Ex-Briarcliff Cop Says Jail Conditions Worse Since Epstein Died

Nick Tartaglione, the former Briarcliff Manor police officer accused of quadruple homicide in Orange County, is trying to be moved from the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he had been Jeffrey Epstein's cellmate, according to news reports.

Since the millionaire sex offender's suicide, the MCC has been under a microscope, as revelations about staffing problems and bad conditions have surfaced. But Tartaglione has been complaining for two years about conditions there, including filth and bad treatment.

SEE ALSO: NY Lockup: 5 Things About The Jail Where Epstein Died

His attorney Bruce Barket says things got much worse after Epstein committed suicide, according to news reports. Tartaglione was Epstein's cellmate July 24 when the millionaire sex offender apparently made a suicide attempt. Epstein was successful Aug. 10.

Barket told a federal judge Wednesday in White Plains that corrections officers threatened Tartaglione to stop his complaints about the place.

Judge Kenneth Karas made a few threats himself, saying if the MCC's legal staff couldn't accomplish what the court had previously told them to do to better Tartaglione's treatment at MCC or move him to another facility that he would start holding contempt hearings, according to news reports.

Tartaglione hasn't been a model prisoner, according to news reports. He had once been housed in the federal lockup in Brooklyn, but was moved to Manhattan after what prosecutors termed a disciplinary infraction. Westchester, Putnam and Orange county jails haven't been willing to accept him, the judge was told.

He was reported to have had an illegal phone July 3 in his lower Manhattan cell.

Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016. He is accused of killing Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez. 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 allege.

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, who died in 2015, 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.

SEE ALSO:

• Feds Say Ex-Cop Tartaglione Had Phone In Jail
• Former Briarcliff Cop Accused Of Murders To Face Death Penalty

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