Blog Post

Levy “Ambushes” the Lucero Family at Memorial Service

Posted November 9, 2009 by Ted Hesson

As the family of slain Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero attended a memorial service to mark the one year anniversary of Lucero’s death, the family was unexpectedly approached by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, according to an article in Newsday today.
After the service at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Patchogue, Marcelo’s brother Joselo said that he felt “ambushed” by Levy’s unannounced appearance.
From Newsday:
Lucero’s brother, Joselo, said he was taken aback by Levy’s presence.
“I feel like I was ambushed here,” Lucero said after the service at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Patchogue. “There are people I don’t want to talk to.”
Asked if he meant politicians such as Levy, Lucero said yes.
Newsday called Levy’s appearance “the most dramatic event of the afternoon,” and reported that Joselo Lucero called out the county executive at one point during the mass. Here’s Newsday’s reporting:
During the service, Lucero spoke and at one point directly addressed Levy, saying, “You have a second chance to change, to do what you did wrong before, to now do better things.”
In the year since Marcelo Lucero’s death, Levy hasn’t actually met with any of Marcelo’s family members, although a spokesman for the county executive said that he’s tried.
The county executive’s public statements about the murder, however, have been far from sympathetic. Levy has said that the Lucero murder would have been a “one-day story” if it happened in Nassau
County, and not in Suffolk. The county executive also compared the publicity he received after Lucero’s murder to undergoing a colonoscopy.
Levy wasn’t invited to the memorial service yesterday, but Patchogue Village Mayor Paul Pontieri arranged for Levy’s visit, according to Newsday. Here’s what Pontieri had to tell Newsday about the “ambush:”
“I probably should have said something” to the Lucero family, Pontieri said. “But I didn’t even think of it.”
**I’ll have posts up about Saturday’s Lucero vigil as soon as the videos finish uploading.