Judge: Offender with leukemia must return to jail custody

A Nassau judge Tuesday ordered a man he’d put under house arrest — citing costs of his cancer care while jailed — back into correction officials’ custody after revealing a new allegation “of a sexual nature” against the man from a health aide.

Andrew Quattrone, 33, of Lindenhurst, has acute lymphocytic leukemia and is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal that followed his February 2015 arrest.

Police alleged Quattrone tried to get two 14-year-olds to make an “adult video” with him after approaching the girls in Massapequa Park and showing them explicit photos and condoms.

But in March, acting state Supreme Court Justice Terence Murphy canceled Quattrone’s $500,000 bail and released him on his own recognizance despite the district attorney’s office calling the man “a danger to children” and “risk to society.”

At the time, the judge alluded to the county having to pay for Quattrone’s medical treatment, and the cost of Nassau correction officers keeping a 24-hour watch on him in a private hospital.

On Tuesday, Murphy said Quattrone had violated terms of his release, which he referred to as “medical clemency,” because of the new allegation regarding the health aide. He remanded him to jail custody.

Authorities are in the preliminary stage of an investigation after the health aide for Quattrone made a complaint, according to the judge. Quattrone isn’t facing a new charge at this time, authorities said.

Quattrone’s attorney, Joshua Kahn, said later he believed there “was a complaint by someone in Suffolk of inappropriate texting.”

The judge said Quattrone’s jail commitment order would say the man “shall be subject to an immediate medical examination and treatment as required,” and scheduled sentencing for Sept. 23.

In April, Quattrone struck a deal by pleading to lesser felony charges of criminal solicitation in exchange for a commitment of one and a half to three years behind bars at his sentencing. An indictment after his 2015 arrest had included higher felony counts of trying to use a child in a sex performance.

During the plea, Murphy ordered Quattrone to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and not to leave his family’s home except for medical care and religious services while awaiting sentencing.

He said then that the cost of Quattrone’s care was only one of “myriad factors” he considered while deciding the man’s custody status.

Quattrone’s attorney said Tuesday he expected his client to once again be hospitalized while in jail custody. After his court appearance, paramedics wheeled Quattrone out of the building on a stretcher when Kahn said the man reported feeling ill.

A court spokesman said correction personnel would take custody of Quattrone at Nassau University Medical Center.

A district attorney’s office spokesman said prosecutors were pleased Quattrone had been incarcerated Tuesday and repeated that they believe he poses a public safety risk.

Quattrone pleaded guilty to reduced charges and went to prison after a 2009 arrest for trying to solicit sex acts from three girls while out on bail in a gun case.

He also got 90 days in jail after pleading guilty following a 2014 arrest for allegedly going to a Levittown school and lobbying an 18-year-old to appear in a pornographic movie.