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Gilgo Beach prosecutor says NY bail law fails to consider ‘dangerousness’
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney slammed New York’s bail reforms which allowed four people suspected of dismembering two different bodies and dumping pieces around Long Island to walk free.
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Two of the four people charged in connection with a pair of dismembered corpses discovered scattered over Long Island’s South Shore have been freed again.
Steven Brown, 44, and Amanda Wallace, 40, appeared briefly in a Suffolk County court Monday, days after their arrests in connection with two sets of chopped up human remains recovered in separate locations.
On Friday, two other people charged in the body parts case, Alexis Nieves, 33, and Jeffrey Mackey, 38, also walked free for the second time.
Steven Brown and Amanda Wallace leave Suffolk’s First District Criminal Court in Central Islip, New York on Monday, March 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Two people who said they are the siblings of one of the two victims told reporters at the court he was Brown’s cousin, Malcolm Brown, 53. Separately, Suffolk County police identified the other victim as Yonkers resident Donna Conneely, 59.
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All four suspects face charges of evidence tampering, hindering prosecution and concealing human remains after a child found a severed arm in Babylon recently on her way home from school.
The grim discovery led police to numerous other body parts from two different victims in multiple places in western Suffolk County.
Under New York’s bail reform laws, passed in 2019, charges of merely chopping up and disposing of dead bodies aren’t eligible for bail, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
Jeffrey Mackey sits at a bus shelter on Friday, March 8, 2024, after an appearance in Suffolk’s First District Criminal Court in Central Islip, New York. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
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“This situation, with these four defendants being released, would have never happened if the prosecution would have been able to argue dangerousness,” he told reporters during a news briefing Thursday afternoon.
Alexis Nieves leaves Suffolk’s First District Criminal Court in Central Islip, New York on Friday, March 8, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
According to the Justice Department, “dangerousness is an unpredictable and untreatable tendency to inflict or risk serious, irreversible injure or destruction, or to induce others to do so.”
“In New York state, we cannot argue dangerousness as a factor in our bail applications,” Tierney said. “That is contrary to the federal system.”
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The DA has previously appealed to state lawmakers to make “common sense” fixes to the state’s bail system.
If the suspects are indicted on more serious charges, such as murder in connection with the deaths, they could be held without bail.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports