An imprisoned felon and convicted drug dealer has filed a $1 million
civil rights lawsuit against three Southampton Town Police Department officers,
saying the officers harassed him, planted evidence and falsely arrested him
because he was dating one of the officers’ daughters.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court this week, the plaintiff, Craig
Chillemi, accuses Town Police Lieutenant James Kiernan, Officer Eric Sickles
and Detective Thomas Tully of having conspired to harass him and falsely arrest
him in an effort to end his relationship with Det. Tully’s daughter, Tara
Tully.
The suit claims that Officer Sickles, who was suspended by the
Southampton Town Board this week and is facing charges of having been high on
drugs while on duty, arrested Mr. Chillemi on two different occasions in 2007
and again in 2009. In the first arrest, which resulted in Mr. Chillemi pleading
guilty to selling narcotics and receiving a four-year prison sentence, the suit
claims that he and four other occupants of a Southampton home, including Ms.
Tully, were arrested by members of the Street Crime Unit, the now disbanded
undercover drug investigations team that Lt. Kiernan commanded and Officer
Sickles and Det. Tully served on.
The suit alleges that when Lieutenant Kiernan saw Ms. Tully being
arrested he removed her handcuffs and that she was ultimately never charged.
Shortly after the raid, the suit alleges, Officer Sickles met with Ms. Tully
and offered to have the charges against Mr. Chillemi dismissed if she would
stop dating him, with a caveat: “Officer Sickles threatened Ms. Tully and
offered to dismiss the charges against [Mr. Chillemi] in exchange for the
opportunity to date Ms. Tully,” the text of the complaint filed by Mr.
Chillemi’s attorney, Thomas Telesca, in federal court this week reads.
Town Attorney Tiffany Scarlato said on Wednesday morning that the town
has still not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment on any of the
claims it makes.
Mr. Chillemi pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was sentenced
to prison. In 2009, after being paroled on the previous charges, Mr. Chillemi
continued dating Ms. Tully, according to the lawsuit, and was again arrested by
Officer Sickles, this time on the claim that he was violating the terms of his
parole by driving a car, even though Ms. Tully had actually been driving at the
time they were pulled over. The lawsuit says Officer Sickles used the
circumstance of the unlicensed driver charge to justify a search of Mr.
Chillemi’s pockets, and that the officer planted drugs on Mr. Chillemi, who
claims in the lawsuit he was not in possession of any cocaine at the time
Officer Sickles claimed to have found the drugs in his pocket.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Officer Sickles again attempted to
use the charges against Mr. Chillemi to get Ms. Tully to end her relationship
with him.
“At the time of [the] arrest, [Officer Sickles] knew that the alleged
charges would result in a violation of [Mr. Chillemi’s] parole,” the suit
reads. The suit claims that Det. Tully conspired with Officer Sickles to pursue
Mr. Chillemi and that Lt. Kiernan, as the supervisor of the Town Police’s
Street Crime Unit was complicit in framing Mr. Chillemi as well.
Mr. Chillemi is currently in prison on an unrelated charge from a later
arrest.
The Street Crime Unit was disbanded last year by Town Police Chief
William Wilson, and two convicted felons, both of whom had been arrested by
Officer Sickles and Lieutenant Kiernan, were released from prison after a
petition by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office earlier this year
because the “credibility” of the evidence used to convict them had been called
into doubt.
Lt. Kiernan was suspended in May on disciplinary charges related to his
command of the Street Crime Unit and his handling of Officer Sickles’s alleged
abuse of prescription drugs while on duty. The suit says that Officer Sickles,
who was suspended from the force indefinitely on Tuesday afternoon, is
currently in a drug rehabilitation program.