Seaford gun shop owner wins $5M in lawsuit

A federal jury has awarded $5 million to a Seaford gun shop owner who said Nassau County police arrested him on the basis of wrongful allegations and damaged his business by suspending his dealer's license.

The jury's decision -- $3 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages -- was reached Wednesday in federal court in Central Islip in favor of the owner, Martin Tretola and his shop, T&T Gunnery, according to court records.

The suit filed in 2008 said that police wrongfully arrested Tretola in June 2007 on a charge of reckless endangerment on the grounds that he was operating a makeshift gun range inside the shop, at 3778 Merrick Rd., near a natural gas line.

One of Tretola's attorneys, Steven Harfenist, of Lake Success, said the police never bothered to check whether the gas line was still active -- it had been disconnected for decades -- and he said the so-called makeshift range was actually a bullet trap, a device that safely absorbs bullets and their fragments for testing. The charge, according to the suit, was later dismissed.

Because of the license suspension and the stigma generated by the case, Harfenist said Tretola lost out on the sale of more than 900 guns, an amount based on sales from the previous year. The license has since been restored, Harfenist said.

"I can get my life back together," Tretola said Thursday night. "I lost a lot of money."

Harfenist praised the jury's decision.

"They were sending both the police and the county a message that this type of harassment is not going to be tolerated. It's pretty clear that the jury was outraged by the conduct," he said.

In addition to the police department and Nassau County, Tretola's suit also named Police Officer Erik Faltings, who was also found liable in the case.

Insp. Kenneth Lack, the police department's chief spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit and said Faltings also would have no comment. Lack said Faltings is still a police officer with the department and remains assigned to the pistol license section.

The Nassau County attorney, John Ciampoli, said the police had legally sufficient probable cause to make the arrest and that the county plans to contest the jury verdict.

"The actions of the police department were entirely reasonable, and obviously the jury feels different," Ciampoli said Thursday.

According to the suit, the trouble stemmed from a dispute between Tretola and Faltings over a firearm belonging to the officer's friend.