Nicholas Tartaglione

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.

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. 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. the former of which he was convicted though this decision was later overturned. Tartaglione filed a $12 million libel lawsuit against Tiffany, citing statements he made about Tartaglione on Dirge for the Charlatans. 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 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, Benderoth and Tartaglione each shot one man in the back of the head with a single bullet,

In June 2016, investigators obtained data from the cell towers near the bar, which confirmed the presence of all seven men near the bar at the same time.

Trial and conviction Prosecutors arraigned Tartaglione on December 19, 2016. He pleaded not guilty. For the period of 2016 to 2023, Tartaglione's trial saw extensive delays for several reasons including litigation related to the possible application of the death penalty, the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's injury and death in federal custody, and a year-long Curcio hearing which resulted in the removal of one of Tartaglione's attorneys due to a conflict of interest. Prosecutors ultimately withdrew their intent to seek the death penalty in 2022.

The trial of Tartaglione began in the White Plains federal court on March 16, 2023. Tartaglione was defended by attorneys Bruce Barket and Aida Leisenring,

Tartaglione's defense argued that he was the victim of a frameup and police tunnel vision,

In 2025, Tartaglione began petitioning Donald Trump for a presidential pardon with the support of the influencer Jessica Reed Kraus.

Epstein incident

Initial 2019 incident After Tartaglione was arrested, he was imprisoned at Metropolitan Correctional Center while he awaited trial. Tartaglione was placed in general population —something which is often avoided as former police officers face higher rates of violence in prison. On February 11, 2018, he was attacked by another inmate who fractured his eye socket bone. He was hospitalized for two weeks and then placed in an empty cell in the prison's Special Housing Unit. Tartaglione's lawyers said the two had a cordial relationship, though Tartaglione later said in an internal prison interview that Epstein made him feel "uncomfortable." According to Tartaglione, who was interviewed by prison officials several days later, he was sleeping on the floor of their cell when he felt something touch his foot. After removing his headphones and taking off a sheet covering his head, he found Epstein sitting on the floor of the cell with his eyes open. Tartaglione called his name several times without response, causing him to bang on the cell door and call out to the guards for help. In a 2024 letter Tartaglione sent to a judge as part of his motion for a new trial, he also claimed to have performed CPR on Epstein.

An unnamed guard, who removed Epstein from the cell and placed him on a stretcher, reported that Epstein accused Tartaglione of trying to kill him. According to the guard, Epstein stated that a week earlier, Tartaglione had been given a copy of Daily News where he learned that Epstein was worth US$77 million. After that, Tartaglione had tried to extort him—threatening to beat him up if he did not pay him money. However, in an internal interview by the prison several days later, Epstein stated the incident was caused by his chronic insomnia and that he did not feel threatened by Tartaglione. According to an unnamed prison official at the facility, most staff felt that Epstein had attempted suicide and that his initial story to the guard about Tartaglione was an attempt to avoid being put on suicide watch.

Aftermath Following the incident, Epstein was moved from their shared cell to an observation cell. Tartaglione later found an alleged suicide note tucked inside a graphic novel left by Epstein, which stated that "it is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye." Following Epstein's death on August 10, Tartaglione claimed that he was threatened and harassed by guards who did not want him to speak publicly about Epstein. He claimed that this was because the incident highlighted the poor living conditions and frequent mistreatment of detainees in Metropolitan Correctional. On August 21, after being informed about the living conditions by Tartaglione's lawyers, a judge ruled that conditions at the facility were unacceptable and needed to improve.

Despite being cleared of any connection to the initial incident or Epstein's subsequent death, Tartaglione has remained a subject of conspiracy theories. He has repeatedly responded to the allegations against him and denies harming Epstein.

While investigating the initial incident, the courts also identified a conflict of interest for one of Tartaglione's attorneys, John Weider. This discovery led to a year-long Curcio hearing, headed by Bobbi Sternheim, who later represented Ghislaine Maxwell. During the hearing, the handwritten note found by Tartaglione was entered into evidence, and subsequently sealed with the rest of the Curcio report after the hearing was concluded. In September 2025, Tartaglione publicly discussed the note for the first time during an interview, leading to The New York Times requesting that both the note and the entire Curcio report be unsealed. In 2026, Tartaglione's defence team submitted a letter to the court endorsing the release of the note but not the entire report. Judge Karas agreed with Tartaglione's counsel and approved the release of only the note on May 6.