Ex-Smithtown building director arrested in probe

In a grand jury corruption probe that Suffolk prosecutors say continues to widen, the former head of Smithtown's building department was arrested yesterday on a multicount indictment that includes charges of ...

[Humpty Dumpty]

And all the king's horses and all the king's men...

Vecchio, you may want to take one last trip to paradise...

[WOODY from ST JAMES]

WOW!!!!!.....I'm impressed!!!......Tommy's political warchest is getting bigger, & bigger....But....where's Bin Laden??

[Life Long Townie]

Take the pigs down. This will teach them a lesson after years of abusing Smithtown residents. Oh, and there WILL be more to come.

[Tony from Brooklyn]

Why am I not surprised? You guys, in both counties,keep getting what you asked/voted for. You keep sticking your heads in the sand and blame everything on every other race and this is what you get. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption on the island.

[DRC]

No surprise here, people that lived/worked in Suffolk know full well that in order to 'grease' the wheel you had to pay someone something. Keep digging, this practice has gone on since the 70's and most can tell you story after story.

This entire Island is full of corrupt, money-stealing, tax-sucking, unethical politicians, public servants and people.

There is honestly not ONE politician at any level that should be where they are, they should all be voted out and replaced with ordinary citizens that posess COMMON sense, can balance a checkbook and have some ethics.

[Bob from Patchogue]

Let's see, the Supervisor has been in office for 30+ years and runs the town like a kingdom. His choices always seem to win election to the Town Board and he appointed all the dept. heads. I think we'll see Uncle Pat in shackles before too long. He should be for the poor job he's done in preserving Smithtown's natural beauty and allowing building just about anywhere you can squeeze a house on. Of course, some old dude will complain about how this will raise his property taxes.

[Life Long Townie]

Actually, I know one in the town of Smithtown that I can say is honest. I'm not going to point out any names here, but it's always the oddball out. I just can't wait for more of the pigs to be indicted. Have you ever had really good roasted pork? You know, covered in seasonings and garlic clove, maybe a side of potato? Dig in to that pig, it's good.

[LI is really great]

Is that why Smithtown Mitsubishi closed down so fast without notice? What the Heckk. Why can't these people do there jobs the right way. Right? Crooks. Hope they get what they deserve. What goes around, comes around. Honesty is too far behind us these days. Too bad.

[Look]

I've gone to the zoning meetings many times ,and they are a joke .Citizens come and put forth honest concerns and thought out ideas.Than some mouthpiece from the town tells us that all this development will save our taxes and blah , blah ,blah .Than they tell you , they will come to a mutual agreement. What they don't tell you is after the community is away the developer comes right back in and when the community thinks the deal is already done the developer gets new variances and builds what he wants . The zoning board is not for the residents it is for over development and lining their pockets.

[klj]

Geez, one might think some kind of criminal mob is running Suffolk County.

But that can't be true. Things like that only happen on TV, not in real life. I must be some kind of crazy conspiracy theorist to think like that.

[OG Mudbone]

This is just despicable. Bonerba and company have bigger cojones than even I do. In the immortal words of Dano Cicciaro Sr., "Suffolk County Sucks!"

[DA Spota - Excellent Job]

OG Mudbone wrote:

This is just despicable. Bonerba and company have bigger cojones than even I do. In the immortal words of Dano Cicciaro Sr., "Suffolk County Sucks!"

Nassau County is no better, just bigger with better and tighter connections.

[PrisonforVecchio]

Bob from Patchogue wrote:

Let's see, the Supervisor has been in office for 30+ years and runs the town like a kingdom. His choices always seem to win election to the Town Board and he appointed all the dept. heads. I think we'll see Uncle Pat in shackles before too long. He should be for the poor job he's done in preserving Smithtown's natural beauty and allowing building just about anywhere you can squeeze a house on. Of course, some old dude will complain about how this will raise his property taxes.

I can't wait to see that old c-sucker led away in handcuffs, with McCarthy right behind him. Nothing happens in this town unless Vecchio knows about it - good and bad, honest and dishonest. My opinion is that he had his fingers in this also.

[Laughing]

DRC wrote:

No surprise here, people that lived/worked in Suffolk know full well that in order to 'grease' the wheel you had to pay someone something. Keep digging, this practice has gone on since the 70's and most can tell you story after story.
This entire Island is full of corrupt, money-stealing, tax-sucking, unethical politicians, public servants and people.
There is honestly not ONE politician at any level that should be where they are, they should all be voted out and replaced with ordinary citizens that posess COMMON sense, can balance a checkbook and have some ethics.

If you know something, contact Spota's office. Don't sit back waiting, get involved.

[Smiles]

After what Bonerba put my family through....thousands of dollars of additional "fees" on top of the triple fees we already had to pay. Then his refusal to turn over the paperwork to me after it was signed and good to go. I kept telling my family that his day will come. I couldn't believe that we were the only people to whom he was this nasty. I'm glad to see his day has come.

I actually felt sorry for his staff because they looked like they were as disgusted with him as we were.

[HarleyRider]

Unfortunately, we all know what will come of this. The Suffolk County DA will let him off with probation, and maybe a fine. Maybe they'll get this sleazeball to pay 20% of all the bribes back. Oh wait, he's 70 years old? they'll probbaly give him 30 years to pay off his fine. Would you like to know how a criminal like this keeps his job for so long? Thats easy, he shares his illegal earnings with his superiors. Arrest them all!

[Hardscrabble]

I hope this inspector gets a lot more probes in prison.

[Spike]

HarleyRider wrote:

Unfortunately, we all know what will come of this. The Suffolk County DA will let him off with probation, and maybe a fine. Maybe they'll get this sleazeball to pay 20% of all the bribes back. Oh wait, he's 70 years old? they'll probbaly give him 30 years to pay off his fine. Would you like to know how a criminal like this keeps his job for so long? Thats easy, he shares his illegal earnings with his superiors. Arrest them all!

You are wrong there pal. The DA is the one who is pushing for punishment. It is the Judges who are letting them off easy. Judges who share the same godfather as the defendant. This is how it works. The former chief building inspector of Brookhaven Vinny Dragone confessed to 58 different crimes and he is out on the street after 22 months in prison. That amounts to one month for every 2.64 crimes. Bonerba only 16 counts - about 6.6 months in jail.

[HarleyRider]

Spike wrote:

<quoted text>
You are wrong there pal. The DA is the one who is pushing for punishment. It is the Judges who are letting them off easy. Judges who share the same godfather as the defendant. This is how it works. The former chief building inspector of Brookhaven Vinny Dragone confessed to 58 different crimes and he is out on the street after 22 months in prison. That amounts to one month for every 2.64 crimes. Bonerba only 16 counts - about 6.6 months in jail.

Well, did they go to trial, get found guilty, and sentenced? Or did they make an agreement with the DA?

[HarleyRider]

I can't wait til inspector BOYLE of Crookhaven gets what's coming to him. Anybody check his bank accounts lately?