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For Tankleff, celebration tempered by sad realities

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com

July 1, 2008

Thanks to a Starbucks employee with unusually large frosting penmanship, Martin Tankleff celebrated his imminent freedom from prosecution Monday with a chocolate cake that proclaimed, "Congra Marty."

But neither that, nor New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's opinion that there remains "some evidence" that Tankleff killed his parents, was enough to spoil a celebration two decades in the making.

"It's still kind of hard to realize that it actually happened," Tankleff said in an exclusive Newsday interview, referring to Cuomo's announcement Monday that he will not seek to retry Tankleff, whose 1990 conviction in his parents' murders was overturned in December. "Every day, you wake up and you say, 'It's going to happen today.' And it happened today."

Sitting with his suit jacket off and his tie loosened in the Garden City law office of his attorney Bruce Barket, Tankleff reflected on his long journey to what he called "essentially" the finish line Monday. But with every step he takes toward freedom he said there is lingering resentment over the anguish he has been forced to endure for more than half of his life.

"The more people learn about the case, the more they say, 'Why has it taken so long?'" said Tankleff, who was "cautiously optimistic" as he entered a Riverhead courtroom Monday to learn his fate. "After 20 years of legal hurdles and ups and downs, you never know what to expect."

Tankleff said he can now focus on bringing what he called the real criminals in his case to justice, now that he expects state Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle to make the dismissal of his own charges official in three weeks. Although Cuomo's chief trial attorney, Benjamin Rosenberg, suggested that there is not enough evidence to pursue charges against other suspects, Tankleff said his father's former business partner, Jerry Steuerman, and the two hired hit man that Tankleff believes carried out the killings will not get away with murder.

"It's not possible -- not with my family and me behind it," said Tankleff, who added that he also looked forward to Suffolk police and prosecutors having to pay for their role in his conviction. "Hopefully someone will make them answer."

Tankleff said he has no immediate plans to pursue a civil case against authorities for what he said was his wrongful imprisonment, or against his half-sister, Shari Mistretta, to recoup his inheritance.

"One day at a time," Tankleff said. "Before I could even think about anything like that, I had to get to this point first."

Tankleff said he was unfazed by Mistretta's steadfast opinion that he is guilty, and called her the "outsider of the family." Being joined by dozens of family members from both sides of his family in court Monday was "all that matters. . . . My family has supported me for 20 years and they know every piece of this case."

With the weight of worrying about a second trial off his shoulders, Tankleff said he hopes to get on with his life, first by finding "gainful employment." He said he wants to finish his studies at Hofstra University and then pursue a legal career fighting for the wrongfully convicted.

More immediately, Tankleff planned to celebrate his legal victory with friends and family in Westbury. But he said any champagne-drinking would be tempered with the solemn reality at the heart of his case.

"My parents were murdered 20 years ago. I was wrongly prosecuted. And the killers are still out there," Tankleff said. "It's really not that type of celebratory day. It's a day of relief that it's finally, essentially, over for me. But the killers are still roaming the streets."