Nicholas John Tartaglione ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American former police officer who was convicted of drug trafficking and the murder of four people. He is also known for being a cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein.
After graduating from the Westchester County police academy in 1993, Tartaglione worked at several local departments. From 1996 to 2008, Tartaglione worked for the Briarcliff Manor Police Department, where he was accused of harassment, stalking and police brutality by local activist and public-access television show host Clay Tiffany. After Tartaglione retired from policing, he became involved in steroid and cocaine trafficking.
On April 11, 2016, Tartaglione and two co-conspirators kidnapped and murdered four men in Orange County. The intended victim, 41-year-old Martin Luna, was murdered due to a drug-trafficking-related money dispute between him and Tartaglione. The other three victims, 25-year-old Miguel Luna, 35-year-old Urbano Santiago and 43-year-old Hector Gutierrez, were killed solely for being with Luna at the time of the ambush. A trial found Tartaglione guilty of the drug related murders, and he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on June 10, 2024.
While awaiting trial, Tartaglione was the cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein at Metropolitan Correctional Center. On July 23, 2019, 18 days before his death, Epstein was found in their cell with injuries to his neck. Epstein initially told guards that Tartaglione had caused the injuries, but later recanted this statement. An internal prison report found that Tartaglione had no connection to the event and declared the incident an attempted suicide. However, Tartaglione has remained a subject of conspiracy theories relating to Epstein's death.
Early life Nicholas John Tartaglione was born on October 10, 1967, in Westchester County, New York, to Geraldine and Nicholas Tartaglione. He, along with his brother Michael, grew up in Yonkers, New York. Tartaglione graduated from Archbishop Stepinac High School in 1985.
Career Early policing career Tartaglione graduated from the Westchester County Police Academy in 1993 and began working at the Mount Vernon Police Department. He was transferred to the Yonkers Police Department in February 1994, but resigned 13 weeks later. In September 1995, he joined the Pawling Police Department where he worked with the K9 Unit. In April 1996, Tartaglione resigned and joined the Briarcliff Manor Police Department. Following his departure from Pawling, Tartaglione and four other ex-officers sued the department for retaliation, alleging they were forced to resign after attempting to form a union. A judge later dismissed the lawsuit.
Clay Tiffany dispute and legal troubles Tartaglione's time at the Briarcliff Manor Police Department was heavily impacted by a years-long conflict with local political activist and public-access television host Clay Tiffany. The dispute began in March 1997, when Tartaglione issued Tiffany a $50 traffic violation ticket for having an expired inspection sticker. Following this incident, Tiffany, who was known for scrutinizing local government officials and police officers, began criticizing Tartaglione on his local cable television show Dirge for the Charlatans. Tiffany claimed that during the arrest, Tartaglione made racist comments, threatened Tiffany with violence, and stated that he could use his Italian-American Mafia connections to harm Tiffany. In May 1998, Tiffany claimed that while he was filling out a police complaint form in his car, Tartaglione forced him out of the vehicle and physically carried Tiffany over his shoulder into the police station. He also claimed that in December of the same year he attended a hearing where Tartaglione was testifying, after which he followed Tiffany in his police vehicle, pulled him over, and broke his nose. On the afternoon of May 16, 1999, Tartaglione arrested Tiffany after he entered the Briarcliff Manor municipal building's parking lot while shouting at passersby that there was a conspiracy against him orchestrated by Tartaglione and the village government. Tiffany was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the former of which he was convicted though this decision was later overturned.
In 1999, Tiffany was charged with second degree harassment, after Tartaglione claimed that he stalked him and made harassing phone calls to Tartaglione's father. Tartaglione filed a $12 million libel lawsuit against Tiffany, citing statements he made about Tartaglione on Dirge for the Charlatans. On July 17, 1999, Tartaglione arrested Tiffany in Scarborough Park, after Tiffany finished his usual nightly swim in the Hudson River, and charged him with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and trespassing. The altercation left Tiffany hospitalized with chemical conjunctivitis (from mace), a broken nose, two broken ribs and several lacerations on his face, and Tartaglione with a fractured hand bone. Following the altercation, both the county district attorney and the FBI began investigating Tartaglione for police brutality. In April 2002, the FBI notified Tartaglione that they did not find enough evidence to convict him.
In August 1999, Tartaglione was suspended from the police force and charged with first-degree perjury. According to the complaint, Tartaglione stated during a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing that a defendant suspected of driving under the influence was not read their Miranda rights because both Tartaglione and his partner thought the other had done so. However, prosecutors argued that Tartaglione was not scheduled to work with a partner that night and thus the mix-up could not have occurred as stated. Following Tartaglione's suspension, all open charges against Tiffany were dropped. Tartaglione was acquitted of the perjury charge in November 1999. Despite the acquittal, the Briarcliff village trustees fired Tartaglione in March 2001. In November of that year, a judge ruled that Tartaglione had been denied due process and the village must either reinstate him with back pay or negotiate a settlement package. Following the ruling, Tartaglione filed two lawsuits against the village: a $3 million civil suit regarding the violation of his due process rights and a case to get his job back. In November 2002, the civil suit was dismissed but in 2003, Tartaglione won reinstatement and $320,000 in back pay.
In 2000, Tiffany filed a civil suit against the village of Briarcliff Manor and Tartaglione, claiming they engaged in a "persistent pattern of intentional negligence [and] reckless indifferent to [his] constitutional rights," specifically citing the alleged instances of police brutality by Tartaglione. Tiffany was represented by lawyers Omar Mohammedi and Deveraux Cannick, who had the previous year sued the New York City Police Department on behalf of the family of Amadou Diallo. In 2003, Briarcliff Manor settled with Tiffany for $2 million.
Later career Six months after Tartaglione was reinstated at the Briarcliff Manor Police Department, he was hit by a car which badly injured his elbow. He was placed on disability leave and officially retired from policing in 2008 after New York's Comptroller Office granted him a disability pension. In 2009, Briarcliff Manor village manager Phillip Zegarelli stated that Tartaglione's official retirement was part of an undisclosed "settlement." As his parents owned a dog grooming parlour and he was experienced with animals, Tartaglione opened his own animal shelter. In 2015, he bought an acreage in Otisville, Orange County to house the horses and dogs he rescued.
Criminal activity and imprisonment Drug trafficking and murders In 2013, Tartaglione began selling steroids to fellow bodybuilders and weightlifters outside of local gyms around Orange County. Through this, he met and befriended Joseph Biggs and Gerard Benderoth, who began working for him as debt collectors. According to Tartaglione's sentencing memroandum, Tartaglione also provided Biggs with illicit cannabis and pills to resell. Prior to his involvement in cocaine trafficking, state police had begun investigating Tartaglione for drug trafficking and money laundering after two undercover officers bought more than worth of anabolic steroids from him in the parking lot of a Gold's Gym.
In 2015, Tartaglione hired Marcos Cruz to work as a farmhand on his animal rescue farm. Shortly after, Cruz introduced Tartaglione to his friend Martin Luna. Luna managed a construction business owned by Jason Sullivan, who had recently moved from New York to Florida. By June 2015, Tartaglione, Luna and Sullivan were involved in a drug trafficking operation together. Their operation involved Tartaglione providing the front money to Luna, who would go to Texas and buy cocaine from a member of the Mexican cartel. The cocaine would then be stored in Sullivan's house in Florida while he arranged for it to be sold.
In late 2015, Luna returned to Texas with over from Tartaglione to buy more cocaine. However, according to Luna, his supplier took the money without providing more drugs. Following this, Luna spent several months avoiding Tartaglione. Tartaglione had Biggs pressure Luna to repay him the money. When Luna did not repay him, Tartaglione asked Sullivan to help lure Luna to him so he could confront Luna about the missing money.
On April 10, 2016, at , Sullivan called Luna and asked him to do a series of construction estimates around Orange County the following day. The last estimate, a fake job, was to be done at Likquid Lounge, a bar in Chester owned by Tartaglione's brother Michael. Tartaglione planned to confront Luna at the bar, along with Biggs and Benderoth. According to Sullivan, the group expected Luna to be alone when he arrived.
On April 11, 2016, around , Luna was seen in a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox in Chester with his nephews, 25-year-old Miguel Luna and 35-year-old Urbano Santiago, and their family friend 43-year-old Hector Gutierrez. None of the men were heard from after , when Miguel last spoke with a relative on the phone. Shortly after, all four men arrived at the bar. According to the testimonies of Sullivan and Biggs, Biggs and Benderoth restrained all four men with duct tape at gunpoint when they entered the building. Tartaglione arrived at the bar a short time after and took Luna into the bathroom, where he beat him and asked for the location of his money. When Luna did not provide a location, Tartaglione forced at least one of the other men to watch as he strangled Luna to death with a zip-tie.
An hour after entering the bar, Tartaglione exited to the parking lot where he backed up his Ford Explorer to the entrance and opened the trunk. He returned to the bar and wrapped Luna's body in a tarp. During this time, Cruz was called to the bar to identify the three men accompanying Luna. According to Cruz, he told Tartaglione not to release them as they would go to the police. Tartaglione returned to the parking lot an hour later, put Luna's body into his truck, and drove it to his acreage in Otisville. Biggs and Benderoth followed behind him, driving Miguel, Santiago and Gutierrez to the same location. Once there, the men were forced to kneel on the ground. Biggs, Benderoth and Tartaglione each shot one man in the back of the head with a single bullet, and then dug a large grave for the bodies. Cruz finished filling the hole the next day.
Investigation and arrest