades in advance of the attack.

The 11-page complaint includes statements made by Bellone and his staff to local news media including Newsday in which they blamed Schlussler for the attack.

The petition notes that Schlussler and others voiced “concerns regarding the generally poor state of the county’s network security” through “numerous emails and conversations” before the attack. Newsday has reported Schlussler and former County Clerk Judy Pascale, a Republican, had waged a monthslong campaign for upgrades to the clerk’s network security, but were rebuffed by legislators and an IT steering committee.

Yet Bellone at a Dec. 21 news conference “blamed Schlussler for the intrusions,” including “falsely stating” that Schlussler “knew of the vulnerability” in the clerk’s office computer systems but “failed to protect” the clerk’s network, the petition notes. It says a Bellone said that Schlussler “misled” Pascale about the state of the clerk’s system.

“Bellone further accused Schlussler of having knowledge of the impending attack but intentionally withholding information about the attack to avoid embarrassment,” the court papers state. On Feb. 17, it added, Bellone “falsely stated that the County’s IT [department] identified significant issues in every major system in the clerk’s IT environment and its firewall system was running on an outdated version of software that had known published vulnerabilities.”

In addition to Bellone, Schlussler's petition names Suffolk County, Deputy County Executive Vanessa Baird-Streeter and other officials not yet identified /as defendants/added/js/. The petition doesn’t list any damages Schlussler is seeking.

With Grant Parpan

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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