Babylon hires firm for $2,500/day to help gather forensic evidence to give to DA

Babylon Town has hired a company to help gather documents that were subpoenaed by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office regarding the town’s business with a consultant, a subcontractor and a staffing company that provide employees for the town.

The town was served a subpoena in November to turn over documents created since January 2014 related to consultant Herb Greene, subcontractor Doug Jacob and Red Hill Professional Services, which Jacob owns. Babylon has been using Greene, who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, as a solid-waste consultant for more than a decade, with Jacob, who lives in Pelham in Westchester County, listed on Greene's current contract with the town as a subconsultant.

Red Hill provides about three dozen nonunion employees to a half dozen departments in the town.

The district attorney’s subpoena requested a multitude of documents, ranging from contracts and invoices to emails and work assignments.

The town has hired TransPerfect Legal Solutions of Manhattan to gather and streamline information, specifically communications involving Greene, Jacob and Red Hill employees, town spokesman Dan Schaefer said. The town has signed a three-year contract with the company at a rate of $2,495 per day for forensic collection, as well as the following fees: processing/ingestion, $35 per gigabyte; processing/export, $100 per gigabyte; project management, $125 per hour; hosting, $9 per gigabyte monthly; and user charge, $75 per user monthly.

The contract was done through a professional services bid request, which does not require the lowest bidder be chosen. Two other Manhattan-based bidders, Consilio and Complete Discovery Source, submitted rates per technician rather than a flat rate, something which the town attorney’s office worried would cause costs to “skyrocket”, Schaefer said.  

The town in November hired two law firms to assist with the subpoenas: Manhattan-based Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP at a rate of $872 an hour for partners and $475 an hour for associates, and LaRusso, Conway & Bartling of Mineola, at $275 an hour for partners and $175 an hour for associates. The town has not yet received bills from either firm, Schaefer said.

In 2018, Greene billed the town for $1,794,833, of which $48,132 was for his services, according to the town. Jacob's fees totaled $133,480, and $1,613,221 was billed for the Red Hill employees.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.