Ex-Briarcliff Cop Facing Death Penalty Asks Again To Be Moved

Nick Tartaglione, the former Briarcliff Manor police officer accused of killing four in a drug deal gone bad in Orange County, is trying again to be moved from the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Tartaglione has been complaining for two years about conditions at the jail in New York City, including filth and bad treatment. At one point millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's cellmate, he asked last year to be moved, prompting federal Judge Kenneth Karas to demand the MCC fix the problems. SEE: Ex-Briarcliff Cop Says Jail Conditions Worse Since Epstein Died

Tartaglione’s lead attorney, Bruce Barket, filed a request Friday with Judge Karas to authorize a move to the Nassau County Correctional Center. He cited the same problems as in 2019 with access to attorneys and mail, unsanitary conditions at the jail, and retaliation by corrections officers.

Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016. He is accused of killing Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez with an accomplice, Joseph Biggs of Nanuet. The men were last seen alive April 11, 2016, in a Chester, Orange County, bar owned by his brother. Luna had brought the other three along to the bar for a meeting over a drug deal gone bad. All the bodies were found buried at Tartaglione's home in Otisville, prosecutors alleged.

He was charged with four counts of murder in furtherance of a narcotics conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine. The murder counts carry a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison or the death penalty.

Tartaglione's time in Briarcliff was marked by accusations and lawsuits. Village gadfly Clay Tiffany claimed Tartaglione assaulted him and won $1.1 million from the village. Briarcliff fired Tartaglione over another accusation of misconduct, but Tartaglione sued and won his job back and retired in 2008 on a disability pension.