Court sets Feb. 9 trial date in Islip illegal dumping case

Defense attorneys in the prevailing wage case against three members of the Datre family continued to fight Thursday for a full copy of the case's grand jury minutes after a judge ordered a limited portion to be handed over.

During the hearing for this case as well as the Islip dumping case, which also involves some members of the same Datre family, state Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho set Feb. 9 as the start of jury selection for the dumping case.

The prevailing wage case was to be tried first, but last month, several days after jury selection began and 11 jurors had been sworn in, Camacho granted a mistrial without prejudice in that case -- meaning it can be retried -- after the prosecution admitted to changing dates and/or work order numbers on three of 225 certified payrolls that were presented to a grand jury and were included in the indictment. The prosecutor who marked up the evidence, Assistant District Attorney Leslie Stevens, has been removed from the case.

Edward Heilig, the Suffolk County district attorney's division chief, said Thursday in court that he will respond to the defense's motion for full disclosure by Wednesday. Camacho said he will give his ruling on the matter within a week of Heilig's response, and ordered the defense attorneys to only use the minutes they have been given "in determining whether they need to make additional applications and to assist them in making those applications."

Andrew Campanelli, an attorney for Clara Datre and her company Daytree at Courtland Square Inc., said the minutes they received amounts to "less" than a few dozen pages.

Robert Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, declined to comment on the grand jury minutes.

Camacho has yet to rule on a defense motion to dismiss the 492-count indictment against Clara Datre of Hauppauge, her son Thomas Datre Jr. of St. James and her daughter Gia Gatien of Hauppauge in the prevailing wage case. The three have been indicted on fraud and prevailing wage violations stemming from allegedly overbilling the Town of Islip $148,504 for cleanup work after superstorm Sandy and failing to pay $100,000 in state-mandated prevailing wages to workers on a separate town contract for tree-trimming work.

In the dumping case, six men -- Thomas Datre Sr., his son, Thomas Datre Jr., Christopher Grabe of Islandia Recycling, Ronald Cianciulli of Atlas Asphalt, former Islip Town parks Commissioner Joseph J. Montuori Jr. and his former secretary Brett A. Robinson -- as well as four companies, have been indicted for their alleged roles in dumping tens of thousands of tons of contaminated debris at four sites in and around Islip.