Message from Brian Sullivan COBA President to all Active Members and Retirees:

Last September I led approximately 50 COBA Members into Hempstead District Court to oversee the Arraignment of Inmate Angel Hernandez. Inmate Hernandez was in our jail on Attempted Murder charges (held on 500K Bail) when he violently assaulted one of our dedicated Correction Officers, knocking him unconscious in the 832 Visiting Room. Our Officer was taken out in an ambulance and was out of work for several months due to his injuries from that vicious attack. Inmate Hernandez was charged with Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer and held on an additional 300k bond.

On Friday, June 2nd, 2017 Inmate Hernandez was sentenced for both of the crimes listed above. The original attempted murder case against Hernandez apparently fell apart and he was sentenced to 3.5 years for Assault instead. As part of a plea agreement, Hernandez was also sentenced to 2 years for assaulting our Officer, but that time is to run concurrent with the 3.5 years for the original charge. This means that Inmate Hernandez will serve no additional time for assaulting our brother Correction Officer.

Obviously, this is completely unacceptable to COBA as it should be to any Law Enforcement Officer, or any sane citizen for that matter.

Attached you will find my response to this miscarriage of justice, which I had printed in the NY Post today. I originally intended to place this full page ad in Newsday but Newsday's Legal Dept refused to print it because our "Get out of jail free" message appeared to imply that dangerous criminals were being let out of jail on purpose. I told Newsday that I am not "implying" anything, I am "stating it outright". I would not change the message of our statement as Newsday requested, and had the ad placed in the Post instead.

As President of COBA, I promise that we will never sit idly by when our own Justice System fails us, particularly on a personal level. I will continue to bring light to the broken system in Nassau County, no matter who that finger points to.

Stay safe.

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