DWI case dropped after judge's order

Prosecutors dropped drunken driving charges Tuesday against a Huntington woman, hours before a judge's order would have forced them to reveal the names of 82 defendants arrested by a Nassau officer accused of making illegal traffic stops.

On Monday, District Court Judge Sharon Gianelli told prosecutors that she would no longer allow the officer, Joseph Lynch, to testify in the case against Nicole Gioielli as a sanction for failing to comply with her order to reveal the names.

Prosecutors said in court Tuesday that they cannot go forward with their case without Lynch's testimony, since it was he who arrested Gioielli, and moved to dismiss it.

The dismissal also meant prosecutors did not have to reveal the names -- something Gianelli had given them until Tuesday to do or face a contempt charge.

Gioielli's lawyer, Brian Griffin, of Garden City, said the dismissal is overdue.

"It was clear from the beginning that based upon Officer Lynch's conduct this case should have been dismissed," Griffin said.

Lynch, who retired recently, was assigned to desk duty in 2005 after an investigation by the Nassau district attorney's Special Investigations Bureau found that he was stopping cars without probable cause to catch drunken drivers, usually late in his shift so that he could earn overtime. He also used identical language in his arrest paperwork, the report said.

Prosecutors said they would investigate 13 cases in which he was the arresting officer after Griffin and others said he had resumed making illegal stops since he was restored to highway patrol in 2008.

Police have said there is no evidence that Lynch ever acted inappropriately on the job after returning to highway patrol, and prosecutors have said that, of the 13 cases they were investigating, nine ended in guilty pleas.

John Byrne, a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, said prosecutors had turned over Lynch's arrest paperwork in 82 cases, but had redacted the names of the defendants to protect their privacy. He said doing anything else would have opened the DA's office up to possible civil legal backlash.

But Gianelli said in court that once she made her order, prosecutors had to comply.

"Once the court makes a determination, you no longer have the right to say no," she said.

In Lynch's disciplinary report, dated March 2005, the district attorney's Special Investigations Bureau said: "If the driver is found to have consumed alcohol, it appears as if Lynch may be exaggerating the facts of operation, or even fabricating the reason for the stop."