A Manhasset man whose charges from the 2013 “Flush the Johns” prostitution sting were later dropped has filed a lawsuit against Nassau County, alleging he was wrongfully arrested and that his apprehension ended his marriage.
Louis DiMaria, 40, seeks undisclosed damages in state Supreme Court for what he considers his false arrest and false imprisonment, among other allegations, according to a Newsday report.
Efforts to reach DiMaria or his attorney, Salvatore Marinello of Garden City, were unavailing.
DiMaria, who owned the former Willie Parkers restaurant in Williston Park, was arrested in April 2013 at a Carle Place hotel room along with a friend who stopped at a hotel to meet with someone prior to going to a birthday celebration.
When DiMaria came out of a hotel bathroom, he was arrested by detectives who were using the room as part of the sting operation and charged with third-degree solicitation, but the charges were dropped that December.
According to Newsday, police filed affidavits that said DiMaria was among the 104 men arrested in the sting who replied to a web advertisement for a prostitution service and even called the telephone number in the ad.
In the suit, DiMaria denies his actions as they were reported in the affidavit, according to Newsday.
The man DiMaria was with that night, Garden City resident Michael Milia, later pleaded guilty to soliciting a prostitute, though according to Newsday DiMaria did not know Milia was meeting with a prostitute.
The lawsuit alleges that in the aftermath of charges against DiMaria, DiMaria’s wife “left him and subsequently divorced him,” and his restaurant business suffered severe losses, according to Newsday.
DiMaria, who was a graduate of Herricks High School, has also alleged that the ensuing news conference with former Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and former Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale about the arrests, in which the sting was given the name “Flush the Johns,” launched the operation to a level of prominence that sought to “humiliate them and destroy their public reputation, regardless of their guilt or innocence,” according to Newsday.
The DA’s office was not named a defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed against the county and various law enforcement officials, because “the DA has certain immunity from prosecution,” Marinello told Newsday.
The police department and county attorney’s office declined to comment for this story.
