Sizing up CAT’s lawsuit against Riverhead

There has been a lot of discussion and misunderstandings about Calverton Aviation & Technology’s EPCAL lawsuit against our Town. I understand why. As a lawyer I know that many people assume lawyers can make things happen that shouldn’t. Sometimes they can. But I do not believe – on the merits – that will happen here.

Think of it this way. A legal case at its most basic is a nonfiction story heard by judges whom, when they take off their robes, are just people. And by juries who never put on a robe at all. Besides a shared humanity, these decision makers usually also share the desire to do what is right. Not wrong.

Once you get past procedural sleights of hand, lawyers who are good at their craft succeed by persuading judges and juries that, on the facts, finding for their client is the right thing to do. So understood, legal theories do not win cases. They merely enable the decision maker, after having heard the facts, to do what they already think is right.

Meaning that we speak here not of magic talismans, but of true stories. And in my opinion CAT’s EPCAL story may be the worst one I have ever heard.

To begin with – the project (even without an airport) is a 10-million-square-foot build-out that (conservatively) could well require our roads to accommodate some 60,000 new vehicle trips a day. I said “roads.” I meant Route 25. If we assume a 12-hour day, 7 days a week, 60,000 new vehicle trips a day yields 5,000 new vehicle trips an hour. Which is 83 a minute, and 1.4 per second. On top of the profound environmental, subdivision, and other unresolved statutory obstacles EPCAL poses – plus the known forever chemical contamination.

But as dark a story as that is for CAT, it only gets darker. CAT now alleges that they were lied to by Riverhead about RIDA. They claim CAT agreed to RIDA’s review of EPCAL because CAT was told it would be an empty “optic” for public consumption — a contrived kabuki theater designed to quiet public opposition, which CAT relied upon to its detriment.

Maybe CAT is right about those facts. I really can’t say. But I can say this. Besides trying to get the land for a fraction of its fair market value, it appears to me that CAT also took real steps to get millions (and more likely tens of millions) of dollars in tax abatements over the course of years that – to my understanding – could only come through RIDA. Using what CAT states they not only believed, but relied upon, as an empty RIDA process with a pre-ordained result. That sounds to me like more than a broken moral compass. In my opinion, it sounds like it could amount to knowing participation in an actionable fraud against the public. 

That’s just my opinion, gleaned from my reading of CAT’s complaint in conjunction with CAT’s RIDA application. I have no “secret” non-public information and don’t know enough facts to reach a conclusion. But even if this is not a fraud as a matter of law, it is a dreadful story.

Why would CAT tell it? I understand numbing hubris, and think that likely explains much of CAT’s misconduct. But stupidity? Apparently, yes. That seems to be there, too.

Regardless, in my opinion CAT’s dreadful story has virtually no chance of succeeding on the merits because nobody hearing their story would feel good about ruling in CAT’s favor. The only way CAT wins is if the merits are never reached because the town settles.

Which – once again – is a situation that only gets fixed by action from you.  I urge every one of the hundreds of residents who came out to oppose CAT to tell our elected officials – by email, letter, phone call, and at public meetings – to not settle this lawsuit. CAT made their bed.  Now let them lie in it. If steadfastly opposed, CAT may seek to get out of that bed a lot sooner than you think.  

Andrew Leven, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, was a candidate for Riverhead Town Board in 2023. He lives in Riverhead.

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