Bill O'Reilly-police commissioner emails released

Lawyers for Nassau County have lost their bid to bar the release of emails between former Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey and television host Bill O'Reilly.

Nassau Judge Dana Winslow released the documents Friday during a hearing in Nassau State Supreme Court, complying with an Oct. 2 appellate court decision that said the county must turn over the records in accordance with the state Freedom of Information Law.

The case was brought by John Cook, editor of the website Gawker, who was represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union in his pursuit of the documents.

"It took almost two years to get to this point," Corey Stoughton, the NYCLU lawyer handling the case, said after the hearing. "We wish it hadn't taken so long and that the county hadn't fought so hard against their release."

Neither Mulvey nor O'Reilly could immediately be reached for comment.

The content of the emails deal mostly with efforts by Mulvey and O'Reilly to raise money for the Nassau County Police Department Foundation in its effort to build a new intelligence center and police academy.

In an Aug. 24, 2010, email, Mulvey thanked O'Reilly for hosting a foundation dinner at Morton's The Steakhouse in Great Neck, and said the foundation would be sending him a gift bag "as a token of appreciation," the records show.