Developer Toussie's suit vs. Suffolk opens

Attorneys for a real estate developer and Suffolk County clashed Thursday over whether the county discriminated against him by refusing to sell him surplus land as the trial on his decade-long legal battle finally got under way.

Developer Robert Toussie was used as "a political piñata" by politicians seeking re-election to show they could be tough on allegedly disreputable developers, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, said at the opening of his client's $21 million civil suit against the county in federal court in Central Islip.

Lowell, who assisted Democrats during President Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings, added that Toussie was "a victim of trial by Newsday," referring to Suffolk officials' references to numerous articles in the newspaper concerning the developer's business activities.

Toussie has not been convicted of any crimes.

Barred from bidding

Assistant County Attorney Christopher Termini said during his opening statement that the county acted reasonably in blocking his purchase of surplus land. "They just didn't pick him from a hat," Termini said.

In 2001 and 2002, the county refused to sell surplus land to Toussie -- then one of the county's largest landowners -- although he was often the lowest bidder at auctions. In 2004, Toussie was barred from bidding and officials had him escorted by police from an auction, the suit says.

The county legislature has final approval on auction bids.

Toussie's suit accuses the county of violating his rights in four ways, including a failure to follow due process and breach of contract.

Two other ways are more unusual.

One accuses the county legislature of, in effect, passing a bill of attainder, which involves a legislature declaring someone guilty and punishing them without a trial. It is prohibited by the Constitution.

The final claim is that the county illegally punished Toussie because of crimes committed by his son Isaac Toussie, a violation of his right to association under the First Amendment.

In blocking the sale of the surplus land, Lowell said, some legislators noted that Isaac Toussie had been accused, and later convicted, of crimes related to the sale of housing and the 40-acre Chandler Estate in Mount Sinai.

The younger Toussie was sentenced in July 2003 to 5 months in federal prison and 5 in home detention. He was pardoned in 2008 by President George W. Bush, but Bush revoked the pardon one day later after press reports that Robert Toussie had contributed more than $30,000 to the GOP and John McCain earlier that year.

Pact with prosecutors

In January 2005, after a probe by federal and Suffolk County investigators, prosecutors agreed to drop federal income tax charges against Robert Toussie on the condition that he file back tax returns and not violate any laws in the next five months.

The four-year investigation had looked into Suffolk's purchase of the Chandler Estate from Robert Toussie for $5 million after several appraisers had said the property was worth much less. No charges had been brought related to that purchase.

In 2010, Robert Toussie and a local mortgage bank agreed to pay $455,000 to settle a nearly decade-old class-action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to sell shoddily built, overpriced homes to more than 250 minority home buyers, mostly on Long Island. Toussie and the bank denied the allegations.