“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
― Honore de Balzac

For those of you who’ve not had the pleasure of doing time, rejoice! I’m going to save you a trip. I pissed off DA Thomas Spota (which ultimately got him a prison sentence) with the collaboration and insistence of the former Supervisor of the Town of Southampton, “Skip” Patrick Heaney (who has not yet been imprisoned) and his Town Attorney friends, like Joseph Lombardo — as a result of my writing about corruption. They engineered what is known as a vindictive prosecution. They enlisted Thalia Stavrides, Emily Constant and a few other local criminally-inclined politicians to finish off the job. I did 4 years for the privilege of exposing them. They’ve all been sucking money from real estate along with multiple pensions at our expense with no-show jobs like Joey on the docks.

But, that’s old news.

The current crop of thieves in Southampton Town Hall who are sitting on more than $2 Billion in so-called Preservation Fund money stolen from New Yorkers isn’t even used for affordable housing. It’s used for political bribes. Affordable housing in the Town is now $600,000 townhouse for friends. Compliments of their developer buddies.

But the most corrupt Village in the Hamptons is Westhampton Beach — where, instead of affordable housing there are dozens of new townhouses with million dollar price tags and enabled by the Mayor (who is a real estate agent), appointing people for inside deals on zoning committees that rewards friends. Those who rock the boat are defamed by Anthony Pasca, the Village Attorney, who doubles as outside counsel for a major law fim. Suffolk County is so corrupt that the Bar Association won’t even investigate their members. Seniors and the disabled are treated like shit. In Westhampton Beach, like the Town of Southampton under former Supervisor Heaney and now Maria Moore, you must pay to play. Or, like a MAGA enemy, be prosecuted.

So here’s a view from prison, where many of those Southampton and Westhampton Beach criminals — meaning the politicians — have a reputation and are well-known.

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“What’s it like?” 

“Whaddaya mean?” he said.

“Parole. What’s it like at 40th street?”

“It ain’t too bad. There’s about 50 officers and about 15 a them are dicks. The rest are okay. Some don’t give a shit what you do, some just tellya, ‘Stay outta trouble an’ I won’ violate ya,’ an’ othas, they jes come visit once in a while. But, the 15 are lookin’ ta fuck ya.”

“Like how?”

“Well, one guy named Cruz likes to fuck with guys. He tells ’em ‘I have a Ph.D. and if you fuck with me I’m gonna violate ya,’ an’ he likes to play games to show you he’s boss.”

“That’s nice,” I said sarcastically, as they turned around and around, speed walking in the snow.

“Yeah, he’s a little fucked up. But, mostly, if you sit in the waitin’ room and never talk — like I bring a book, an’ don’ argue or disagree with them, take all the programs they wancha ta take — you won’ have any problem.”

“What programs are you talking about?”

“Well, like A.R.T or a Drug or Alcohol program.”

“You mean you have to take a drug program even if you took one here?”

“Oh, yeah, s’pecially if you took ASAT here. That means you hadda drug problem if you tookit here.”

“Well, wait a minute. I volunteered to take ASAT just to be eligible for Merit Board. Does that mean I’d have to take another program? I never took drugs or abused alcohol.”

“Oh, probly. Lissen, this is about them gettin money an’ makin’ money fa those programs. They don’ really give a shit about you. So, they make ya take these programs and den they get reimbursed from Medicaid. It’s all about the money. Why do you think they get you qualified for Medicaid? It ain’t ta help you. It’s for them to get the money and then they require you to take these programs.”

“So, in other words, I took ASAT to qualify for Merit Board and volunteered to take it — and they got Federal money and State money for that -­ and then, even though I told them I was taking it to get some background knowledge about drugs and alcohol, they’re going to make me take another drug and alcohol program to help me with a problem I don’t have or never had?”

“Probly.”

“Jesus, what a scam.”

“Yeah, an’ you betta take it or they’ll violate ya an’ sen’ you back to prison.”

He laughed as they rounded the blacktop, snow swirling in their faces. “Yeah, alladat’s right. But, you can’t tell’em that.”

“Why not?” I said, looking at him. Shades of D.A. Spota and the Town of Southampton’s corrupt politicians.

“Because if you tell them that they’ll think you’re trying to get out of taking the program. If you go to the program and tell them you don’t have a problem they’ll report you to the Parole Officer and he could violate you and send you back to prison for refusing a program.” 

I was beginning to appreciate Yossarian’s plight. This was a real life Catch-22.

“So, I should lie about using drugs or alcohol?”

“Well,…uh, maybe, I guess. It’s all about money, man.”

“So, how’s it in your dorm now? I’d heard that they had a guy who was 78 when he came in. Was that your dorm?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Yeah, he came in and did two years.” 

“We have a lot of guys in their 70’s and one guy in his 80’s. He’s got dementia though. Doesn’t even know where he is at Count.  So, he doesn’t get up on time and they give him tickets for it. He should be in a nursing home.

“Are you serious?”

“Oh, yeah, he lit the pilot light on his stove and it went out. Blew up and the building he lived in burned down. They said he shouldna have lit the pilot light himself.” 

“So they prosecuted him?”

“Yeah, they gave him 7 years for that. He’s just old. Like some of the other guys in my dorm. But, a few a them are from Suffolk County on Long Island. Dey prosecute anyone, no matter how old you are or whether you’re guilty of anything or not. It’s all about numbers fa dem — and gettin’ the prosecution numbers high so dey can get money from the State. Din’ you write about ‘em? Half a dese guys in my dorm can’ walk widout someone helpin’ ‘em — an’ some a dem don’t even know where dey are. It’s a fuckin’ shame.  

The political push to get seniors out of prison, especially those whose “crimes” sounded more like the mistakes made by Seniors who lived alone or whose families couldn’t afford assisted-living facilities, was a massive State fraud. 

Especially, if you were prosecuted in the Hamptons.

“Lissen, I was in Riverhead Jail for almos’ three years, said Mike. I hadda learn how ta survive. I usta help otha white guys, cause ya know, it was mostly blacks an’ gangs, y’know 5 percentas, Bloods, Crips, an’ since I was a professional fighta, I helped’em. There was no cops in wid us. Just us behin’ the bars. The food cart usta come aroun’ an I noticed dat dis guy was tellin’ othas what ta do an’ given some people more food and some none at all. So, I took it over. We had a place where we could fight and settle shit. Cops din’ care. Dere was no supervision. Even inna showers, dey’s nothin. Guys fuckin’ inna steam. I jes looked the otha way. Dat was in 1991. By 1995 dat changed.”

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I know about Riverhead Jail. I was there twice as part of my little fiasco before being sent up to the Gulag. It was a shithole where a couple of guys hung themselves when I was there. It’s where the Hamptons D.A. first put white collar people like me.

Currently there is a Class-Action lawsuit started in 2009 against the Suffolk County Jails.

There will also be a Class-action lawuit against the Spota-era vindictive prosecution and all of the friends and associates who were involved in that will be brought to justice along with the fraudulent Conviction Integrity process by people who claim to be undoing Spota’s crimes.

In Suffolk County where money is the only God and the religion is the Mob.

Copyright 2025 Confessions from the Gulag