Islip Town agrees to pay fisherman $750G

Islip Town has settled with a Bay Shore fisherman for $750,000, after a $2.1 million jury award for the violation of his constitutional rights was thrown out last fall by a federal judge.

The town's bay constables barred Frank Sloup from setting crab and eel traps from town creeks and harbor areas during the 2004 season. Sloup subsequently lost his home and bait shop to foreclosure. He sued the town in 2005.

U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bianco last October upheld a jury's finding that the town violated Sloup's constitutional rights by banning his traps. But he threw out the jury award, calling it "an amount that shocks the conscience." He ordered a new trial on damages if the parties did not reach a settlement.

Sloup's attorney, Craig Purcell of Hauppauge, said the bayman needed money now to try to save his home and business. Sloup is fighting the foreclosure. Another trial, and possible appeal, could have taken years.

After attorney fees and expenses, Sloup, 64, will receive about $490,000, Purcell said.

Another attorney representing Sloup, Tony Kaufmann of Norwalk, Conn., criticized the judge for recommending a settlement figure of $750,000.

"He just decided a fisherman wasn't worth that much," Kaufmann said.

Town attorney Alicia O'Connor, who noted that Islip has made reforms in its management of bay constables, said the settlement made sense for the town in the face of mounting legal costs.

The town could not provide an exact figure for those costs, but deputy town attorney Erin Sidaras estimated the town has been billed about $400,000 by the outside firm hired to represent individual defendants named in the lawsuit.

Islip in 2009 created a new public-safety enforcement department, bringing together law enforcement officers who until then had reported to managers ranging from the town clerk to the commissioner of environmental control.

O'Connor said the change was made in part because of management problems highlighted by the Sloup case.

"We consolidated some quasi-unsupervised divisions," she said, adding the town harbor unit "wasn't a well-managed division."

Sloup could not comment because of his foreclosure litigation, Purcell said.

Purcell said he is hopeful that with the settlement money, the bayman may be able to negotiate a deal to get his home and bait shop back.

Sloup feels "vindicated" that the judge agreed the town violated his rights, Purcell said.