Lawyers release files of graduates of Bruce Blakeman's armed citizen deputy program

A former NYPD officer involved in a violent traffic stop that led to the city's largest pretrial civil settlement in 1995 is among the nearly five dozen members of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's provisional special deputy sheriff program, newly released court documents show. 

The filing — made available Thursday when attorneys posted files in a lawsuit that were previously under court seal — includes the résumés and cover letters approved applicants submitted to the Blakeman administration. They also included awards, certifications and gun training documents, with redacted personal information such as addresses, and Social Security, pistol permit and driver's license numbers.

The filings shed new light on applicants chosen for the program, which the administration has said enlists citizen gunowners to help protect the county during emergencies. Among them are members with law enforcement and military experience, including one former Navy SEAL, according to the résumés. The list also includes Blakeman's nephew, who has no law enforcement or military experience.

The 502 pages of the volunteers' information became public this week when State Supreme Court Justice Gary Carlton in Mineola ruled redacted personnel files would be open as part of a lawsuit challenging the legality of the program. Debra Mulé and Scott Davis, two Democratic county legislators, are the lead plaintiffs suing over the program Blakeman created in 2024. They said they believe Blakeman is exceeding his role as county executive in giving private citizens with guns authority to assist in the public safety of county residents. It’s unclear who in the county vetted applicants.   

Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, has drawn criticism from lawmakers, residents and community groups over his lack of transparency on the program. He has defended it as a list of county residents and business owners willing to volunteer to assist police who are entitled to privacy. The group has yet to be mobilized but have trained in taxpayer-funded facilities and would be paid a stipend of $150 per day if summoned to duty.   

When asked for comment on the redacted personnel files becoming public, Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle sent a statement to Newsday pointing to Carlton's political ties to the Democratic Party.

"Judge Carlton is a former Democrat District Leader who has already prejudged this case. He should remove himself. The only issue that should be before the Court is whether County Executive Blakeman has the power to create a list which under black letter law he clearly does," Boyle said in the statement.   

Blakeman had denied Newsday the names of the members in the special deputies program.

Newsday reported on the background of a few members of the inaugural class after obtaining a copy of a pamphlet given out at the December 2024 swearing-in ceremony inside the executive chambers in Mineola. 

The applications of the 26 men who were part of the first class of special deputies are included in the file, confirming Newsday's investigation. The filing released Thursday named 32 additional members. The nearly five dozen provisional deputies would be on top of the roughly 2,500 full-time police officers hired to protect the county and its residents.

A review of the résumés revealed the sheriff program's members also include those providing private armed security to synagogues in the Five Towns communities. Many are volunteers within their communities including the Nassau County Auxiliary Police, an organization established in 1950 to assist the county police.

According to the résumés in the filing, there is a group of Nassau resident gun owners such as: Michael Baumann, bay constable in the Town of Oyster Bay; Kevin Colon, a tractor trailer driver; Michael Lazar, a former team dentist for the New York Islanders; Frank Cilluffo, a Great Neck Park District commissioner; James Savia, a former member of Blakeman's transition team and county police surgeon; Anthony Mineo, a Town of Hempstead buildings code enforcement officer; Nir Sapir, a real estate developer; Marco Marticorena, an accountant; and Cyrus Vaseghi, an insurance adjuster.

In the application Donald Alesi submitted to join the volunteer program he touted his decorated service with the FBI and the NYPD's narcotics division, recently released court documents show. Omitted are dozens of allegations and complaints throughout his time as an officer in the 1980s and 1990s, including having been one of two Brooklyn officers charged with assaulting the driver of a passenger van, leaving the man paralyzed from the neck down.

While Alesi and the other officer were acquitted in the criminal case, the city paid a $16.6 million civil settlement, according to news reports. Newsday found the information in a search of police misconduct records using Alesi's name.

Alesi declined to comment to Newsday.

While the most common themes cited in the cover letters was a commitment to safely guarding Nassau County and the ability to act quickly in the event of an emergency, the new filling also helps confirm that a Blakeman relative graduated in the program's inaugural class last year.

According to the documents, Zachary Cohen obtained his pistol license in the spring of 2024 but is without law enforcement or military experience. His résumé indicated he manages his family's real estate portfolio as president and CEO of AMZ Management in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Cohen writes in his cover letter: "I am extremely interested in serving my community and following in the footsteps of my Uncle Bruce Blakeman."