Records: Suffolk County paid more than half a million dollars for Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann's defense

Suffolk County paid more than half a million dollars for the defense of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, records of legal bills obtained by Newsday show.

According to expense reports, transcript bills and legal invoices submitted to the county over the last three years since Heuermann’s arrest on July 12, 2023, the county has authorized $524,698 in payments to his lawyers and legal experts that helped defend the Massapequa Park architect’s seven counts of murder.

Newsday obtained the legal bills on Thursday through a Freedom of Information law request to the Suffolk County Attorney's Office.

Heuermann’s lawyers, father and son team, Michael and Chase Brown, and Danielle Coysh, were assigned to him under a program referred to as “18b,” for the statute that mandates counties in New York to cover legal expenses for those who cannot afford to hire private attorneys.

Under the law, the costs are capped at $10,000, but more can be allocated through authorization from the judge presiding over the case.

In Heuermann’s case, both Michael Brown and Coysh requested and received authorization from state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei to be compensated well over the limit.

“Due to the serious and complex nature of the case,” Coysh wrote to the judge on July 6, 2025, nearly a year before Rex pleaded guilty. “[I] expended 334.40 hours reviewing discovery, consulting with experts drafting pretrial motions, appearing in court and preparing for hearings and trial.”

She included more than a dozen pages of spreadsheets and expenses.

The judge authorized payment of $138,390 for her time and effort, records show.

Michael Brown also submitted requests for payments above the $10,000 cap for legal bills.

“This matter involved said hours due to the fact that there are seven (7) alleged murder victims with extensive discovery spanning over a 30-year investigation,” Michael Brown wrote in his request for additional funds. “This matter involved novel DNA science requiring substantial preparation with experts and significant litigation in a Frye Hearing.”

In October 2025, Brown's firm asked for and received $94,437.19 for 585.75 hours of work. He submitted two more bills, one for $104,722 and another for $28,598, bringing his total up to $227,757.

“I have put in extensive hours on this case, including working holidays, weekends, nights, early mornings at $158 and hour,” Michael Brown told Newsday on Thursday, which he said is much lower than his usual hourly rate. “As to the rest of the defense team, the same goes with them, they have a significant private practice, and they've also sacrificed parts of their private practice to work on this case at a greatly reduced rate, and they too have worked holidays and weekends and nights and mornings and sacrificed family time and things of that nature to work on this case.”

He said that his son Chase Brown has not submitted any legal bills, but expects to in the future.

In addition to Brown and Coysh, two other attorneys billed for their services. Sabato Caponi submitted invoices for $26,322 and Michael Fuchs charged $9,203.

The Heuermann defense cost computer forensic experts were a little over $71,000, records show.

New techniques for analyzing DNA that traced the murders of the six women back to Heuerman also created a challenge for the defense team.

Legal experts with Forensic Bioinformatic Services reviewed the prosecution's DNA analysis and challenged it during evidentiary hearings.

The Ohio-based company charged $42,628 for its expertise, according to records.

Other expenses, including other pathologists and court transcripts, added up to about $10,000.

Records released by the county do not include Heuermann’s sentencing hearing.

Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty on April 9 to murdering seven women and admitted killing an 8th.  He was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount Suffolk County paid for Rex Heuermann's defense in the story and headlines.