Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney touts Gilgo arrest in campaign email
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney speaks about the Gilgo murders and the arrest of suspect Rex Heuermann at a July 14 news conference. Credit: Steve Pfost
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who has taken the lead role in the high-profile arrest and prosecution of a suspect in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, has begun referring to it in campaign promotions, two years before he's up for reelection.
An email sent Friday by his campaign committee “Ray Tierney for DA” thanked donors for their support and suggested the July 13 arrest of Rex A. Heuermann, the Manhattan architect and Massapequa Park resident who has pleaded not guilty, would not have happened if Tierney were not in office. Tierney, who is not registered with a political party but is backed by the GOP, defeated incumbent Democrat Tim Sini in 2021.
“Without your support, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and this significant case would likely not have been solved,” the email states.
The email came two weeks after Heuermann was arrested on first-degree murder and other charges for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were discovered wrapped in burlap near the beach along Long Island's South Shore in December 2010.
Heuermann's arrest has received international news media coverage. Tierney, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, a Democrat, and Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, an appointee of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, also a Democrat, all have made television appearances.
Tierney, a former federal prosecutor, has announced he will lead the team that will prosecute Heuermann.
In a text message Monday, Tierney declined to discuss the political ramifications of the case and his campaign's email to supporters.
Suffolk GOP chairman Jesse Garcia said: “Do I believe that the electorate is going to react to this situation positively? I believe so."
"Why? Because you're going to feel safer than having [an unsolved] cold case, that was a mystery, and besieged by political intrigue for 13 years, under Democratic administrations," Garcia said.
Rich Schaffer, chairman of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Dawidziak, a Suffolk-based political consultant who works primarily with Republicans, called Heuermann's arrest a “huge political bonanza” for Tierney.
“Just for the fact that this case languished under two previous DAs and now has been cracked after all these years — that’s already a huge feather in his political cap,” Dawidziak said. “He doesn't have to grandstand on it or anything.”
District attorneys in New York long have used high-profile cases to burnish their public images, Dawidziak said. Examples include Republican Thomas E. Dewey, who as the Manhattan district attorney successfully prosecuted mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano on prostitution charges in 1936 and went on to become governor. Former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro in 2000 reopened the case in the 1982 disappearance of Kathie Durst, wife of real estate empire heir Robert Durst, years before becoming a prominent host on Fox News.
Carissa Byrne Hessick, a law professor at the University of North Carolina and director of its Prosecutors and Politics Project, said deciding what to campaign on can be tricky for a district attorney because the office should be nonpartisan.
A February study from the law school found that 51% of news media coverage mentioning a district attorney is about a specific case rather than the district attorney's policy and campaign stances.
“If we were talking about a regular elected office, it wouldn't seem strange to campaign on accomplishment,” Hessick said. “At the same time, there is something sort of distasteful about campaigning on a particular case or campaigning to prosecute a particular individual.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who has taken the lead role in the high-profile arrest and prosecution of a suspect in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, has begun referring to it in campaign promotions, two years before he's up for reelection.
An email sent Friday by his campaign committee “Ray Tierney for DA” thanked donors for their support and suggested the July 13 arrest of Rex A. Heuermann, the Manhattan architect and Massapequa Park resident who has pleaded not guilty, would not have happened if Tierney were not in office. Tierney, who is not registered with a political party but is backed by the GOP, defeated incumbent Democrat Tim Sini in 2021.
“Without your support, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and this significant case would likely not have been solved,” the email states.
The email came two weeks after Heuermann was arrested on first-degree murder and other charges for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were discovered wrapped in burlap near the beach along Long Island's South Shore in December 2010.
Heuermann's arrest has received international news media coverage. Tierney, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, a Democrat, and Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, an appointee of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, also a Democrat, all have made television appearances.
Tierney, a former federal prosecutor, has announced he will lead the team that will prosecute Heuermann.
In a text message Monday, Tierney declined to discuss the political ramifications of the case and his campaign's email to supporters.
Suffolk GOP chairman Jesse Garcia said: “Do I believe that the electorate is going to react to this situation positively? I believe so."
"Why? Because you're going to feel safer than having [an unsolved] cold case, that was a mystery, and besieged by political intrigue for 13 years, under Democratic administrations," Garcia said.
Rich Schaffer, chairman of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Dawidziak, a Suffolk-based political consultant who works primarily with Republicans, called Heuermann's arrest a “huge political bonanza” for Tierney.
“Just for the fact that this case languished under two previous DAs and now has been cracked after all these years — that’s already a huge feather in his political cap,” Dawidziak said. “He doesn't have to grandstand on it or anything.”
District attorneys in New York long have used high-profile cases to burnish their public images, Dawidziak said. Examples include Republican Thomas E. Dewey, who as the Manhattan district attorney successfully prosecuted mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano on prostitution charges in 1936 and went on to become governor. Former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro in 2000 reopened the case in the 1982 disappearance of Kathie Durst, wife of real estate empire heir Robert Durst, years before becoming a prominent host on Fox News.
Carissa Byrne Hessick, a law professor at the University of North Carolina and director of its Prosecutors and Politics Project, said deciding what to campaign on can be tricky for a district attorney because the office should be nonpartisan.
A February study from the law school found that 51% of news media coverage mentioning a district attorney is about a specific case rather than the district attorney's policy and campaign stances.
“If we were talking about a regular elected office, it wouldn't seem strange to campaign on accomplishment,” Hessick said. “At the same time, there is something sort of distasteful about campaigning on a particular case or campaigning to prosecute a particular individual.”
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
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