_________________ BALDWIN ________________
SPRING FORWARD at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Remember to change your smoke detector batteries.
HERALD Infections as of March 4
3,281
CoMMuNIty uPDAtE
Infections as of Feb. 26 3,207
$1.00
Student athletes break l.I. record
Baldwinites honored by town
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MARCH 11 - 17, 2021
Vol. 28 No. 11
Former doctor is charged with murder restaurant. Now Blatti, 75, who also operated out of an office in MalGeraldine Sabatasso was a verne, faces murder and reckless smoker with a history of chronic endangerment charges for overobstructive pulmonary disease prescribing opioids to Sabatasso who began seeing Franklin and the other four victims who Square-based Dr. George Blatti died between 2016 and 2018, Nasin 2007 for acute pain she suf- sau County District Attorney fered as a result of a neck sur- Madeline Singas announced on gery. He started prescribing her March 4. opioids in 2010, and by February Blatti was charged with five 2016, Nassau Councounts of secondty prosecutors said, degree murder and she started com11 counts of reckplaining of dizziless endangerment, ness and shortness in addition to the of breath, but still, 22 counts of crimithey allege, Blatti nal sale of precontinued to prescriptions for a scribe Sabatasso, c o n t ro l l e d s u b of Baldwin, opi- MADElINE SINgAS stance, six counts Nassau County D.A. oids. of second-degree She died on forgery, two counts March 22, 2016, at of first-de g ree the age of 50. reckless endangerAmong the other four patients to ment, two counts of seconddie under Blatti’s watch were degree reckless endangerment residents of Valley Stream, and 22 counts of fourth-degree Hempstead and Floral Park, criminal diversion of prescripaccording to prosecutors. tion medications that he was preBlatti prescribed the drugs viously charged with in Novemfrom a number of locations, ber 2019. authorities said, including an He pleaded not guilty to the old Radio Shack in Franklin new charges at the Nassau CounSquare and the parking lots of a ty Courthouse in Mineola last hotel in Rockville Centre, where he lived, and a nearby fast-food Continued on page 14
By MElISSA KoENIg mkoenig@liherald.com
B
Courtesy Jake Gold Productions
VoluNtEER MARIlyN WEISS sliced deli meat on Monday to be assembled into sandwiches for guests who visit the Soup to Nuts Soup Kitchen housed in Christ Lutheran Church in Freeport.
Pantry adjusts to pandemic Soup to Nuts continues feeding families By BRIDgEt DoWNES bdownes@liherald.com
“What does a soup kitchen do in the middle of a pandemic when gathering for a meal is not safe or permitted?” asked Steve Greenfield, vice president of the Baldwin Civic Association. He volunteers with the Soup to Nuts Soup Kitchen housed in Christ Lutheran Church in Freeport. In reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, volunteers have
adjusted the pantry’s operations over the past year. The facility closed last April and reopened in June. Soup to Nuts used to operate five days a week, but is now open only three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Bagged, to-gostyle lunches are handed out by volunteers outside the church from noon to 1 p.m., and on Wednesdays, cooks prepare hot meals. Bagged lunches include sandwiches, pizza slices, fruit,
doughnuts and any other food items that are donated that week. Additionally, volunteers set up tables outside in an area resembling a supermarket to allow guests to take grocery items that they may need. Island Harvest provides boxes of food in addition to donations from local shops, including Bagel Boss in Baldwin, Trader Joe’s in Merrick, Fehn’s Cake and Cookie Shop in Seaford, Compare Foods in Continued on page 3
asically he’s a serial killer, in our opinion.