Suffolk lawmakers agree to pay nearly $4M to settle 2026 police misconduct lawsuits

Suffolk County lawmakers agreed recently to pay $3.9 million to settle lawsuits involving the county's police department so far this year, including $3 million to the estate of a emotionally disturbed man who was allegedly shot and killed by a now-terminated officer outside his Shirley home, court records and minutes from a legislative committee's monthly meetings show. 

The Suffolk police Internal Affairs Bureau cleared former Officer Frank Santanello of wrongdoing in the 2018 fatal shooting of Walter Kellogg, but the Suffolk County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, which must sign off on large settlements, authorized $3 million to settle the estate's federal lawsuit at its March 3 meeting, according to the panel's minutes. 

Internal affairs also cleared Santanello in the alleged assault and false arrest of Jessica Roger, also of Shirley, in 2012. But the Ways and Means Committee approved a $600,000 settlement to end her federal lawsuit in January. 

The $3.9 million in settlements so far this year are from January through March. The minutes for the Ways and Means Committee's April 16 meeting have not been posted on the legislature's website. The committee approved at least $1.8 million in police-related lawsuit settlements in 2025, although that figure is likely to be much greater, since the panel's minutes do not provide enough information to cross-reference dozens of the panel's votes with court records. The county also paid hundred of thousands of dollars to settled three other lawsuits this year.

Santanello, the target of 25 civilian complaints and four administrative investigations, joined the Suffolk County Police Department in April 2002. He was placed on suspension without pay in April 2021, and an arbitrator upheld his termination in June 2022, internal affairs bureau records reviewed by Newsday show.

Mark C. Kujawski, the attorney representing Kellogg’s estate and widow, Terri Miehle-Kellogg, said he could not comment on the settlement until it is approved by a surrogate court. Kellogg’s family, he added, is grateful that Santanello is no longer a Suffolk police officer.

"He’s a bad guy and I think everyone knows he’s a bad guy, and they’ve known that he was a bad guy for a long time," Kujawski said.

Santanello responded to a 911 call about an emotionally disturbed, suicidal man at a Shirley home, Suffolk police said in 2018. Kellogg, severely depressed over the death of his daughter earlier that year, charged at the officer while wielding a knife, an account his family has disputed.

Santanello shot Kellogg six times, his family said. Kellogg died on his front lawn while awaiting medical treatment.

Kujawski said Terri Miehle-Kellog’s family includes police officers. "They are not anti-cop," the attorney said. "They just want accountability."

Kujawski said the ballistic evidence showed that Santanello did not shoot Kellogg at close range — there was no gunpowder residue, for example, on the dead man’s clothing. Suffolk investigators also failed to conduct crime scene analyses that would have determined how far Kellogg was from Santanello when he was shot, he said.

"They did spend a lot of taxpayer money doing ballistics analysis to determine that Santanello’s gun was the gun that killed Walter, which was not in dispute," Kujawski said. "In fact, it was the only firearm there."

The federal lawsuit filed by Kellogg’s family in 2019 said Kellogg never posed a threat to Santanello and the officer used "unnecessary, excessive and unconstitutional force" in the Dec. 15, 2018, shooting. An internal affairs investigation, according to the records, exonerated Santanello of using excessive force and improper police action. It concluded that his use of a weapon against Kellogg was "justified."

Santanello could not be reached for comment. The attorney who represented him at his arbitration, Christopher Rothemich, did not return a request for comment. Lou Civello, president of the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, declined to discuss the settlements with Newsday.

Suffolk police declined to comment on the settlements.

Michael Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, did not return calls and emails from Newsday. Legis. Chad Lennon (C-Rocky Point), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, also did not respond to requests for comment.

In January, the Ways and Means Committee agreed to pay $600,000 to Roger. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay approved the settlement to the lawsuit Roger filed on April 28, 2013.

In her lawsuit, Roger said Santanello and other officers assaulted and falsely arrested her in September 2012 while responding to a family dispute. She was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and second-degree harassment. The charges were dismissed in April 2016.

"The settlement was appropriate," said attorney Frederick K. Brewington, who represented Roger in the federal case. "At this point, Ms. Roger is ready to put this incident behind her."

An internal affairs investigation "exonerated" Santanello or determined that allegations of excessive force and false arrest filed after the officer responded to Roger’s home were "unsubstantiated."

Santanello was terminated, however, in 2022, after an arbitrator upheld four charges reviewed by internal affairs. The bureau's records noted that Santanello had berated a woman who asked to speak to someone who spoke Spanish while filing a missing persons report.

"We are in America, and in here, you have to speak English," Santanello told the woman in an angry voice, according to the records.

The arbitrator also agreed that the officer inappropriately struck and detained a homeless person. Santanello also lied when he said that a bartender who called 911 to seek medical attention for the homeless person said the man had frightened her by wielding a knife, according to the records.

Internal affairs noted while investigating damage to a computer in Santanello’s patrol car that the former officer had failed to submit required reports for 911 calls. Santanello was also accused of failing to treat an elderly woman who had requested a ride from a doughnut shop to her home on a hot and humid evening, the documents said.

Newsday's Jim Baumbach contributed to this story.