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End of an Error
 DA Drops Slay Raps Against Tankleff

By KIERAN CROWLEY and MATTHEW NESTEL

January 3, 2008 -- Martin Tankleff's nightmare is over.

The Long Island man won't be retried for the murder of his parents, prosecutors said yesterday as they suddenly ended his harrowing, decades-long battle to clear his name.

"It's finally over," a stunned Tankleff said when he learned the Suffolk County DA's Office had dropped his double-murder indictment.

Tankleff, 36, was freed on $1 million bail last week after a state appeals court threw out his conviction and 50-year sentence because of new evidence.

But he faced a possible retrial until DA Thomas Spota dropped all charges yesterday.

Tankleff, who spent 17 years in jail, said he was grateful and "relieved."

"But I never should have been charged in the first place," he said.

Tankleff also alluded to other suspects implicated by the new evidence.

"People who took my life away really should go though the hell I went through for 20 years," he said, alluding to the time he spent in jail and the nearly three years between the murders and his trial.

Last night, Tankleff celebrated with 15 relatives and friends over shrimp and veal scaloppini at a restaurant in Westbury.

"I just want to spend some quality time with my family," he said.

Laura Gordon, of Jericho, LI, who said she "always thought he was innocent," was at another table to celebrate her 44th birthday.

She was surprised to see Tankleff and sent over a bottle of champagne. Tankleff hugged and kissed her in thanks.

He said little to reporters as he left, only noting, "Dinner was good."

Spota said he would ask Gov. Spitzer to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the new evidence - but added that he isn't convinced by it.

He said the way Tankleff's parents, Arlene and Seymour, were bludgeoned and stabbed in their luxurious Belle Terre home in 1988 "is totally inconsistent" with the defense claims of "a 'hit' or burglary."

But other factors, including a change in the law, made winning a second conviction difficult, he said.

"I know that while many believe this is the right decision, others will surely disagree," he said.

Tankleff yesterday was at his lawyer's office, where he had just started working as a paralegal on his own case, when he learned his ordeal was over.

When reporters arrived, he was too overcome with emotion to talk and retreated to another room with his aunt and uncle.

"Eighteen years came out," he explained later at an impromptu press conference. "Eighteen years of anger and emotion."

He thanked his family for sticking with him. "Without them, I wouldn't have made it," he said.

He also praised his private detective, Jay Salpeter, who pursued key leads that broke the case open.

"This guy gave me my life back," he said.

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