State officials pass blame after Long Island body parts suspects freed without bail
State officials are pointing fingers after four suspects arrested in connection with body parts found throughout Long Island over the past week were freed without bail on Wednesday.
“Maybe the DA should have done a more thorough investigation and brought murder charges or conspiracy-to-commit murder, or even assault charges, because all of [those charges] are bail-eligible,” Gov. Hochul told FOX 5’s “Good Day New York” on Thursday.
Steven Brown, 44, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, Amanda Wallace, 40, and Alexis Nieves, 33, were charged with hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence and concealing a human corpse — then set free on supervised release while awaiting trial. They have not been charged with killing the victims.
Their arrests followed the discovery of arms, a leg, a head and other remains from two victims in Babylon’s Southards Pond Park last Thursday. Body parts believed to belong to the same victims — identified only as a 53-year-old man and 59-year-old woman — were also located Tuesday in a wooded area of West Babylon and in Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale.
Prosecutors later said they had significant evidence to support their case against the suspects, including meat cleavers, butcher knives and blood, but did not specify where the weapons and blood were found.
After the suspects were sprung, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney blamed the New York State Legislature for 2019 “bail reform” that prohibited law enforcement from holding the foursome, since “charges related to the mutilation and disposal of murdered corpses are no longer bail-eligible.”
Hochul fired back that might not be the case if the district attorney’s office had been more aggressive in pursuing the charges she recommended.
“I encourage the DA’s office to go back and build your case, because if you bring any of those charges, which I think would be appropriate, that’s absolutely bail-eligible,” she said. “Those people would not be out on the street.”
But the DA’s office took exception with the governor’s claims.
“Gov. Hochul is either completely clueless or being deceitful about how the criminal justice system works,” Tierney wrote in a statement on Thursday. “Prosecutors have a duty to bring only charges that are supported by evidence. Anything else would be unethical.”
Tierney defended his office and investigators for quickly taking the four suspects into custody and collecting evidence as prosecutors continue to solidify their case.
“It would be helpful if the governor confined her comments to subjects she knows something about,” the DA said.
Hochul claimed proper execution of the state’s new bail reform laws requires an “education process” that includes judges and prosecutors learning to adapt to the changing landscape.
Louis Civello, vice president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, also took issue with the governor’s comments.
“Does the governor truly believe you should be able to conceal a human head in a park where children can find it and walk out free?” his office asked. “Instead of using this opportunity to fix New York’s reckless bail reform law, the governor decided to attack law enforcement.”
Hochul earned her law degree from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in 1983 and worked at a Washington, D.C., law firm before going into politics. She became New York’s first female governor in 2021.
