Two men were convicted for violating Suffolk County’s Evergreen Law by illegally disposing of construction waste and household debris inside the protected Long Island Central Pine Barrens Region.
Marvin Sandoval, 29, of Ronkonkoma, and Charles Weiss, 33, of Coram, pleaded guilty to dumping a pile of construction waste and household debris in a remote wooded area within the protected Long Island Central Pine Barrens Region.
On November 6, 2024, Charles Weiss and Marvin Sandoval, as part of a hired job, loaded a U-Haul box truck with construction waste and household debris and then drove into a remote wooded area within the Long Island Central Pine Barrens Region where they dumped the contents of the truck onto the forest floor. The materials they dumped consisted of pieces of wood furniture, used paint cans, paint rollers, shower doors, chandeliers, large pieces of styrofoam, a sink, a granite countertop, tools, and multiple bags of household garbage.
Two people witnessed Weiss and Sandoval dumping the materials into the protected area and contacted law enforcement. A joint investigation between the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Suffolk County Police Department, Suffolk County Park Rangers, and the Town of Riverhead Police Department identified Weiss and Sandoval, who had solicited a job of cleaning up a house for a $1,000 fee and then, instead of properly disposing of the materials, selected the Pine Barrens as their dump site. The pair was quickly called back to the site by law enforcement and directed to remediate the dumping.
On February 19, 2025, Weiss pleaded guilty to the charge of violating section 433-6 of the Suffolk County Code (the Evergreen Law) before Riverhead Town Justice Court Judge Sean Walter. On April 29, 2025, Sandoval pleaded guilty to the same charge before Walter. They were both ordered to each pay $7,500 in fines.
“Suffolk will not tolerate illegal dumping,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “My office will protect every square inch of natural space in this county and will respond with swift and aggressive prosecution whenever it is threatened.”
Started in December 2023, the Suffolk County Evergreen Initiative is a collaborative plan to curb illegal dumping on county property and within the Central Pine Barrens Region by ramping up and coordinating enforcement, imposing harsher fines, and enhancing civilian incentive to report dumpers.
In early 2024, the Suffolk County Legislature amended the county code to raise the maximum fines for dumping in the Pine Barrens Region to $15,000 for individuals and $25,000 for corporations, with one-third of the fines collected from these convictions under the statute would be remitted to members of the public who provided information leading to the arrest and conviction of the offenders. This award was designed to spur the interest and assistance of the public in identifying and preventing illegal dumping in this largely unsurveilled area.