County prosecutors subpoena Greenport Village records

Last week, several Greenport Village officials were served with grand jury subpoenas issued by Suffolk County prosecutors seeking official records relating to a 2023 fire at Sterlington Deli, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. The subpoenas were issued March 18. The criminal probe also seeks records on an unrelated construction project that was completed within the last two years.

Former village building inspector Alex Bolanos — who is involved in a labor dispute with the village following his recent termination — told The Suffolk Times in a prior interview that village Mayor Kevin Stuessi overrode his order to shut down the business due to fire safety hazards discovered following a late-night blaze at the deli.

In June 2023, Mr. Bolanos was called to Sterlington Deli by the Greenport Fire Department around 11 p.m. following a grease fire. There, he found what he said were dangerous fire safety hazards and ordered the business to close until the violations were mitigated.

“I closed it down and I caution-taped it,” he said.

The next morning, as Mr. Bolanos was headed to Village Hall to write up the violations, he passed the deli and found it open.

“I get out of the car, turn on my body camera, and confront the owner,” Mr. Bolanos said. “He tells me, on body camera, that he is open ‘with the mayor’s consent’. I said, ‘He can’t do that.’ ” The deli owner declined to comment on the violations

Mr. Bolanos said he then contacted a county fire marshal, who he said corroborated his findings and again ordered the business to shut down. 

Mr. Bolanos told The Suffolk Times that he met last month with investigators from the Suffolk County D.A.’s public corruption bureau and also filed complaints with the New York Department of State. While both agencies, per policy, declined to comment, Mr. Bolanos provided time-stamped text and email exchanges with officials from both offices.

Neither Mr. Stuessi nor acting village attorney Brian Stolar  responded to a written request for comment on the subpoenas. A voicemail message left on Mr. Stuessi’s cellphone Wednesday morning was also not responded to by press time.

Legal experts said that county prosecutors take such allegations seriously.

Former Nassau County prosecutor Bruce Barket, a past president of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association, described the issuance of grand jury subpoenas as “the rough equivalent of a sharp pain in the chest: It might be nothing, but it’s likely a problem.” 

“If the D.A. is investigating this — and apparently they are if the grand jury has issued subpoenas — it’s a criminal investigation, with all the bells and whistles that come with that,” Mr. Barket said. “And it’s a problem for those on the other end of it.”

Daniel Rodgers, a former Suffolk County prosecutor who also served for years as a special prosecutor in the villages of East Hampton and Quogue, said in an interview that “from my experience in these small villages, it’s not unusual for politicians to weigh in personally on how they feel about certain governmental actions.”

“However … this is not a situation where somebody is looking to get a permit to put an extra bedroom above their garage, and the mayor weighs in. Health and safety violations are taken very seriously by law enforcement and you can see that in the way the inspector responded,” Mr. Rodgers continued. “He immediately documented everything. He immediately took action because these are the kinds of violations that could directly affect somebody getting hurt or killed.”

Mr. Rodgers said that the circumstances surrounding the mayor’s alleged actions were not typical, in his experience.

“This sounds very unusual to the extent that the allegation is that the mayor went directly to the business owner, without in any way consulting with the professional who’s tasked to weigh in on these things, and just says, ‘Go ahead, open up.’ He doesn’t have any experience in this. He doesn’t know how serious or dangerous the situation is. So if it’s true, it’s absolutely serious.”

The former prosecutor said that if proven, the allegation could lead to a charge of obstructing governmental administration, “where you are essentially interfering with the proper administration of a governmental function.”

Still, he warned, it’s far too early in the process to predict an outcome.

“Just because a grand jury is hearing evidence, oftentimes, nothing comes of it.”