A textbook example of broken government
Gary Melius, owner of Oheka Castle in Huntington, sits in his office at the estate. Credit: Jesse Newman
Newsday’s exposé of the inner workings of Nassau County politics — on all levels, past and present — should serve as a textbook example [“Pathway to power,” News, Feb. 25].
This is a broken government being manipulated by powerful politicians, prominent attorneys and their minions, mayors, sheriffs, police commissioners, administrative and Supreme Court judges, etc., all hobnobbing with Gary Melius, an individual of considerable means with a checkered past.
Obviously we are witnessing a form of shadow government that permeates the very foundation of good government. Will this change? Hardly. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the “tawdry” acts of former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell were insufficient to maintain his public-corruption conviction. Now, essentially, only the most blatant and clumsy corrupt officials will be subject to prosecution.
Hal Peterson, Lynbrook
