Nassau could face a $500G bill in connection with retired correction officers' suit over gun permits

Nassau County could end up paying more than $500,000 in damages and legal fees to former correction officers and their lawyers stemming from a lawsuit over a jail official's determination that the guards were not entitled to gun-permit letters, according to newly filed court papers.

On Monday, an attorney for the officers, Frederick K. Brewington, submitted a request to the presiding judge in the case that he and his legal team be paid $247,389.53 for their 11 years of legal work representing six jail guards who could not get personal gun permits because Commissioner of Corrections Michael Sposato believed they were malingering. The guards who had sued had been hurt during altercations with inmates in the county jail and had retired on disability.

U.S. District Judge Gary Brown last September ordered the county to pay Officers Alexandros Perros, Thomas Delle, Nicholas Lenoci, Victor Patalano and Ibrahim Zahran a total of $283,000 in compensatory and punitive damages after the county admitted liability in the case. The men all received their gun licenses before the judge’s decision.

In order for former law enforcement to complete their application for a personal gun permit, they must submit a letter from their former employer attesting to the fact that they had retired and had a clean disciplinary record.

In law enforcement lingo, this is referred to as a “good guy” letter, without which a gun permit cannot be granted. Without a good guy letter, the retired officers would not only be denied their gun licenses, but would also be given credentials with a blue background, indicating they were not authorized to carry a gun. The judge likened that outcome to a scarlet "A" for law enforcement.

Several officers testified to feeling vulnerable and in danger after running into former inmates who made threatening comments at public events and local shops. They also told of the shame of carrying around credentials with a blue background.

Sposato, who served as the Nassau County sheriff under County Executive Edward Mangano, “harbored animus toward deputy sheriffs and officers who retired following an on-the-job injury,” the judge wrote in his decision. “And began routinely denying the issuance of handgun permit recommendations.”

Sposato left county government during County Executive Laura Curran’s administration, but returned in 2022 under Bruce Blakeman, who appointed him corrections commissioner. The next year, he was transferred to the Nassau University Medical Center, where he earned $275,000 as head of security. In 2025, he was once again appointed corrections commissioner, earning $107,000, according to public records.

Brown also noted that Sposato had no law enforcement background. He had been a jail cook, then a kitchen supervisor in the lockup facility six months before becoming the undersheriff, the second-highest position in the department, and then sheriff.

“Sposato had none of the experience, training or qualifications one might expect,” the judge wrote in his decision to award damages. “Sposato took civil service exams in a bid to become both a police officer and a correction officer, yet he was selected for neither position. In fact, he was never appointed to any civil service position as the result of a merit-based process. He does not hold a two- or four-year college degree. At some point, he became an operator in the sewage treatment plant run by the Town of Oyster Bay.”

On the stand last year during an inquest for damages, Sposato complained, “They’re using our time [for sick leave], not their own time.”

As part of the settlement agreement, Nassau County agreed that he can no longer oversee the good guy letters, and jail administrators have to track any future denials and report them to the court if requested.

“The case should not have been necessary,” Brewington told Newsday on Tuesday. “The decisions made by the county seemed to be based not on law enforcement, but on politics.”

Nassau County spokesperson Chris Boyle, who handles press inquiries regarding jail matters, did not respond to an email message seeking comment.