Statement from the Family of Seymour and Arlene Tankleff
September 7, 2005
Seventeen years ago today, Arlene, Seymour and Marty Tankleff were taken away from us. And today, just like every day of the past 17 years, we are victimized by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. The DA's Web site proclaims that "Crime affects not only the victim, but also the victim's family and friends" and that they are "here to help alleviate the trauma associated with being a victim of a crime and provide necessary services and support." However, if you are a family member or friend of Seymour and Arlene Tankleff, you can count on being victimized, denigrated, ignored, abused and forgotten.
From day one, we have never been interviewed, consulted or invited by Suffolk County authorities to discuss any aspect of the murders of Seymour and Arlene. Instead, Suffolk County officials have ignored their own written guidelines stating that "The lead detective should form a close relationship to the victim's family…so that their information is turned over to the investigator as soon as it becomes available."
The first time any family member met with members of the Suffolk County District Attorney's office was in 2003, after we requested a meeting with DA Thomas Spota. Instead of having the compassion, decency and courage to meet with us, he passed us off to one of his soldiers, Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato.
When five family members finally met with ADA Lato, he deceitfully introduced Walter Warkenthien as a retired New York City detective, not as a retired Suffolk County detective, and former colleague of K. James McCready and Norman Rein (the lead detectives in the case), and DA Spota's investigator whom he personally assigned to "re-investigate" this case, and part of the Suffolk County homicide squad that was subject to the State Investigation Commission in the 1980's. Had the family been presented with the truth regarding Warkenthien, we would have walked out of the meeting and loudly voiced our opposition to his involvement in the case.
Contrary to what ADA Lato stated in his brief of June 14, 2005, Ron Falbee has not "some fourteen years later" contended that Marty was "unjustly convicted." He has contended that from day one. Lato's assertion is just another of the lies and misleading statements that abound in his brief, in which he contends that Seymour and Arlene Tankleff were not fond of each other and Marty was not fond of his parents. Amid the pattern of dishonesty, deceit and falsehoods presented by the DA, Lato goes so far as to end his brief with a sentence proclaiming that we are "accusing an innocent Steuerman." Mr. Steuerman is a great many things, but "innocent" is perhaps the last word that springs to mind.
After more than a year of hearings and filings in Suffolk County, we know the public recognizes what we have always known: Marty is innocent and everybody knows it. Yet Marty remains in prison and violent career criminals walk the streets protected by the same people who are elected and paid to protect us. There has been more than enough evidence revealed to have the real murderers of Seymour and Arlene arrested and prosecuted, but Suffolk County authorities continue to write their own rules. The sordid history of corruption, conflict and cover-up, while almost defying one's imagination, is all too real in this case and in this county.
Exactly 17 years after the horrible murders, we state with all our conviction: We will never rest until Marty is set free from the hell of confinement, even if the DA calls us "misfits" or otherwise victimizes us. At least we are honest, decent people who seek truth and justice for an innocent man wrongly imprisoned for over 15 years. Seymour and Arlene Tankleff deserve to have their true murderers arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. They don't deserve to have their memory desecrated by the wrongful imprisonment of their loving and innocent son, nor by the continuing victimization of their family.
We will not sit back and allow this to continue. If we can be victimized by a group of people who are supposed to protect us, then anyone can be victimized.
Today we publicly take a stand to no longer be victimized by the Suffolk County District Attorney and his office. We ask the public to join in our quest for justice for Seymour, Arlene, Marty and the rest of our family. We call upon honest and caring public officials and outside law enforcement agencies to step in and protect our rights as victims.
—Marcella Alt Falbee, Ronald Falbee, Carol Falbee, Carolyn Falbee, Susanne Falbee, Marianne A. McClure, C. Michael McClure, Jennifer Cooney, Dan Cooney, Norman Tankleff, Ruth Tankleff, Autumn Tankleff-Asness, Howard Asness, Landon Asness, Jeff Tankleff, Shelley Tankleff, Steve Tankleff, Lynn Kadan, Larry Kadan, David Kadan, Kristi McClure-Carauco, Doug McClure, Joy Picirrillo, Tom Picirrilo, Kevin Picirrilo, Harold Alt.