Charges Dropped Against Cabbie

Charges were dropped Monday against a Huntington Station cabbie who was shot in February in a confrontation with two off-duty Nassau County police officers.

Suffolk County assistant district attorney Raphael Pearl said Monday in First District Court in Central Islip that the charges against Thomas Moroughan couldn’t be sustained.

Moroughan’s attorney, William Petrillo of Rockville Centre, said, “We’re gratified that the district attorney recognized this gross injustice done to Mr. Moroughan.”

He added, “The next step will be a lawsuit against both Nassau and Suffolk police departments” for the incident.

Moroughan was shot twice in February after he got into a dispute with the officers who were traveling in separate vehicles on Oakwood Road. Suffolk police said at the time that Moroughan had pulled off Oakwood Road, behind the two officers, and an argument ensued.

During the dispute, Suffolk police said, one officer fired into Moroughan’s windshield, wounding the cabbie, whose vehicle then struck the two officers. The officer who shot through the windshield was Anthony DiLeonardo; the other officer was not identified.

Moroughan went to for treatment, as did the two Nassau officers. Moroughan was arrested and charged with assault.

Pearl said there was some evidence that the officers involved had been drinking before the shooting. DiLeonardo did not provide a sample of his blood or urine to hospital personnel who were treating his injury following the incident. 

Pearl noted that without DiLeonardo’s blood or urine sample there was insufficient and conflicting evidence to prove he was legally intoxicated. The findings of the investigation have been made available to the Nassau County Police Department and its Internal Affairs Bureau.

The officer suffered minor injuries, the most serious being a cut to his finger which he caused by breaking the driver’s side window of the cab with the butt of his gun in order to arrest the defendant.

Asked about Moroughan’s condition, Petrillo said, “He lives with two bullets lodged in his body to this very day."