Keep focus on DA's mission

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s highly unusual decision to personally prosecute alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann raises a number of very concerning ethical and practical issues. But this isn’t the first time Long Islanders have seen a local DA embrace the spotlight in a highly publicized murder case.

In another rare example nearly 50 years ago, Nassau DA William Cahn prosecuted a doctor accused of giving a fatal dose of potassium chloride to a terminally ill patient. Cahn lost at trial. The alleged murderer walked free following the acquittal and Cahn lost his bid for another term. Before that 1974 trial, legal experts warned that Cahn seemed motivated more by seeking publicity for a run at higher office than seeking justice. “When he [Cahn] first decided he was going to try it,” a former associate told Newsday at that time, “it was based on the fact his name would be in print all over the country.”

Tierney seems to have fallen into the same publicity trap. It’s particularly striking because he got elected in 2021 as a former assistant U.S. attorney who came from outside the Republican clubhouse promising to be an independent-minded prosecutor, criticizing then-incumbent Democrat Tim Sini as a publicity hog.

With several other Gilgo murders still unsolved, Tierney can be viewed as using a human tragedy to promote his own political interests. Certainly that seems the case with a recent email, sent out by his campaign committee, suggesting the July 13 arrest of Heuermann for the murder of three women wouldn't have happened if he were not in office.

Tierney does deserve credit — along with several other law enforcement members, the FBI and forensic experts — for arresting a suspect in four of these decade-old murder cases (Heuermann was charged in three). But a complex and time-consuming Gilgo trial, despite Tierney's considerable courtroom experience, would likely pull away his attention from the hundreds of other criminal cases in Suffolk and from finding the killer or killers of the other victims left at Gilgo Beach.

The gravitational pull of publicity also should not warp Tierney’s judgment in making future decisions in this case. Seeking a plea deal from Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, might be best rather than a protracted and very costly trial for taxpayers. Wouldn’t it be best if Heuermann, assuming he is truly guilty, can admit in detail exactly what he did and provide vital information to investigators to close any other open cases in Suffolk or elsewhere?

Tierney got off to a good start, like other predecessors in the Suffolk DA’s office who then revealed themselves over time. But the genuine achievement of law enforcement in bringing the Gilgo murders to indictment must not be diminished. Suffolk needs a district attorney for whom seeking justice is the bottom line, without even the appearance of using the pursuit of it to promote his future plans.