Eric Tassiello

An admitted drunken driver from Bethpage who killed a 44-year-old bicyclist in a hit-and-run crash two years ago has been released from Nassau County jail after serving only one year behind bars.

Eric Tassiello had pleaded guilty in February 2012 at Nassau County court to vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and driving while intoxicated. He was freed two months ago after completing the jail’s DART drug and alcohol treatment program.

“I have had enough time to think about my actions and I am extremely remorseful,” the 27-year-old unemployed bar back told Judge Alan Honorof on May 6, when he was sentenced to six months time served. “I can humbly say that I will never be back in front of this court for anything, especially [of] this magnitude.”

Authorities said Tassiello was driving his Kia southbound on Merritt Road in North Massapequa after leaving The Nutty Irishman in Farmingdale when he struck the victim from behind and fled the scene in the early morning hours of Jan. 11, 2011.

The victim, Juan Hernandez, later died of his injuries, which included internal bleeding.

Police caught Tassiello shortly after the crash. He was found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.20 percent—more than double the legal limit of 0.08 percent—about two hours after the crash despite telling the arresting officer that he only drank one beer, according to court documents.

The blood stain on the street where the victim was hit before the driver fled.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Bushwack had recommended that Tassiello be sentenced to two to six years in prison. But, as a part of the plea deal with prosecutors and his Garden City-based attorney, Brian Griffin, Honorof promised that if Tassiello completed the DART program he would be eligible for early release.

“The court believes that it is in the interest of justice to accept the plea from this defendant,” Honorof said in court when Tassiello changed his plea.

Honorof also sentenced Tassiello to five years’ probation, a $750 fine and revoked his driver’s license for one year. He has until Aug. 19 to pay the fine.

“There has always been two systems of justice: One for those who have money, power and influence and another for the poor, no matter what their color, background or nationality,” said Allan Ramirez, the longtime advocate for Long Island’s Hispanic community who retired as pastor  of the Brookville Reformed Church and moved to Mexico City last fall. “You are in deep ‘caca’ trying to get justice if your name is Juan Hernandez.”

Honorof is the same judge that reportedly drew ire from the families of two DWI crash victims’ when he sentenced Martin Heidgen to 18 years to life, instead of the maximum 25 to life, for killing limo driver Stanley Rabinowitz and 7-year-old flower girl Katie Flynn in a 2005 wrong-way crash.

Tassiello was initially released from jail after his arrest and then posted bail after first pleading not guilty in October 2011 to the charges in a grand jury indictment. He began serving his year in jail when he changed his plea to guilty four months later.

“As we got the updates throughout the course of this case from the DART program at the jail, I am very pleased and happy,” Griffin told the court last week, noting that Tassiello has been undergoing outpatient substance abuse treatment since his release. “He met each and everything he was asked to do. He met every milestone at the jail.”

Griffin did not return a call for comment. A spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice declined to comment. John Fowle, the acting director of the Nassau probation department, referred a reporter’s question asking why a probation officer recommended Tassiello’s light sentence to a spokeswoman for Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, who also failed to respond to the query.

Carlos Perez-Rodas of Uniondale was hit in front of El Rodeo Restaurant and Bar by a Toyota Corolla and was then struck by a second vehicle that fled the scene at 12:43 a.m., police said.

The first driver, 23-year-old Joshua Dauphin of Farmingdale, was trying to stop southbound traffic on Broadway with the help of others when the hit-and-run driver struck.

The second vehicle was described as a late model, dark-colored Mercedes that was last seen heading southbound on Broadway.

Perez-Rodas was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead.

Vehicular Crime Unit detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information about the crash to contact them at 631-852-6555 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 631-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

The events range from fundraisers for Superstorm Sandy survivors and family events for the kids to local bars and restaurants offering specials on burritos, margaritas and Coronas—so break out that souvenir sombrero from Cancun.

But, before leaving the house in a poncho, here’s a quick North American history refresher lesson:  Cinco de Mayo is not—like some people mistakenly believe—Mexican Independence Day, which is Sept.16.

The holiday commemorates the Battle of Puebla, when Mexican forces turned back invading French troops in 1862—a symbol of resiliency for the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking nation.

And for those who still remember their high school Spanish 101, here’s a potentially useful bonus factoid—a Mexican saying that may come in handy on the Long Island Rail Road this weekend: “A boca de borracho, oídos de cantinero.”

It translates to “the mouth of drunk, ears of barman.” It basically means ignore the loud drunks.

Saturday
10 a.m.-5 p.m., Cinco de Mayo Dive Meet, Nassau County Aquatic Center, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, 516-572-0501.

2-4 p.m., Cinco de Mayo at the Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Ave., Garden City, 516-224-5800.

Cinco de Mayo Kickoff Party, Napper Tandy’s Irish Pub, 275 Rte 25A, Miller Place, 631-331-5454. $4 Coronas and margaritas.

May 4-5: Cinco de Mayo Weekend at The Nutty Irishman. 323 Main St. Farmingdale. 516-293-9700. $4 Coronas, 8-10 p.m.

Sunday
11 a.m.-2 p.m., Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Garden of Eve Organic Farm & Market. 4558 Sound Ave, Aquebogue, 631-523-6608

11 a.m.-2 p.m., Cinco de Mayo at the Long Island Game Farm Wildlife Park. 638 Chapman Blvd, Manorville, 631-878-6644. www.longislandgamefarm.com

12-2:30 p.m. or 3-5:30 p.m., Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Kid’s Fun Skate. United Skates of America, 1276 Hicksville Rd. Seaford, 516-795-5474.

2 p.m., Cinco de Mayo: Serenata Mexicana. The Suffolk Theater, 118 E. Main St. Riverhead, 631- 727-4343. $35.

2-3 p.m., Latin Music. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A  Stony Brook, 631-751-0066

2-5 p.m., Mambo Loco at Martha Clara Vineyards. 6025 Sound Ave. Riverhead, 631-298-0075

3-8 p.m., Cinco de Mayo Party, Sandy survivor fundraiser, Knights of Columbus, 2333 Bellmore Ave., Bellmore, 516-785-9407. $40.

3-9 p.m., Cinco de Mayo at Pefecto Mundo Latin Bistro. 1141-1 Jericho Turnpike, Commack, 631-864-2777.

10 p.m.-12 a.m., Cinco de Mayo at Lily Flanagan’s Pub. 345 Deer Park Ave., Babylon, 631-539-0816

Cinco de Mayo Party at Dublin Deck. 325 River Ave, Patchogue, 631-207-0370.

Cinco de Moe’s at Moe’s Southwest Grill, multiple locations. Homewrecker burrito, chips and salsa for $5 and bobblehead Cinco de Moe’s collector’s cups.

Margaritas and Fajitas at Cozymel’s Mexican Grill, 1177 Corporate Dr., Westbury.11 a.m.-12 a.m.

Buy two tacos get one free at Chico’s Tex-Mex Restaurant, 18 Berryhill Rd., Syosset, 516-802-3500. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

$2 tacos, $5 nacho platters, $3 beers and $4 margaritas and sangrias at Swell Taco, 135 Deer Park Ave., Babylon, 631-482-1299. 12-4 p.m.

$5 margaritas, $3 beers, free giveaways, Don Juan’s, multiple locations.

-Compiled by Danny Mounce

In the first case, two men forced their way into an apartment on Floyd Street in Deer Park and pistol-whipped a woman who was a visitor shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

Then shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, three men armed with handguns forced their way into a home on Southaven Avenue in Medford and confronted a resident inside, police said.

The attackers in the first case stole a cell phone. The assailants in the second case made off with cash, cigarettes and an iPod.

There were neither arrests nor description of the suspects in either case. Police do not believe the two to be linked.

The back-to-back cases come after a string of 13 armed home invasions in Suffolk in the first three months of this year, three of which involved shootings, one fatal.

Nassau County police meanwhile have reported seven armed home invasions so far this year.

They include unsolved cases in North Woodmere this week, in Elmont last week, as well as three in March in Baldwin, Roosevelt and Hempstead.

Nassau police also arrested alleged home invasion suspects last month in Farmingdale and three attempted Elmont home invasion suspects in February.

Edward Thomas, 23, of Manhattan, and 23-year-old Chris Lee of Brooklyn were arraigned Sunday on charges of burglary criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

Nassau County police arrested the duo for breaking into the 9th Avenue home of Damin Porcelli and hitting the 33-year-old man in the head with a handgun shortly before 3 a.m. Friday, authorities said.

Porcelli fled the home while the two assailants were inside and police surrounded the house, police said. The two attackers were taken into custody shortly later.

Porcelli was also arrested after investigators found 771 bags of heroin, 110 vials of crack cocaine, two jars of marijuana, assorted drug paraphernalia and cash inside the house, police said.

Authorities also seized a .357 revolver, a .25 caliber handgun, two defaced .380 caliber handguns.

Porcelli was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, criminally using drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of marijuana.

His bail was set at $300,000 bond or $200,000 cash. All three are due back in court Wednesday.

The suspect first walked into the USA Gas Station on Fulton Avenue in Farmingdale, brandished a black handgun at the clerk and stole cash at 3:25 a.m., police said.

The same robber then walked into the Exxon Gas Station on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown, where he again flashed a black handgun and stole cash, packages of cigars and cigarettes at 3:40 a.m., police said.

Five minutes later, the gunman entered a 7-Eleven on Jerusalem Avenue in Hicksville, where he stole cash and cigarettes, police said.

The victims were not injured and the robber fled. The suspect was described as a black or Hispanic man, 25 to 30 years old, 5-feet, 7-inches tall with a slim build, wearing a black hooded jacket.

Robbery Squad detectives ask anyone with information regarding these crimes to contact the Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous.

Leston Douglas was driving his Toyota Camry eastbound in the westbound lanes of the parkway when he struck a vehicle east of Route 110 in Farmingdale and fled the scene at 5:25 a.m., police said.

The 25-year-old suspect was apprehended shortly later when Troopers found him to be under the influence of alcohol, police said. There were no reported injuries.

Douglas was charged with driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident, driving the wrong way and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

He will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Looking southeast, the breach on Fire Island at Old Inlet opened by Superstorm Sandy is blamed by some for Long Island flooding and credited by others with improving Great South Bay water quality (FINS).

Suffolk County officials renewed calls Wednesday for New York State and federal agencies to close a breach on Fire Island formed during Sandy amid debate over whether it’s caused flooding on the South Shore.

The posturing follows a weekend in which extremely high tides flooded coastal Long Island communities closest to the Great South Bay as well as neighborhoods on Fire Island itself—a problem that has been on the rise since the October superstorm. But environmentalists contend that the breach has helped improve water quality in the bay.

“There are people here today who will say this breach isn’t the cause of the flooding; there are others who will say it is—I’m not concerned with that debate,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said at Shorefront Park in Patchogue. “We want that breach to be closed now.”

The breach, in a remote area of the barrier island known as Old Inlet, widened from 108 feet on Nov. 3 to 1,171 feet on Feb. 28 on the southern side facing the Atlantic Ocean, according to Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) data. The north side facing the bay widened to 616 feet from 276 feet during the same time period.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers said the agency is waiting for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to send an official request for the breach to be closed before a company can be hired to fill the breach. Even if the OK were given tomorrow, it could take weeks or longer to dispatch the dredging equipment required.

“If the state is in agreement and wants to move forward…we would issue the necessary permits,” said FINS Superintendent Chris Soller, who initially took a wait-and-see approach in case the breach closed naturally. “It’s got to be a three-way agreement.”

Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said in a statement that the agency “is consulting with coastal experts about the breach to help to determine the best course of action based on science.”

A Breach Contingency Plan developed in the 1990s was first put to use after Sandy to close two other breaches on either side of Moriches Inlet—one at Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Beach, the other at Smith Point County Park on Fire Island. But the third breach falls within the Otis Pike High Dune Wilderness Area, the only federal wilderness area in the state, where breaches are given time to close on their own before action is taken under the contingency plan.

Both the DEC and FINS said that there is no definitive link between the four-month-old breach and the increased flooding along Suffolk’s bay front from Brookhaven to Babylon towns.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, has credited the breach with cleaning the polluted Great South Bay, which was designated by the state in 2010 as an impaired waterway. The bays shell-fisheries were once nationally renowned before brown tides in the 1980s wiped out most oyster and clam beds.

“While Mother Nature dealt a severe blow to our environment during Superstorm Sandy, she has also provided a precious opportunity to reverse years of declining water quality in the bay,” Esposito said in January. “New York must not squander this opportunity to help restore the bay and rebuild the local economy.”

Among the changes in the newly redrawn Nassau County legislative district maps is that the Five Towns area was split up between four districts.

Nassau County legislators approved new district lines despite rowdy critics packing the chamber who accused the Republican majority that drew the map of gerrymandering to protect their power for the next decade.

Lawmakers voted 10-9 along party lines Tuesday in favor of the GOP’s redistricting plan that forces four legislators—two Democrats and two Republicans—into two districts, potentially forcing them to primary each other. Audience members chanted “shame, shame” in unison immediately after the vote.

“This is the best map that we can provide for the citizens of Nassau County,” said Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow), who had adjourned a marathon meeting that ran past midnight last week in order to tweak the lines. “I think we did as best we could under the circumstances.”

Redistricting is required under federal law after the census every 10 years to adjust legislative districts at all levels of government to make up for population shifts. But critics of the process allege that the lines were redrawn to give Republicans a chance to pick up another three seats, which would give them a supermajority.

Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) and Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) will be forced to primary one another after their homes were redrawn into one district. The same goes for Legis. Michael Venditto (R-North Massapequa) and Legis. Joseph Belesi (R-Farmingdale), who’s reportedly planning to retire.

“This fight is not over,” said Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) after questioning the number of public hearings that were held and urging the public to lobby County Executive Ed Mangano to veto the legislation.

Fred Brewington, a Hempstead-based civil rights attorney, testified before the legislature last week that he intends to challenge the map in court based on alleged Voting Rights Act violations.

Republican legislators bristled at repeated accusations that they are racist based on allegations that the map they drew is intended to disenfranchise minority voters who typically vote for Democrats.

“Nobody is here to cause consternation and unhappiness,” said Frank Moroney, chairman of Nassau’s Temporary Districting Advisory Commission, who defended the map as meeting the constitutional guarantee of “one person, one vote.”

Legis. Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick), whose house had been redrawn into a neighboring district to force him to run against Legis. Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin), was relieved when the map was redrawn to not pit the two Democrats against one another, but remained critical of the revision.

“It’s all just a desperate attempt to carve 12 Republican districts out of 19 in a county that is a third Republican at this point,” Denenberg said, referring to a nearly 36,000-enrollment advantage Democrats have over Republicans—368,049 Dems vs. 332,197 GOP out of 960,331 registered voters in Nassau, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

Louie Blanton had pleaded guilty at Nassau County court in January to assault upon a police officer, unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and criminal possession of a weapon.

Prosecutors said that the 24-year-old man fled when the officer tried to pull his vehicle over after a 911 caller reported the vehicle as suspicious on Broadway in North Massapequa on Nov. 21, 2011.

He sped away on the Southern State Parkway eastbound and slammed on his brakes near exit 32 in Farmingdale, forcing the officer to swerve out the way, crash into a guard rail and bounce into traffic, where her patrol car was hit by another vehicle.

The officer suffered a fractured spine, collapsed lung, fractured ribs and fractures to her sternum, collarbone, shoulder blade and nasal bone. She remains unable to work.

Blanton fled the scene but was apprehended on Feb. 29, 2012 after a lengthy investigation by police.