Former Briarcliff and Mt. Vernon Cop Nick Tartaglione Gets 4 Life Sentences in Drug Killings that He Says He Did Not Commit in Tell All 10 Page Letter to Judge
Nick Tartaglione, with rescued animals, in his upstate farm
By Dan Murphy
Former Briarcliff and Mt. Vernon police officer Nick Tartaglione received four lifetime sentences from U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains Federal court on June 10 for the murders of four Hispanic men who were involved with him in a cocaine purchase gone wrong.
But before he was sentenced, Tartaglione sent a letter to the court and to the local media, in which he claimed he was not guilty of the murders, and also, that he did not kill Jeffrey Epstein, who shared a prison cell with Tartaglione in the weeks before his “suicide” inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, MCC, in 2019.
Tartaglione was found guilty last year in the 2016 murders of Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago and Hector Gutierrez. According to Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, (daughter of former FBI Director James Comey), Tartaglione gave Martin Luna $200,000 to buy cocaine. But after a successful first run, the money disappeared, and the cocaine never arrived to Tartaglione, who was living upstate on a farm that he had converted to an animal rescue facility.
Prosecutors successful argued that Tartaglione then began an effort to locate Martin Luna, and then proceeded to kill Martin Luna, his brother Miguel and Santiago and Gutierrez, and buried all four on his farm. US Attorney Damian Williams said that Martin Luna, Santiago and Gutierrez were “innocent bystanders” who were “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” when Tartaglione killed all four.
But Tartaglione’s letter to Judge Karas tells a different story. He has a new attorney and a story to tell that includes Jeffrey Epstein. Tartaglione has remained in prison since his 2016 arrest.
“Since the time of my arrest, I have lived in inhumane conditions. I have been jumped, stabbed, cut, and starved. I have endured constant lockdowns, COVID, Jeffrey Epstein. and being a cop during George Floyd. I am innocent. A grave injustice has been done. I am not a monster.”
Tartaglione makes several interesting points in his letter. Regarding Jeffrey Epstein, “Despite the horrible charges against me, Jeffrey Epstein was put in my cell because according to the captain. I was the only person that they were certain would not hurt or extort him. I also saved his life with CPR.”
But criminal defense attorney David Schoen, who met with Epstein for hours in the days before his death, appeared on the Crimewaves Podcast with Declan Hill, said that Epstein had hired him to prepare for his upcoming criminal trial.
Referencing an incident when Tartaglione was Epstein’s inmate, Schoen said, “About two weeks earlier there had been an incident which they initially called an attempted suicide, but later came to no conclusion. I discussed it with him- it was not in any way was it an attempted suicide. But he told the staff he couldn’t remember what happened because he was afraid.”
“What he said happened was that this other inmate (Tartaglione) had tied something around his neck as part of some kind of experiment that Jeffrey didn’t feel he was in a position to say no to. And the guy pulled the thing, and it left a mark on his neck, and that was the end of it, he didn’t pass out, but it was a scary episode for him… But it was not an attempted suicide. He explained it to me in some detail,” said Schoen. When asked what Epstein was afraid of, Schoen said “retaliation from the inmate,” (Tartaglione).
Tartaglione and his former attorney, Bruce Barket, previously argued that a video tape of Epstein’s cell and unit would show that Tartaglione acted properly. But the video tape disappeared, and Tartaglione argued that it may have been deliberately destroyed by the government.
Epstein died weeks later on Aug 10, in what was determined to be a suicide by hanging. Conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death, with some including his brother claiming that he was murdered. At the time of his death, Epstein had no cellmate and was no longer on suicide watch
Tartaglione continues in his letter by picking apart Comey’s prosecution of him for four murders. “Martin Lunas’s family lied and misled the police. They changed their story from week to week, and then lied on the stand at trial.”
Tartaglione places the blame of the murders on Marcos Cruz, who worked as a farmhand on Tartaglione’s farm before introducing Tartaglione to Luna. Tartaglione claims that Cruz was a member of a Mexican cartel, and that he is the one who killed the Luna brothers, Santiago and Gutierrez.
Two questions Tartaglione raises in his letter are:
· How did Tartaglione have $200,000 “lying around” as he writes to pay for a few kilos of cocaine? And why would he give and trust $200k to Martin Luna, who was living in a shack on his farm?
· Why would Tartaglione bury the bodies of the four on his own property? As he told Judge Karas, “Give me some credit. If I was doing a horrendous crime I wouldn’t bury the bodies on my property.” Karas replied “You wouldn’t be the first murderer to do something stupid,”
Marcos Cruz was one of the prosecutions key witnesses who testified against Tartaglione and laid out the case against him, including the murders and the burying of bodies. Two other witnesses who testified were Jason Sullivan, and Joseph Biggs.
Sullivan got to know Tartaglione from his upstate animal farm and helped him find, capture and kill Luna. But Tartaglione writes that Sullivan testified, “that he was terrified of me because I had just killed his friend because he had stolen money from me. Had the jury seen these lies that Sullivan was texting me, perhaps they would have seen he was lying on the stand as well.”
Biggs was a bodybuilder who knew Tartaglione for years. Biggs testified that he and another bodybuilder and ex-cop Gerard Benderoth, had helped lure Luna and the bystanders, tied them up, Biggs and Benderoth each killed one, with Tartaglione killing two. Benderoth committed suicide in 2017 and did not testify.
Tartaglione goes on to write that the shed that the Luna brothers built on his farm was next to a large mulch and manure pile, and that the brothers had previously killed someone and buried them in that mulch pile. Tartaglione claims that the bodies found by the FBI were not the bodies of the Luna brothers, Santiago or Guitierrez. Tartaglione bases this claim on the fact that the height and weight of the bodies did not match the height and weight of the Luna’s, Santiago and Guiterrez.
“Had the jury known about the shed, the canine and the mulch pile? The body weights. And the letter. They may have seen that something is not right with the prosecution’s theory. “
“Joseph Biggs sat on the stand and told lie after lie. He lied about collecting money from me, he lied about being raped and even told the jury that the 5’11” Benderoth was 6’ 4”. I was again horrified and angry. How far the prosecutors were willing to go to hide the fact that their cooperators were actors and liars. I am pleading to your honor. To give me a hearing if not a new trial,” writes Tartaglione. You can read his entire letter at
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24702941/tartaglioneletter1.pdf
Judge Karas rejected all of Tartaglione’s requests and motions, and sentenced him to life in prison x 4. “Nicholas Tartaglione is a murderer,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said. “There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this defendant is responsible for the deaths of four human beings.”
“Nicholas Tartaglione brutally and senselessly murdered Martin Luna over money, and then ruthlessly executed Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He tried to cover up his crimes by burying all four victims in a shallow grave on his property,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today’s sentence of four consecutive life terms justly reflects the pain and suffering each victim underwent at Tartaglione’s hands. I hope that this outcome brings some measure of closure to the victims’ families and to their community.”
Like most criminal cases without DNA, or a weapon, if you can pull apart one strand of witness testimony, then the whole case starts to fall apart. Tartaglione infers in his letter that the Luna brothers, Santiago and Guiterrez might still be alive and in Mexico.
Tartaglione had a lot to say in his letter, and maybe there is more to this story.
One person with a different connection to Tartaglione is Clay Tiffany. Longtime Westchester residents, and readers of ours, may recognize Tiffany’s name. He was a Cable TV public access host, titled “Dirge for the Charlatans,” and he lived in Briarcliff, where Tartaglione was a cop at the time.
Tiffany began accusing Tartaglione of wrongdoing and Tartaglione tried to get him to stop, by assaulting him on two occasions, according to Tiffany, with the final beating taking place on the banks of the Hudson River with no witnesses. That beating left Tiffany with permanent injuries.
While the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated and found there was not enough evidence to charge Tartaglione with a civil rights violation, he was suspended from the Briarcliff P.D. for three years and was fired in 2009 – the same year he is alleged to have beat Tiffany to near death. Eventually, Tartaglione sued and was put back on the job, winning more than $300,000 in back pay in 2003, and retired on disability in 2008.
Tartaglione was the target of an FBI civil rights investigation for physically abusing several people, including public access television host Tiffany. The town settled with the now-deceased Tiffany for $1 million, and Tartaglione settled with Tiffany for $200,000.
Tiffany died in 2015, in his Briarcliff home alone at the age of 69. His body was not found for two weeks until a life check was made by the BPD. Some believe that Tartaglione had something to do with Tiffany’s death, but he was never charged.
Tartaglione does not mention Tiffany in his letter, nor did prosecutors bring up his history in Briarcliff with Tiffany.
There is interest from documentary film makers, in the story of Clay Tiffany, Nick Tartaglione and Jeffrey Epstein. More than one filmmaker has reached out with one request-where are all the films of Tiffany’s public access shows.
There is one person who has posted a few on YouTube, who is said to be preparing a podcast of his own. He wants the story out there in memory of his friend Clay Tiffany.
We will attempt to interview Tartaglione through his attorney –and read the entire brief they submitted, asking for a new trial. And Tartaglione is likely to appeal his life +4 convictions.
