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Friday, May 6, 2022
Vol. 7, No. 18
Port WashingtonTimes
TON NORTH • SANDS POINT ESTATES • PORT WASHING VEN • FLOWER HILL • BAXTER PORT WASHINGTON • MANORHA
Port Washington
ANTISEMITIC UPTICKS NASSAU REACTS TO GUIDE TO ABORTION REPORT PORT WASHINGTON ON LONG ISLAND PAGES S1-S92
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May 6, 2022 a Special Section • A Blank Slate Medi
Ex-doc’s murder charges reduced to manslaughter
PLANTING SEEDS
George Blatti allegedly prescribed fatal amounts of medicine to Port resident, others BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z A former Franklin Square doctor who was previously charged with five counts of murder now faces manslaughter charges, officials announced on Thursday. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano reduced the five murder charges against George Blatti to manslaughter, according to court documents. Blatti, who was indicted last year, allegedly prescribed five individuals, two from the North Shore, fatal amounts of opioids and other medications, resulting in their deaths. Prosecutors had previously alleged Blatti to be a “serial killer” and the Nassau County District Attorney’s office said Blatti’s 2021 indictment was believed to be the first time a doctor was charged with second-degree murder under a theory that a defendant acting with depraved indifference to human life occurred in New York. Ricigliano, on Thursday, said in his ruling that the allegations “support a charge of reckless homicide.” Blatti’s attorney Nancy Bartling told Newsday that the significance of Ricigliano’s ruling will allow for a bail application to be submitted so Blatti can be released from jail as he awaits trial. “It’s significant because the judge
found that our position was correct, that there was never depraved indifference in this matter,” Bartling told Newsday. Blatti, 76, pleaded not guilty last year on five counts of second-degree murder and 11 counts of reckless endangerment in the first degree, the results of a joint investigation between the district attorney’s office, the Nassau County Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Blatti was initially arrested on April 18, 2019, and charged with 54 counts that October, including 22 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance, six counts of forgery in the second degree, two counts of reckless endangerment in the first degree, 22 counts of criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions in the fourth degree, and two counts of reckless endangerment in the second degree. One of the patients who died under his care was Diane Woodring, 53, from Port Washington, who died on Sept. 11, 2018, of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, alprazolam, mirtazapine and valproic acid, all prescribed by Blatti, officials said. The DA’s office said that over a span of four years and one month, she was prescribed over 18,000 pills in 153 Continued on Page 49
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PORT WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
Fifth grade students at Sousa Elementary participated in their yearly planting of flower plots located in the main entry garden last week.
Schreiber on list’s top 100 public high schools in N.Y. BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y Eight public high schools in the North Shore have been named among the nation’s 1,000 best, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual list released Tuesday. Atop the list is Great Neck South
High School, which ranked 195th and 22nd in New York. They are the only local public school to make the list’s top 200. This year’s ranking moved Great Neck South ahead of Manhasset High School, which this year was No. 24 in New York and No. 215 nationally.
Great Neck South and Manhasset were followed on the North Shore by Herricks High School at No. 327 overall and No. 38 in New York, North Shore High School at No. 406 overall and No. 48 in New York, Roslyn High School at No. 415 overall and Continued on Page 50
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