A case of campaign boasting

Daily Point

Tierney’s speedy victory lap

The sensational case against accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has yet to be completed. In fact, the judicial process has just begun with a trial and possible conviction still prospective. The Massapequa Park architect is charged in three of the sex-worker murders, and at least one other is expected to be added.

But Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, who’s prosecuting Heuermann, isn’t waiting to thank his political supporters in the public glow of what appears, so far, to be a successful investigation of these famous crimes. In an email — from his campaign committee “Ray Tierney for DA” — the Republican former federal prosecutor hails the Heuermann charges.

He says “we expect the fourth” of the cases “to be resolved soon in the Grand Jury.” He cited the special multiagency task force his office assembled to act on his promise to victims’ families to “make my best efforts to solve these cases.”

Citing what’s already been announced, he says in the message: “Six weeks after the first Task Force meeting, Rex Heuermann was identified as a suspect, and over the next 16 months, we gathered evidence using more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants until we had the evidence we needed to make an arrest.”

“Your support led directly to solving these serial killings,” he adds. Tierney also makes an assertion best characterized as hypothetical: “Without your support, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and this significant case would likely not have been solved. Thank you again for your help and expect more good things to come.”

During the 2021 campaign, which culminated in his defeat of incumbent Democratic District Attorney Tim Sini, Tierney attacked the handling of the Gilgo mystery. He endorsed demands by an ally, then-State Sen. Phil Boyle, that a special prosecutor be brought in on the murders. This is Tierney’s second year as an elected official in Suffolk County or anywhere else. One political professional with seasoning in district attorney campaigns called the kind of messaging in his email to supporters “par for the course … It’s just boasting. Nothing unusual.”

There is no overt fundraising pitch included in Tierney’s release. It is addressed from “Ray Tierney For DA, PO Box 562, Farmingville, N.Y. 11738.”

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Tossed

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Quick Points

For starters …

• Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee spent more than $40 million on legal fees to defend Trump and others in his circle in the first half of 2023, leading critics to question whether campaign funds are being properly used to cover attorney’s costs. Perhaps they also should be asking how you can ring up $40 million in legal fees in six months?
• Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley supported her congressional term-limits proposal by citing recent health problems for aging Sens. Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein. Does that make it a proposal with bipartisan backing?
• Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy says he is the only candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential field who “can deliver a Ronald Reagan 1980-style landslide election …” He’s certainly the only candidate — and perhaps the only American — who thinks that.
• Trader Joe’s recalled four products — soup, falafel and two kinds of cookies — warning that they “may contain rocks” or “may contain insects.” Given that uncertainty, how is Trader Joe’s sure that more products don’t contain rocks or insects?
• A new Associated Press/NORC poll found that 2% of atheists believe in angels. Um, how exactly does that work?

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com