Aug 8, 2008 7:29 pm US/Eastern
Correction Officer In Coma After Attack At LI Bar
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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Officer Andrew Reister was nearly strangled after a patron at the Southampton Publick House attacked him.
CBS
An off-duty Suffolk County correction officer remains on life support after police say he was nearly strangled by a bar patron.
Andrew Reister, a 40-year-old father of two, was viciously assaulted inside a Southampton bar and is clinging to life now at Stony Brook University Hospital. The officer's family have kept vigil, his colleagues in the sheriff's department left his bedside Friday barely able to speak.
Reister was moonlighting as a bouncer at the Southampton Publick House and restaurant that was packed for ladies' night when he was choked into unconsciousness while in a headlock so lethal, police call it near-strangulation.
"I speak on behalf of all correction officers with a heavy heart. We're there for his family," said Vito Dagnello of the Suffolk County Correction Officer's Association.
They say 25-year-old Anthony Oddone was intoxicated and dancing on a table when witnesses say Reister ordered him to leave. Instead, Oddone allegedly attacked Reister and left him in coma. Some patrons tried to perform CPR.
Oddone, police say, is a caddie-master in the Hamptons at the exclusive, private Bridge County Club. A judge ordered Oddone held on $500,000 bail and moved him to Riker Island rather than hold him in the Suffolk County jail where his victim was a beloved and respected veteran officer and counselor to inmates.
"Andrew is an exemplary officer and he has accommodations in his file, he's been with us close to 15 years now," said Chief Michael Sharkey, Reister's boss.
Reister lives in Hampton Bays with his family. His children, ages 8 and 4, have not yet been told of their father's grave injuries. Sadly, Police say officer Reister's prospects for survival are not good.
The officer's union has created a welfare fund to create scholarships for the children.
You can send your contributions to:
Suffolk County Correction
Officer's Andrew Reister Welfare Fund
400 West Main Street
Suite 202
Riverhead, NY 11901
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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