Long Island Bay Constables Facing Cuts and Increasing Demands

East Hampton Town Chief Harbormaster Ed Michaels informs a couple that it is against code to ride a personal watercraft in town bays.

TROUBLED WATERS

Recently, one LI marine unit has sparked suspicions of their own.

Nassau County prosecutors are investigating whether John Antetomaso, Oyster Bay’s supervisor of conservation and waterways, broke the law by using town resources for favors to his friends and family.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s office is conducting “an ongoing review” into the son of former Nassau GOP powerbroker Frank Antetomaso, says Nassau DA spokesman John Byrne.

He did not release further details, but a source close to the investigation confirmed for the Press published reports that the probe is looking into whether he stored his family’s boats in town facilities and ordered constables to bring him gasoline while he was in the Fire Island Inlet.

A town spokesman declined to comment, citing the continuing investigation. Oyster Bay officials previously told Newsday that John Antetomaso is facing a written warning or disciplinary hearing after admitting to both scenarios.

The scandal erupted just after Christopher Briggs, an Oyster Bay constable, filed a notice of claim this spring against the town, the first step in a planned negligence lawsuit alleging the town forces the officers to work on unseaworthy vessels.

Briggs was injured when he slipped off a broken-down patrol boat nearly 20 years old that was being towed in January. The part timer is recovering from surgery to repair torn cartilage in his shoulder and has yet to return to work.

“The town has a duty to provide their seaman with a safe place to work in a seaworthy vessel,” says Timothy Schweitzer, Briggs’ Manhattan-based attorney.

A town spokeswoman declined to comment, citing pending litigation.