Thomas Green, man whose sex-abuse convictions were overturned, dies

Thomas Green, the Selden grandfather whose convictions for molesting three girls were overturned last month, died of cancer Thursday night at Stony Brook University Hospital, his attorney said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt last month threw out Green's 2008 sexual abuse convictions, ruling that evidence corroborating the girls' stories could not have existed at the time the crimes supposedly happened in the late 1990s.

Earlier this month, Spatt agreed to release Green from jail. After an oncologist confirmed a previous diagnosis that Green had cancer, the Suffolk County district attorney's office dropped its opposition to his release. "Given weeks to live," Green, 66, was admitted to Stony Brook University Hospital on Sept. 9, said Green's attorney, Ronald L. Kuby.

"The family is in mourning and will have no statement," Kuby said Friday. "They ask that you respect their privacy."

In an Aug. 12 decision, Spatt had given the district attorney's office 90 days to decide whether to retry Green or let him go free.

Green was convicted in 2008 of seven counts of sexual abuse and was sentencedby Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn to 35 years in prison. He was acquitted of earlier sex abuse charges in 2004.

With Andrew Smith