Carini, D’Esposito voice concerns to parole board

Posted Thursday, February 2, 2023 12:25 pm

REP. ANTHONY D’ESPOSITO, left, and Councilman Christopher Carini are both former police officers, and currently represent Wantagh-Seaford at the federal and local level, respectively. Both have written letters to the state parole board not to let Eddie Matos, who was convicted of killing a police officer in 1990, out of prison.

Herald file photos

Carini and D’Esposito’s letters

Both Christopher Carini and Anthony D’Esposito have submitted letters to the parole board urging them not to grant convicted killer Eddie Matos parole. Carini’s can be viewed at tinyurl.com/cariniletter, while D’Esposito’s can be viewed at tinyurl.com/despositoletter.

By Michael Malaszczyk

New York City police officer Anthony Dwyer, of Elmont, had a whole life ahead of him cut short when burglary suspect Eddie Matos pushed him off a roof and down an airshaft in 1989.

Dwyer lied there for nearly an hour and didn’t survive, dying at only 23 years of age. His killer, Matos, 22 at the time, was convicted of murder the next year. He was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.

Now, Matos will face the parole board for a fifth time, having been denied parole as recently as 2018 and 2020.

But two of Dwyer’s former colleagues – who also serve as Wantagh-Seaford’s representatives at different levels of government – have implored the parole board not to release Matos.

Christopher Carini represents the fifth district on the Town of Hempstead council. He served 22 years as a police officer, working in the New York City Police Department, the MTA Police Department, Port Authority of New York, and the New Jersey Police Department. Carini represents Lido Beach, Point Lookout, Baldwin, Bellmore, Freeport, Merrick, Wantagh, and Seaford.

“Those who kill police officers directly attack our democracy by attacking those who protect our freedoms,” Carini wrote in his letter. “There is no rehabilitation for a convicted cop killer – Eddie Matos should be made into an example, never to walk the streets again as a free man.”

Anthony D’Esposito once sat alongside Carini on the Town of Hempstead Council, but has since been elected to the United States House of Representatives, defeating former Town Supervisor Laura Gillen for the vacant seat in November. D’Esposito has hit the ground running since he was elected to represent the fourth district, already volunteering to take calls from controversial Rep. George Santos’s constituents in the third district – as the Nassau County GOP has frozen out Santos.

But D’Esposito is also a veteran of the New York Police Department, having served in their ranks as a detective. He is also a firefighter, having served as the chief of the Island Park Fire Department in the past, leading the department when Hurricane Sandy ravaged the South Shore.

“Dwyer left behind a loving family, including his parents, Ed and Marge, his sister Maureen, and two brothers, Lawrence and Andrew,” D’Esposito wrote. “Eddie Matos’ actions ripped a young man away from his family, devastated a community, and left all New Yorkers in mourning over the loss of a law enforcement hero. It is my firm belief that this heinous killer deserves to spent the rest of his years in prison.”

Eddie Matos is set to appear in front of the board sometime in March. It will be Matos’s fifth time attempting to gain parole after the murder of Anthony Dwyer, with all four of his previous attempts denied.

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