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The Epstein Chronicles
Mega Edition: Nicholas Tartaglione Is Found Guilty Of Multiple Homicides (5/13/26)
00:53:43
The federal murder trial of Nicholas Tartaglione unfolded over several weeks in White Plains, New York, with prosecutors presenting him as a violent ex-cop who used his law enforcement background to run a cocaine trafficking operation through...
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What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. Nicholas Tartaglioni, the man who was accused of murdering four people in a drug deal gone wrong, who also shared a cell with Jeffrey Epstein during his first alleged suicide attempt, has been found guilty on all four counts, and now he's facing life behind bars. So today we have an article from the New York Times talking about this conviction. So let's get to it. Headline, police officer with bit part in Epstein jail drama is convicted of murder. So this author obviously has no idea about the real story here and has no idea, with all due respect, the nuance going on right under her nose. This article was authored by Karen Drake. And just to be clear, I've never even heard of this author before, and I've never seen her even cover anything related to Epstein, but she's over here with this headline, talking about a bit part for Nicholas Tartaglioni. Huh? Okay, I mean, I guess tell me you know nothing about the Jeffrey Epstein case without telling me you know nothing. Nearly seven years to the day that four men were lured to a bar in Chester, New York, and killed gangland style, a retired police officer turned drug dealer was found guilty in their murders. Nicholas Tartaglione, the former officer was convicted on all counts in federal court in White Plains, New York, and faces life in prison. Mr. Tartaglioni's heinous act represents a broader betrayal, and as he was a former police officer who once swore to protect the very community he devastated, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Thursday. So Tartaglione is going to have a rough go of it. Ex cops never farewell in prison. So this guy's gonna have to PC up right away and go hang out with the child molesters, the snitches, and the other undesirables of. Imagine being an undesirable amongst undesirables. Basically the human version of the island of misfit toys. Prosecutors said that Mr. Tartaglioni, an avid bodybuilder who had retired from the Briarcliff Manor Police Department in 2008, had been running a drug ring. In 2015, he suspected that a man named Martin Luna had stolen money from him. It's a lot more elaborate than that. It started off as a steroid operation, and then, obviously, Tartaglioni figured out he could make more money with a little booger sugar and decided to get in on some of that. And he happened to have a hookup with Martin Luna, and things transpired from there. Unfortunately, when you get into the drug game, especially if you're talking about getting product from the cartels down in Mexico, you're stepping into a whole different ring. And things can go south real quick. You can lose your money, and you certainly can lose your life. That's why it's never a good idea to get into this in the first place. On April 11th of the following year, Mr. Tartaglioni lured Mr. Luna to a bar in order to confront him, prosecutors said. Not knowing it was a trap, Mr. Luna brought with him his nephews, Miguel Luna and Urbano Santiago, and a family friend, Hector Gutierrez. I highly doubt that he brought those dudes along just for the ride. He probably brought them as backup, but he didn't expect things to go as south as they did. And when you're confronted by a bunch of juice head gorillas like Tartaglioni, Bender, Roth, and. And the other cat, well, things are gonna go bad for you real quick, especially when they're armed. What occurred next could only be described as pure terror, Mr. Williams said. Prosecutors said that Mr. Tartaglioni tortured Mr. Luna and forced one of his nephews to watch as he strangled him with a zip tie. Now, that's interesting, huh? What happened to Jeffrey Epstein that first time in the jail cell? Oh, that's right. He was strangled. Right. And what did Jeffrey Epstein say happened to him in that cell? Oh, that's right. Tartaglioni assaulted him. So why are we going to believe that Tartaglioni didn't assault Jeffrey Epstein? We're just going to take the word of Nicholas Tartaglioni and then to double down on the stupidity. You want me to take the word of the mcc, One of the worst run facilities in the whole entire country. In fact, it was run so bad, folks, that, that they had to close it down. So we should take the word of those guards who fell asleep and Nicholas Tartaglioni that he had nothing to do with roughing up Jeffrey Epstein. Does anyone out there really believe that? And if you do, I would love for you to explain it to me in stupid people terms so that I can understand as well. Because there's no way in hell that Epstein tried to kill himself in that jail cell the first time around. And Nicholas Tartaglioni came riding in like. Like some white knight to save the day. If he was going to stop Epstein from doing that, why would he ever let Epstein do it in the first place? Meaning even go through with the process? Wouldn't you stop him the very first minute he started to put something around his neck, but no, you want me to believe that he let him go through with it, let him start hanging himself, and then stopped it, huh? Yeah, okay, sure. I mean, maybe other people are going to believe that, but not this skinny guinea. He and two associates then took the other men to the woods, where they shot them and buried them in a mass grave. Mr. Tartaglioni, of Otisville, New York, was arrested in December 2016. As the authorities continued their investigation, one of his accomplices killed himself. That man, Gerard Benderoth, who was also a retired police officer and bodybuilder, was. Was pulled over by FBI agents and local police officers in Haverstraw, New York, in March of 2017. They were hoping to get him to cooperate in the inquiry, but he shot himself before they reached the car, and Benderoff was all the way in it. This dude was locked in with Tartaglioni, was involved in the killings, and knew that his time was up. And also, being an ex police officer, he knew that he wouldn't have a good time of it if he went to prison. So in his mind, he's saying to himself, this is the best course of action here. I'm just going to kill myself, be done with it, and not have to deal with what's coming my way. Because there was no doubt that all of these dudes were guilty. Just like there's no doubt in my mind, anyway, that Tartaglioni was in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein to send him a message. Another bodybuilder, Joseph Biggs, a school security guard from Nanowit, New York, was charged that June with having a role in the murders. He testified against Mr. Tartaglioni, hoping for a more lenient sentence. The Journal News reported he and Mr. Benderoff had worked for Mr. Tartaglioni, collecting debts from customers who bought steroids from them outside local gyms, he testified. He detailed how he, Mr. Benderov, and Mr. Tartaglioni carried out the killings. And we read his testimony here on the podcast, and it was damning. When you have a co conspirator come out and talk like that about you in open court, good luck. And I love when they're like, oh, well, he's a criminal. You shouldn't listen to what he has to say. Breaking news. All of these people are criminals. All their friends are criminals. And if you're going to get somebody to snitch on one of these criminals, chances are. Breaking news. The person snitching, he's a criminal, too. Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tartaglioni were both charged with 17 counts, including murder, kidnapping, and drugs and weapons charges. Prosecutors said last year that they would not pursue the death penalty for Mr. Tartaglioni at the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Oh, I wonder if that was a little kickback, huh? Yeah, you helped us with Epstein, so we're gonna make sure you don't get the death penalty. I'm being a bit cynical there, but really, when it comes down to it, I question everything when it comes to Epstein, his death, and the bullshit investigation that came after it. And don't even get me started on this whole Nicholas Tartaglioni situation. It should have never happened in the first place. He should have never been in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. And whoever, okay, that signed off on it should have been fired a long time ago. But guess what? That person wasn't fired. Nobody was fired. A lawyer for Mr. Tartaglioni, Bruce A. Barkett, said that his client maintained his innocence and would appeal the verdict. They don't have an accurate picture of who did this, he said of the prosecutors. No. Well, they just got a conviction, didn't they? Mr. Bruce Barkett. After his arrest, Mr. Tartaglioni shared a jail cell for a time where with Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier. You mean pedophile jailed on sex trafficking charges. Mr. Tartaglioni alerted guards to a suicide attempt by Mr. Epstein in 2019. His lawyer said at the time. Well, his lawyers said it, and Tartaglioni said it, and MCC said it, so it must be the truth. I mean, really, who's buying this nonsense? It's just amazing to me that more people aren't up in arms about what went on here in this jail after the incident. Mr. Epstein accused Mr. Tartaglioni of assaulting him, a charge that Mr. Tartaglioni denied. A prison official said at the time that Mr. Epstein's story appeared to be an attempt to avoid being put on suicide watch. He killed himself less than a month later. You mean allegedly killed himself less than a month later. I mean, I guess if you're buying the official narrative, then, yeah, I guess he killed himself a month later. And. And if you're buying that narrative, then you must be buying the narrative that Tartaglioni was mistakenly put in the cell with Jeffrey Epstein, and the cameras just happened to not work while he was in that cell with Jeffrey Epstein, while Jeffrey Epstein apparently allegedly tried to commit suicide. Now, if you want to believe that, that's completely fine with me. However, I do Not. All right, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in the description box. What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're gonna get a Nicholas Tartaglioni trial update as one of his co conspirators testifies against him. So let's get into the article by the Lohud, and let's see what Jonathan Bandler has for us. Bodybuilder details Strangling Fatal shootings in Tartaglioni Quadruple MURDER trial so is it any shock that Tartaglioni is accused of strangling somebody here? Considering what happened to Jeffrey Epstein in that jail cell, I mean, you know, just another coincidence, right? One man, Martin Luna, was already dead over a $200,000 drug debt, his body wrapped in a blue tarp. His two relatives and a family friend, their hands tied, knelt on the ground as ex cop Nicholas Tartaglioni told them everything would be okay. But Joseph Biggs, a bodybuilding enforcer who collected debts for Tartaglione, detailed for a federal jury Wednesday how the man would not leave that mountainside clearing in Orange county alive seven years ago. He said he shot one of them in the head and handed the black revolver to Tartaglioni and turned away, hearing two more gunshots as the other men were killed as well. And you'll see that a lot when somebody's going to be involved in a murder. Everybody there has to kill somebody so that they all take part, right? With the thought being if everybody takes part in the murder, nobody's going to snitch. But we know that that's not the case, especially here, considering Biggs snitched on his boy Tartaglione quick as hell. And. And when you're looking at a life sentence, yeah, it's time to start talking. He said he had resisted moments earlier when his fellow enforcer, another ex cop named Gerard Benderoth, told him he was going to get his hands dirty and demanded he take the gun. Benderoth told him he had two choices. Either you leave here with us or you stay with them. Biggs recounted him saying. So he's saying, according to Biggs here, that. That he was bullied into this and told that if he didn't pull the trigger, that they'd kill him, too. And while I don't know how much I buy of that, it's certainly possible. But if I was on the jury, you'd really have to convince me of that. Biggs as A key witness, Biggs testified as the main cooperating witness against Artaglioni, who is charged with murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy in the April 11, 2016 murders of Martin Luna, 41, his 25 year old nephew Miguel Luna, his niece's husband, Urbano Santiago, 35, and Hector Gutierrez, 43. Biggs said Tartaglioni strangled Martin Luna to death hours earlier at a Chester bar where he had been lured. And the others, who had not been expected to show up with Luna, were killed on the property Tartaglioni rented at the time and in Mount Hope. The bodies were not discovered until eight months later. Yeah, kind of hard to find the bodies when they're buried in a place like that, unless you have somebody who's going to give you the information. Right. Somebody who's going to work with you as an informant. But unless you have that, it's very difficult to recover bodies that are buried in this kind of manner, especially on a property like this that's so sprawling, unless you have an informant that there's literally no way you're ever gonna find those bodies. Biggs is the only eyewitness account of the killings the jury will hear. Benderoff, the man he said helped him and Tartaglioni restrain and kill the four men, fatally shot himself on March 8, 2017, as FBI agents were approaching his car to arrest him. Benderoth had been a police officer and Haverstraw and New York City and and was a strongman competitor known as the White Rhino. This is a big dude right here. And I remember when I was first looking into Tartaglioni, reading about Bender Roth and how he killed himself when the FBI was rolling up on him, he knew he was cooked. He knew that he was guilty of these crimes, and he knew that if the FBI was on to him, then the jig was up. And this was a gigantic man. Imagine being the EMS people that had to come and pull him out of his car after he killed himself. He need a Crane. Biggs, now 61, lived in Nanuit and was a security guard at the Greenberg Graham School in Hastings on the Hudson when he was arrested in the parking lot there in June 2017. And all of these places are in my neck of the woods where I grew up. I grew up in South Yonkers, the South Bronx, before moving to Las Vegas. And this is literally like 15, 20 minutes away from where I used to live. Big's background, he said he was a drug addict from his teenage years until his late 20s when he stopped. At the time, his youngest child was born. He supported his habit with armed robberies and burglaries, but avoided any criminal record. He said that he had been sexually abused by a coach when he was 14 and called himself a garbage head after that, taking cocaine, heroin and lsd, marijuana. Anything to just not feel like me. Look, I have a lot of sympathy for people who are abused sexually especially, but that doesn't give you the COVID later on. If you come out here and you're murdering people, you still have to answer for what you did. Sure, it sucks that you were abused and I'm sure the jury is going to take that into account, but that doesn't mean you're getting off scot free. He said he met Tartaglioni through the local gym scene in Rockland and began buying steroids from him on a regular basis around 2006, usually in the parking lot of the McDonald's in West Nyack. A friendship developed, and Biggs said that around 2013, Tartaglioni started using him and Benderoth as enforcers to collect debts from steroid customers. Their typical approach, Biggs said, was was to confront the customer as they left the gym, box them in between parked cars and demand the money. If they didn't pay up, he said, we'd take him somewhere where the money was. Biggs acknowledged the complicated relationship with Benderoth, including consensual sex between the two, even after a bizarre incident in the married ex cop's bedroom that ended with Benderoth sexually assaulting him. He had gone there because Benderoth asked him if he wanted to engage in a threesome with him and his wife. Once in the bedroom, though, the wife was not there and Benderoth came onto him. Big said he tried to step away, but Benderoth began beating him, pinning him to the ground and forcing him into sex. Yo, this is all brand new to me. I didn't know these dudes were out here raping each other and shit. Jesus. But again, it goes to show you this Nicholas Tartaglioni dude show should have never been in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. I put myself in a situation, he told Assistant U.S. attorney Maureen Comey. I didn't see it coming. Despite the violence of it, Biggs acknowledged having sexual contact with Benderoth on other occasions and said he never told anyone about it until his arrest in March 2017 because he was embarrassed. He did scale down his collections with Benderoth, though, he said, because he was more profitable to get a package of steroids from Tartaglioni as compensation for the collections than the cash. Benderoth was Giving him almost always. It's going to be more profitable if somebody is collecting their bounty, if you will, in drugs rather than money, because the drugs are plentiful, right? The drug dealers are getting them at a wholesale cost. It's almost like booze at a bar. The shift to cocaine. He said he Learned in late 2015 that Tartaglioni had taken up cocaine trafficking, investing in the purchase of cocaine in Texas and having it sold in Florida with the help of Luna. Luna's boss, who lived in Florida, Jason Sullivan, who Biggs knew just as J. And Marcos Cruz, a farmhand of Tartaglioni's. But in early 2016, Tartaglioni asked for his help getting more than $200,000 back from Luna, who claimed that the second time he went to Texas to buy cocaine, the people he paid took off with the money and never gave him the drugs. He said he met with Luna and Cruz, but soon Luna broke off communication. Tartaglioni then sent both Benderoth and Biggs to find Luna, but they couldn't. My guess is Luna burned him. Right? Luna probably took this money and thought he was gonna get away with it. Well, this is the narco game, and people aren't just going to forget a $200,000 debt. What Biggs testified about the killings. On April 11, 2016, with the help of Sullivan, they lured Luna to the Liquid Lounge, a bar owned by Tartaglioni's brother in a Chester strip mall. Biggs said they had Benderoth meet Luna and at the door, because the two men had never met. Luna had been expected to come alone, but he brought along Miguel, Luna, Santiago and Gutierrez. Once they entered, Big said Luna recognized him and bolted for the emergency exit, but it had been blocked, and he bounced off the heavy door. Benderoth then ordered everyone onto the floor at gunpoint. As Benderoth kneeled on Luna's back, Biggs started duct taping the other's hands. He said the three men were put in the office, and Luna was seated on a chair in the bathroom, his hands bound behind his back. And remember, this is the guy they put into a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. Just keep that in mind. When Tartaglioni arrived, Biggs said he went into the bathroom to confront Luna. Biggs said he stayed in the office watching the others, but could hear the smacking sounds of Luna being beaten and Tartaglioni demanding his money. Biggs said he didn't know any of the others, but described Santiago as the other captive, who was then put into the bathroom as well. While Tartaglioni continued to beat up Luna. Big said he heard a gasping, choking sound for about 30 seconds and looked in to see Martin Luna lying motionless on his side, bleeding from his head, Santiago looking very scared. Tartaglioni went to his car to get a tarp, and Biggs was directed to wipe up a blood streak. Biggs said he helped Artaglioni carry the body to the car because he spoke Spanish. Biggs was also tasked with making sure Santiago complied when he was directed to call a relative to say there was a problem and he had to go to Mexico. After Tartaglioni ended the call, Biggs said Santiago told Tartaglione he was going to get him the money. When Tartaglioni drove off with Luna's body, Big said he urged Benderoth that they should just leave, that the police could show up because someone from the Chinese restaurant next door had heard noises and was asking what was going on. They soon drove the other men to Tartaglioni's property on Old Mountain Road in Mount Hope. Look, they had a chance right there to get done with all of it and. And call the cops and turn in Tartaglione. They didn't. They continued on with their mission and even brought the victims to a new location. While Biggs said he did not watch the second and third man get shot, he suggested Tartaglioni and Benderoth had each shot one of them because he had given the gun to Tartaglioni. But Benderoth was holding it immediately after two gunshots, he said he was directed to cut the duct tape off the men's hands, and Tartaglioni got a backhoe to start digging a hole, and the bodies of the three men who were shot were thrown inside. But they had to stop digging because a piece of the backhoe fell off. When Benderoth told him to get in the hole and retrieve the broken piece and looked at Tartaglioni, Biggs got the impression he wanted to kill him. But Tartaglioni shook his head and hands indicating no. Biggs said, hell of a group of friends, huh? Guys sexually assaulting. You gonna kill you real great group of dudes you decided to throw in with. Before Luna's body was thrown into the hole on top of the others, Big said Tartaglione cut a zip tie from around Luna's neck. They shoveled dirt onto the bodies until nightfall. Tartaglione then threw the dead man's wallets and other belongings into a furnace near the house. Biggs said he and Benderoth were sent to pick up Cruz so they could use a key fob taken from the dead men to find a car they had arrived in and move it as far away from the bar as possible. They didn't manage to find it on their way back to Rockland county that night, Biggs said Benderoth threw the spent shell casings and remaining bullets from the black revolver out the window on the New York State Thruway. He wasn't sure if he threw the gun out as well. Biggs Guilty plea and cooperation Biggs has pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in hopes of some leniency from a mandatory sentence of life in prison. That's the only incentive he needs, he suggested, to testify truthfully. I'd like to hold my grandchildren, he said. Well, guess what, dude? You shouldn't have been involved in killing these guys. I know you have a sob story and all of that, but guess what? The buck stops with you. Self responsibility. Get some. But he acknowledged on cross examination by defense lawyer Bruce Barkett that his truthfulness and cooperation are for the lawyers relying on him, the prosecutor said, to determine. The defense maintains that Tartaglioni was framed for the murders, that the drug conspiracy had involved Luna, Cruz, Sullivan, Biggs and Benderoth and not Tartaglioni. Barkett cited the fact that Tartaglioni never had a burner phone like Biggs and Sullivan, and that it was Sullivan, not Tartaglioni, who had access to the money and the cocaine. In Florida, it's always somebody else, right? And whenever somebody is doing the not me routine of defense and not bringing receipts, I automatically default to them lying. Barkett questioned Biggs about the contacts in his burner phone, the that showed Jay Sullivan and Marcos Cruz with dollar signs next to their names. And he suggested that it was actually Biggs who had strangled Martin Luna. He cited an incident for which Biggs was arrested in 2015 for squeezing a man's neck until he lost consciousness after his daughter had claimed the man assaulted her. And he got Biggs to concede that five to 10 times he had acted similarly to try to get people to pay their debts. Boy, that's ironic, huh? Barkett's out here accusing this dude of being a strangler. Meanwhile, we all know that Tartaglioni strangled Jeffrey Epstein in that jail cell. The defense maintains details had been fed to the cooperators to fit their narrative of the case. Biggs conceded to Barkett that a New York State police investigator had told him that he thought Tartaglioni had snapped and something Bad happened and that Luna had had been killed by Tartaglione. On redirect, Comey asked Biggs if a law enforcement agent had ever told Biggs to frame Tartaglioni. They had not, he said. If you tell a single lie, what happens? She asked. I go to jail for the rest of my life. And that's no joke. If you're a witness and you tell a lie on that stand, forget it. All deals are off and you're going to prison forever. So the whole entire account here by Mr. Biggs smacks true to me. We know that Tartaglioni is guilty of this. Come on. Several people have already said so, and the evidence is just a mile high. So I have no doubt that Tartaglioni is going to be found guilty here. But the question still remains, what was he doing in that jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein? And will we ever get an answer to that question? Alright, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. All of the information that goes with the episode can be found in. In the description box.
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What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. On tonight's episode, we're going to talk about Nicholas Tartaglioni a little bit and how he will not face the death penalty in his homicide case. Now, Nicholas Tartaglioni, for those of you who might have forgotten, was the man who was sharing a cell with Jeffrey Epstein the first time around when Epstein on allegedly attempted to kill himself. Now, the question is, why was a man like Nicholas Tartaglioni in a cell with Jeffrey Epstein in the first place? A man who was alleged to have committed some pretty serious crimes against some pretty serious people over drugs. Does that sound like the proper cellmate for one of your most prized inmates? Somebody that you know is a risk. Somebody that you know could be extorted or hurt or whatever else you want
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to add into that mix, that's the guy you want to put into the
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cell with Epstein, right? But somehow this guy who was looking at four homicides, ends up in a cell with Jeffrey Epstein, and then just coincidentally, Epstein decides he's going to attempt to kill himself with this guy as his cellmate. Now, before we get into the article, the updated article from a couple of weeks ago about Tartaglioni and his current case status, I wanted to do a quick refresher. So I have an article from the New York Post, a relatively short article that details what Epstein told his lawyers and stuff the day that he. He allegedly tried to kill himself in that jail cell. And it certainly doesn't match up with what the official narrative ended up being. So let's jump into the first article from the New York Post, and let's see what Bruce Golding and Emily Saul have to say. Epstein told lawyers that cellmate Nicholas Tartaglioni roughed him up. Now, why would Jeffrey Epstein tell his lawyers that he got roughed up by this dude if he didn't, if he attempted suicide like the official narrative says, then why would he even bring Tartaglione into it? And furthermore, Tartaglione says, well, I saved his life.
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Well, if that's the case, why wouldn't
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you stop him from even making the attempt? You're in that little cell together. You mean to tell me you aren't aware that he was attempting to kill himself? See, none of it makes sense. And the official narrative that they've pitched to us, that. That doesn't make sense either. There's never been a proper look at what went on here as far as the public goes. Oh, I'm sure that everybody trusts Bill Barr, right? Republicans, Democrats, everybody loves Darth Barr. Said nobody ever. I certainly have never trusted Bill Barr. And honestly, I don't know anybody who does. So him telling me that he saw video or he has confirmed this or that is not very reassuring. And frankly, I don't believe what he has to say. Jeffrey Epstein told his lawyers that a hulking ex cop inflicted the injuries that left him nearly unconscious in his cell last month. A source close to the convicted pedophiles case told the Post.
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I mean, how.
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How isn't there more being made out of that? When you talk to the legacy media, you know, you had, like, the New York Times article that tried to wrap things up with a nice, pretty little bow, talking about how, you know, if you. It's been solved and there's nothing here. I don't buy any of that, right? Especially this first time around. What happened in this cell the first time around is even more dodgy than him dying in the cell alone. You don't just get roughed up when you're in a cell with a guy like Tartaglioni on your own. You didn't just try and commit suicide all of a sudden. I just don't buy it. And there has never been a. A real good or proper examination into any of this. The footage gets lost, the cameras aren't turned on. I mean, are you kidding me right now? Epstein was treated for neck injuries following the July 23 incident inside the Metropolitan Correctional center in lower Manhattan. Law enforcement officials have said at the time, Epstein was sharing a cell with former Westchester county cop Nicholas Tartaglioni, who faces the death penalty, a death penalty trial, and four drug related slayings. Upst. Now, again, this dude clipped people over drug trafficking and the people that he ended up killing, according to these reports, according to what prosecutors say, they were operators for the cartel. So that tells you the kind of serious player that Tartaglioni is. You don't get involved in something like this as a trafficker, millions of dollars, kilos worth of blow, and then have the audacity to execute operators from the cartel if you're not a serious person, who's capable of serious, serious crimes. So again, I ask you, is this the right guy to be in a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein? Epstein told his lawyers that the cop roughed him up and that's why they got him off suicide watch. The source said Tartaglione's lawyer, Bruce Bargett, disputed that account, saying, I spoke to his lawyers, and they never hinted at that to me, but he must have said something to get off suicide watch. Of course he said something. This dude definitely tuned him up, in my opinion, and I honestly believe that. I don't think that Epstein had any desire to kill himself. Certainly not at this point, this first attempt, now the second attempt, or the second time around when he ended up dying. Still debatable. I've said it a million times. I'm not too sure what happened in that cell. In that cell. We haven't seen all of the evidence. Can we see some of the video, please? All we're going on is what the official narrative has given us. And frankly, again, I have little faith in the official narrative. But this first time around, when he was in the cell with Tartaglioni, none of that makes sense to me. None of it has ever made sense to me. And the fact that it was basically brushed under the rug and in the aftermath of Epstein's death, that doesn't make sense to me either. I do know that Nick was not brought up on any charges at all in the institution. So they cleared him. Barkit said, oh, well, that's. That's nice, you know, because the institution is just a. The infallible institution. They cleared him because they didn't want to deal with it. Right. More egg on their face. Oh, man, now we gotta deal with this shit. Epstein gets assaulted by this idiot we put in the cell with him. And meanwhile, another thing about Tartaglioni, which is crazy, is a few weeks before he was even put into the cell With Jeffrey Epstein.
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They found a contraband cell phone in this dude's cell.
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So you get moved to a better
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environment, meaning off the main line, and
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put into a cell with Jeffrey Epstein.
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For what reason?
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The dude should have been in solitary confinement by himself if he was found with contraband. But somehow he ends up in this cell with Jeffrey Epstein, and there's still,
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again, no logical explanation for any of that.
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It's simply patently false to say that Epstein did anything other than to try to kill himself at least twice and succeeded when he succeeded. We were a little worried that we would make up something to get out of suicide watch or try and argue for Bell, but it's pretty clear what happened, given the end result here. Oh, yeah, pretty clear what happened. Anything to get your client off.
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Right?
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And now that we know that Tartaglioni is not even gonna face the death penalty, it's probably a good thing that they fought this, because he could have. He could have got stuck with another charge here if he was found at fault, but I highly doubt that anyone even investigated it. Remember, Tartaglioni didn't decide to put himself into the jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein. The administrators of the facility did.
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Who made that call?
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And can we talk to that person? Can that person get put under oath in front of Congress? Can we have real examinations of what went on here? Or no? The revelation came as Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman, who was overseeing the child sex trafficking case against Epstein, released a Monday letter to the MC to MCC's warden in which he said that what happened on July 23rd remained an open question.
- [35:41]
A
And it still does.
- [35:43]
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Even Berman, the judge, says it was an open question. So where are all of these hard charging reporters that are, you know, all over the place, allegedly? How about you dig into this part of the story? To my knowledge, it has never been definitively explained what the Bureau of Prisons concluded about that incident. Berman wrote absolutely right. In a response dated that same day, Warden Lamine and Dye said that an internal investigation was completed, but noted that current investigations by the FBI and the Justice Department Office of Inspector General will include this incident as well. Yeah. Did it.
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Let me ask you a question with that great report by the New York
- [36:29]
B
Times, did it include anything about Tartaglioni? It certainly didn't. And I asked the author at the time about that, too. Of course, you know, never get anywhere with it. It's just almost laughable at this point, because if I don't laugh about it, it'll be completely frustrating the way they go about it. There are certain things in this story that need to be exposed, and this is certainly one of them. This whole, entire episode here of Tartaglioni in the jail cell with Epstein is just so out of control. Accordingly, I cannot divulge any information about the prior investigation at this time, Endai said. And remember, he told that to the judge. It wasn't like someone asked him, you know, at a press conference, hey, can you tell us about what happened with Tartaglioni? This is the judge asking, and he says, nah, sorry, there's an investigation underway. The same excuse they use all the time when they don't want you to know what's going on. On Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr ordered the removal of Endai from his post at the MCC after ripping the serious irregularities at this facility during a speech the previous day in New Orleans. Oh, yeah, you know, because Bill Barr is so great at his job. How did it work out for everybody with that moron running the show? All right, so now that we have the refresher course of what Tartaglioni's role is here and the question asked why he was in the cell with Epstein, let's jump into this next article from the low hood. And this is a paper from Westchester County, New New York, the lower Hudson Valley. And this is an article that was authored by Jonathan Bandler. Headline, lawyers hopeful Nicholas Tartaglioni won't face death penalty as trial set and homicide case. Twelve times since last March, the U.S. department of of justice has reversed course and notified accused killers they would no longer face the death penalty. And I'm not really too big on the death penalty, to be honest with you. Unless there's overwhelming evidence, of course, then for sure. But I just think that there's way too many instances of there being shoddy evidence when it comes to something as serious as taking someone's life. But when you look at cases like this and the evidence is overwhelming, I honestly think that this is the perfect example of what a death penalty case should be. Multiple homicides, multiple people murdered. Dude's an ex cop. He knows better. So I would think long and hard if I was the one passing the sentence here or dropping the judgment on him. If we were talking about the death penalty, definitely somebody that in my opinion, you would have to at least entertain the possibility. That is a promising sign for opponents of capital punishment, but a far cry from the end of the federal death penalty they had expected when Joe Biden became president. The piecemeal approach offers a glimmer of hope for Nicholas Tartaglioni. The ex police officer charged in White Plains federal court in the killing of four men in Orange county in 2016. So I guess when you're staring at a death sentence, any kind of hope is good. I can't imagine sitting there every day wondering what your fate's gonna be. But also, I would never kill anybody and find myself sitting in a jail cell anyway, so there's that. Tartaglioni's trial has finally been scheduled for March 2023, nearly seven years after the quadruple homicide. But it could be moved up if the defense succeeds in getting the Department of Justice to reverse course on the death penalty. So he's being charged with the death penalty. Now. The question is, is that death penalty going to stick or is he just going to end up getting life in prison? Because I highly doubt he's going to get off. Considering the evidence that they have, I highly, highly doubt he's going to get off. The lead defense lawyer Bruce Barkett has declined to reveal any details of the defense case for why his client should not face capital punishment. Just as he was mum four years ago when a similar similar effort failed under the Trump administration. Tartaglioni was a retired Briarcliff Manor cop who had also worked in Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and Pauling. So he's from my neck of the woods, and I've told the story before on the podcast, but one of my uncles was actually friendly with Tartaglioni, Tartaglioni's brother growing up, and they used to call him Tat Tat in the neighborhood. Now, I wish I had more to give you, but that's all my uncle really had. They weren't like, you know, super close or anything, just like neighborhood friends. But it's a small world, isn't it? And when I first was looking at this case and, you know, so saw this part of it, I just shook my head considering where this guy was from. I mean, it's crazy. I know a lot of cops that work in Yonkers, and for the most part, they're all really good people. So just doesn't shock me, though, to see a cop involved in something like this. Unfortunately, there's always good and there's always bad, no matter what the profession is. And some people, like Tartaglioni, they get things a bit twisted up in their head and they think that they're above the law when they're supposed to be enforcing the law. He was arrested in December 2016, eight months after four men disappeared from a bar in Chester in Orange county that was run by Tartaglioni's brother. The day after his arrest, the bodies of Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago, and Hector Gutierrez were discovered by the FBI and state police on property Tartaglioni had been renting at the time of the disappearance. So you see about the evidence here, right? Pretty grim when you're talking about against Tartaglioni. You know, you get these. These bodies are found on your property that you're renting after being at a bar that your brother owns. It doesn't look good for you. Doesn't look too good for you at all. Tartaglioni is charged with conspiracy to sell cocaine and kidnapping and murder in furtherance of the conspiracy. Now, what's interesting is if Tartaglioni gets convicted of this, which I think he will, he's gonna have to hit the federal line. And, A, he's an ex cop, so that's a mark against him. B, if he. If, you know, if he did clip these people, which it looks like he did, these are cartel operatives. So you know that the cartel hasn't forgotten that Tartaglioni was trying to steal their blow, you know, trying to get in on their action. So they're going to have access to him in whatever federal facility he ends up in. If it ends up federal or even if it's in New York, they definitely have a way to reach out and touch you. So you gotta think that Tartaglioni will get PC'd up if and when his prison sentence starts. According to the prosecutors, Martin Luna had owed money for a drug deal. He was lured to the Liquid Lounge on April 11, 2016, and brought with him his nephew Miguel, his niece's fiance, Santiago, and family friend Gutierrez, none of whom had anything to do with the drug deal. Well, that's questionable at best, right? You're going there for a drug deal. What do you think he's bringing you there for? Obviously, he was probably bringing these dudes there for muscle, right? But still, does that mean they deserve to get killed over a drug deal gone bad? Absolutely not. And anybody who is capable of killing people over drugs is most certainly capable of assaulting a guy like Jeffrey Epstein in a confined environment. Like a jail cell? No.
- [44:34]
A
At the bar.
- [44:34]
B
Prosecutors alleged Tartaglioni strangled Martin Luna with a zip tie before taking his body to the property. His co conspirators brought the others there, where each of the three were shot in the head. Prosecutors accused Tartaglioni of shooting one of the men. Biden's campaign pledge to end Capital punishment at the federal level has so far not led to an administration policy. Yeah, there's been a whole lot of that, huh? Unfortunately, when we had the changeover from Trump to Biden, didn't I tell you folks, it's going to be the same old, same old? Don't expect these radical changes because that's not how it works. Those who are in power, the very few who are in control, they're still going to be in control no matter who the president is. Last summer, Attorney General Merrick Garland, another failure, issued a moratorium on federal executions while a review of Trump administration death penalty protocol changes was ongoing. But there has been no blanket policy on emptying federal death row or seeking the death penalty in pending and future cases. Like I said earlier, I think that we have to be very, very careful when it comes to sentencing somebody to death. And if the Biden administration is taking their time to review this, I think that's a good idea. Take as much time as you need to review something as serious as this. It looks like Garland is trying to fix the death penalty. It doesn't look like he's trying to end the death penalty, said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information center in Washington, D.C. he pointed to conflicting signals that make it difficult to predict where the DOJ is headed.
- [46:13]
A
And you know, you see that a
- [46:14]
B
lot with the Department of Justice in general. A lot of conflicting signals. You don't know which way they're going to go. One person comes in and you have a drastic change, then the next person comes in, they change it. There's no consistency and certainly no equity in the law. On the one hand, prosecutors have opted not to seek the death penalty in some recent cases. One involved the killing of a law enforcement officer in California, a case in which the Trump DOJ would have likely sought the death penalty. On the other hand, the DOJ is still defending death sentences on appeal. Well, they have to. What are they going to do if it's on appeal? They can't just drop all of those appeals in the middle of the cases. They'll get absolutely fried by the media and pundits and people looking to score political points. 100%. You can't just drop that stuff on appeal. You have to see it through. And let's be honest, a lot of the people who we're talking about here are pretty bad people for the most part. Now, don't get me wrong, there's definitely some innocent people who get caught up and end up on death row. And that for me is Enough to be very, very guarded and. And very strict about the death penalty and who gets it. Cassandra Stubbs, director of the Capitol Punishment Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the moratorium at the gradual and the gradual about face on seeking the death penalty were a good start. But the lack of more extensive policy decisions is frustrating. It's encouraging that it's moving in the right direction, she said.
- [47:47]
A
The discouraging piece is while it's a
- [47:49]
B
significant number, the it's only half of the pending cases. The DOJ's withdrawal of the 12 notices of intent came in nine cases spread out around the country in states that have the death penalty and those that don't. So again, whenever you get a new regime that comes in, they go over everything that the previous regime did with a fine tooth comb. And more times than not, they get rid of a lot of policies and institute their own. That's just what happens when people get elected. While there is no clear common thread, one possible pattern does not bode well for Tartaglioni. None of the other cases involved more than two victims, and that's a big deal. I think that's a huge deal, honestly, when you have multiple victims, we're talking serial killer here type shit, right? What is it, more than three murders or whatever spread out during a certain period of time for a serial killer? But the point stands. If you got three or four bodies under your belt, that's definitely not a good look for a jury or people who are going to decide your fate. Tartagliones is one of six death penalty cases of the 23 still pending that have at least four victims. Barkett would not say whether the defense has offered new details related to Tartaglioni or whether they are relying on similarities to any of the other withdrawn cases to convince the government. Well, maybe you should give them some evidence about Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe you should talk about that a little bit. Nicholas Tartaglioni, and I'm real interested to see what kind of sentence he gets here. If he gets a soft sentence, boy, that's gonna. That's gonna set some people off, I'll tell you that much. It is possible that they are citing the harsh conditions of pretrial detention Tartaglioni faced at the troubled Metropolitan Correctional center in lower Manhattan. Life saving efforts by Tartaglioni when he was in law enforcement are almost certainly part of the defense mitigation efforts. And his lawyers could be including details of when Tartaglioni shared a cell with financier, pedophile and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Oh, boy, that would be interesting, wouldn't it? That would be real interesting, wouldn't it? I wonder what he has to share about that. Barkett has said that Tartaglioni intervened during Epstein's failed suicide attempt in July 2019. Tartaglione was no longer his cellmate when Epstein succeeded in killing. Killing himself the following month. Now, again, why was Tartaglioni in that jail cell? Was he put there to send a message to Jeffrey Epstein? Look, bro, if you don't kill yourself, this is what you have to look forward to the whole entire time you're in jail. So you better fucking kill yourself. And then knowing that he'd get moved out of the cell, he'd just deny that he ever did anything. That's certainly a scenario that has legs, in my opinion. It certainly is a scenario that bears the weight of the facts. And short of any other evidence being provided or quality theories being provided, that's what I'm working with right now. This dude definitely was in there to rough Jeffrey Epstein up or ended up roughing Jeffrey Epstein up for whatever reason. But to think that this guy is some kind of hero who stepped in
- [51:10]
A
to save Epstein's life while he was
- [51:12]
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trying to kill himself is just ridiculous. U.S. district Judge Kenneth Karras was adamant during a conference last month that Tartaglioni's trial would begin next March. At the latest, Barkett assured him that the effort to complete the deauthorization package would not distract the defense team from moving forward on other pretrial motions to Karras. The defense and prosecutors reached agreement on the schedule leading up to the trial. But they differed on how long of a break they should have between the guilt phase and the penalty phase. If Tartaglione is convicted of any of the death eligible charges, prosecutors wanted a week. The defense sought up to four weeks. So they'll probably split the baby, and it'll probably end up being two weeks. That's what we saw during the lead up to the Maxwell trial. And it seems to be the way these things work. The judge usually splits the baby here and they'll get half of what they want. It appeared Karras might disappoint both sides. He said he was inclined to start a penalty phase a day or two after the initial verdict, worried that a longer break would be unfair to the jurors. Well, that's what he wants and what he's saying he wants. But like I said, I wouldn't be shocked to see this end up 10, 14 days, you know, between the two. So we'll have to see and we'll continue to follow it because like I said earlier, I think this is a portion of the situation with Epstein in the MCC at that jail cell that needs more discussion, needs to be looked at in a more clinical fashion with a surgical type of eye, because there is no excuse or reason that anyone has presented to me as to why Epstein should be sharing a cell with Nicholas d'. Artaglione. All right, folks, that's going to do it for tonight's update on the way some context episodes like always and then tomorrow morning right back at it. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c I@protonmail.com youm can also find me on Twitter at Bobby cap ucci. The links that we discussed can be found in the description box. All right, everybody, I will talk to you all tomorrow, and I hope you all have a great night.