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SUFFOLK COUNTY JUSTICE
Marty's high-profile trial took place amid the byzantine backdrop of Suffolk County politics and, some would say, cronyism. Marty's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, had ambitions to run for the district attorney's office as a Democrat. Many believed the presiding judge in Marty's case, Alfred Tisch, intended to run as a Republican. Gottlieb did not endear himself to Tisch when he asked Tisch to recuse himself from the trial, based on the belief that a sitting judge, especially on a high-profile case, should not run for district attorney. Tisch refused to recuse himself, and ultimately never ran for district attorney. Some believe Tisch has always blamed Gottlieb for ruining his political aspirations.
Just a few years prior to Marty's trial, a New York State Commission had begun investigating widespread allegations of prosecutorial and police misconduct in Suffolk County. The driving force behind the Commission's formation was Suffolk County Court Judge Stuart Namm, known as the "Serpico of Judges." Beyond numerous ongoing misconduct complaints and an unusually high confession rate in Suffolk County, Judge Namm was disturbed by police misconduct in murder trials over which he presided. One specific instance involved false testimony by none other than Detective James McCready, who took Marty's "confession." Among the Commission's overall findings was: "The Suffolk County Police Department and District Attorney's Office engaged in and permitted improper practices to occur in homicide prosecutions, including perjury, as well as grossly deficient investigative and management practices."
But long before Marty's trial would start, and just a week after
the murders, as Seymour lay unconscious in the hospital, the
story took a bizarre turn. Jerry Steuerman, Seymour's business
partner, the self-proclaimed "bagel king" of Long Island (he
wore a gold chain with a gold bagel on it), who was at the poker
game in Seymour's house the night of the attacks, faked his
own death. Shortly after telling people he had received death
threats, he withdrew thousands of dollars from one of his and Seymour's joint bank
accounts and checked into a motel, where he shaved his beard
and changed his clothes. He then abandoned his car with the
motor running in the hotel parking lot, to make it look as
though he had been abducted. He flew to California under an
aliase, where he changed his hair weave and stayed,
among other places, in Big Sur. Ultimately, Steuerman called
his girlfriend and uttered a single, prearranged word -- "pistachio"
-- to indicate he was still alive. The homicide detectives on
the Tankleff case traced the call and tracked Steuerman down
in California, assuring him that he was not a suspect, and brought
him back to testify against Marty. Steuerman explained he ran
because he was stressed out over the assault on the Tankleffs
and by business problems. The final Missing Persons report
states, among other things, "Tankleff and Steuerman own a race
horse and Tankleff has helped Steuerman finance numerous bagel
stores… Steuerman has been thoroughly questioned and Homicide
does not believe he was involved."
Marty's trial began in April of 1990, about a year and a half after the murders, and lasted for nine weeks. At trial, it was established that the poker game had broken up around 3:00 a.m., and the last poker player to leave the Tankleff house that night was Jerry Steuerman. Further, prior to trial, police were told that Steuerman had attempted to hire someone to cut out Marty's tongue, because Marty continued to implicate him. Steuerman had also once repeatedly hired a motorcycle gang to resolve a business dispute.
The government's forensics experts had identified mysterious hairs on Arlene Tankleff's body, particularly in her hand, that were rootless and did not match Marty's hair. Likewise, rootless hair was found on Seymour Tankleff that was inconsistent with Marty's hair. Jerry Steuerman had a hair weave made from rootless human hair.
None of this information -- Steuerman's strong financial motive
for murdering the Tankleffs, his being the last guest in the
Tankleff residence the night of the attacks, the unexplained
rootless hairs at the crime scene and his inexplicable disappearance
following the assaults -- caused the police to consider Jerry
Steuerman a suspect or to revisit their initial conclusion as
to Marty's guilt.
Throughout the trial and ever since, Marty's entire family,
including his aunts and uncles, who were also the victims' brothers
and sisters, supported him unequivocally. "He loved his parents
and would never do this," maintained his friends and family. They
scoffed at the motives advanced by the state -- that Marty resented
having to drive the "crummy old Lincoln," and had wanted to
use the family's boat more often, and had wanted to stay home
alone when his parents went on vacation. This support group
had one exception -- Marty's half-sister Shari, who would gradually
turn against him, and who, incidentally, stood to inherit a
significant portion of the estate if Marty were convicted; whereas
if Marty were found innocent, he would inherit the bulk of the estate.
At trial, the only evidence against Marty was his "confession".
Not one shred of physical evidence connected Marty to the crime,
despite a three-day search of the crime scene by teams from
Homicide, the Crime Laboratory, the Identification Section,
the K-9 Unit and the Crime Scene Unit. All knives in the kitchen
(and those found elsewhere in the house) and the dumbbells in
Marty's room were disassembled and tested for the presence of
even the most minute quantity of blood or human tissue. Each
tested negative. Although Marty "confessed" to using a dumbbell,
both the physician who treated Seymour at the hospital and the
forensic pathologist testified the weapon was likely a hammer.
No hammer was ever recovered.
Marty's shower had been searched exhaustively for blood, human tissue, or hairs or fibers belonging to his parents, including removing and analyzing the trap from the shower drain. All tests proved negative. The towels in his bathroom likewise exhibited no signs of blood. No drops of blood were found on the floor between the parents' bedroom, the study or Marty's bathroom.
No blood identified as belonging to Marty had been found in either room where the bodies were located, despite government forensics testimony that Arlene Tankleff put up a significant struggle against her attacker. Likewise no hair or fiber evidence from Marty was found in either room. While Marty was recovering at the time from nose surgery that had resulted in some bleeding, the police had observed no cuts or other evidence of a struggle on Marty. No defensive wounds were found on Marty. Scrapings of his fingernails produced no evidence of a struggle. Scrapings of Arlene's fingernails produced no sign of Marty's skin.
Contrary to Marty's "confession" that he murdered Arlene and
then murdered Seymour, Seymour's blood was found in the master
bedroom where Arlene's body was found, thereby indicating a
different order of attack. A blood stain on the fitted sheet
on the bed was consistent with Seymour's blood, and inconsistent
with Arlene's or Marty's blood, as was a blood stain found on
the wall of the master bedroom. Bloody glove prints were found
in the parents' bedroom and by the light switch in Marty's bedroom.
But Marty never mentioned gloves in his statement to the detectives,
and none were ever found.
So the only evidence the authorities had on Marty was his "confession",
and in 1990, before the phenomenon
of "false" or "coerced" confessions was well known,
it was enough. Some jurors apparently agreed with McCreedy that
Marty hadn't shown the proper emotion at the proper time. Others
simply couldn't fathom how anyone could admit to a heinous crime
if they were innocent. Gottlieb, Marty's attorney, may have
hurt Marty's case by promising testimony he did not deliver.
For example, after promising in opening statements to demonstrate
Marty's close relationship with his family, he failed to call
any family members as witnesses. In his summation, District
Attorney John Collins pointed out Gottlieb's omission.
On June 28, 1990, after eight days of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. In an apparent compromise, they acquitted Marty of first degree murder of his mother, but convicted him of murdering her in the second degree and of first degree murder of his father. Judge Tisch sentenced him to the maximum of 50 years to life. Marty is currently in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in upstate New York.
Prior to sentencing, Gottlieb made several accusations and recusal requests, saying a bartender had seen Judge Tisch, DA Collins and Detective McCready out celebrating Tankleff's conviction, which Tisch angrily denied. Gottlieb raised questions about whether a juror exchanged hand signals during the trial with Collins, the prosecutor. And Gottlieb requested a special prosecutor to investigate charges that an assistant district attorney called Gottlieb a "Jew bastard" in a Riverhead restaurant.
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