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Get to Know District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney
Raymond A. Tierney was elected Suffolk County District Attorney on November 2, 2021, and assumed office on January 1, 2022. District Attorney Tierney is a career prosecutor, having served for approximately 30 years at both the state and federal levels.
As an independent prosecutor, District Attorney Tierney is committed to enforcing the law in an ethical and accountable manner to protect the citizens of Suffolk County.
District Attorney Tierney is a lifelong resident of Suffolk County where he resides with his wife, Erica, and their four children.
District Attorney Tierney attended Brown University, where he was a member of the varsity football team and received his Bachelor of Arts in History and English in 1988. In 1992, District Attorney Tierney received his Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law. While attending St. John’s, he was an Articles Editor at the St. John’s International Law Review.
In 1992, District Attorney Tierney began his career as an Assistant District Attorney at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, where he served under then-District Attorney James Catterson. He worked his way up through the ranks of the office, and handled serious felony prosecutions including kidnapping, arson, violent sexual assault, and murder. District Attorney Tierney was promoted to District Court Trial Supervisor, where he supervised entry-level ADAs handling misdemeanor cases. After seven years at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Tierney joined a local law firm in 1999, where he managed the firm's litigation and tried cases before juries in Bronx, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties, until 2002.
In 2002, District Attorney Tierney returned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney, and handled more complex cases and investigations including political corruption, organized crime, street gangs, homicides, domestic violence, child abuse, and child pornography. Many of these prosecutions included long-term investigations, where District Attorney Tierney oversaw the efforts of teams of detectives, and utilized wiretaps, search warrants, grand jury investigations, and ultimately, trials.
Beginning in 2008, District Attorney Tierney joined the United States Attorney’s Office and served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Long Island Criminal Division for the Eastern District of New York. There, District Attorney Tierney oversaw complex criminal investigations and prosecutions on behalf of the United States Federal Government. In this role, District Attorney Tierney served as lead counsel for all phases of jury trials for crimes including complex white-collar schemes, violent crimes, internet crimes, international narcotics enterprises, and money laundering schemes. He also handled all post-conviction phases of his criminal prosecution, including drafting appellate briefs and arguing appeals before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. District Attorney Tierney also coordinated with Department of Justice leaders regarding long-term international criminal prosecutions, international fugitives, and death penalty protocols, including debriefing the Attorney General on the status of MS-13 prosecutions nationwide.
Upon taking office in 2022, District Attorney Tierney immediately formed the first Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau to combat organized crime and gang violence in Suffolk County, and re-established the office’s Homicide Bureau as a distinct bureau. Additionally, during his first year in office, District Attorney Tierney formed two specialized prosecution units: the Biological, Environmental, and Animal Safety Team (BEAST), and the Hate Crimes, Elder Abuse, Anti-Bias/Immigrant Affairs and Human-Trafficking Unit (HEAT). District Attorney Tierney also recognizes that robust community outreach is vital to a modern prosecutor’s office, and as such, formed a Community Outreach Bureau which hosts job fairs, coordinates educational programs and summits, and much more.
In February 2022, District Attorney Tierney formed the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force with the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement partners, to reinvigorate the investigation into the series of murders that occurred between 1993 and 2010 in Suffolk County. In March 2022, the Task Force developed a suspect which they investigated over the course of the next 16 months, culminating in the indictment and arrest of Rex A. Heuermann in July 2023 for three of the murders. In January 2024, Heuermann was charged by the grand jury with a fourth murder. In June 2024, Heuermann was charged again by the grand jury with two more murders. In December 2024, Heuermann was charged again by the grand jury with an additional murder, bringing the total number of homicides charged to seven. District Attorney Tierney has been deeply involved in this case from it's inception and will conduct the trial in this case along with a team of other experienced prosecutors.
While the criminal case against Rex Heuermann is currently pending, the investigation by the Task Force continues. It became apparent that a new unit would need to be formed to investigate all cold case homicides in Suffolk County. Thus, in April 2024, District Attorney Tierney created the first Cold Case Task Force in the county’s history, dedicated to investigating and prosecuting unsolved cases where DNA from a suspect has been identified. There are currently 293 unsolved homicides in Suffolk County dating back to 1965. The goal of this team is to enhance the use of forensic analyses that could lead to the prosecution of a suspect in each of these cases and reduce the significant backlog of unsolved crimes.
In his steadfast dedication to keeping the residents of Suffolk County and New York State safe, District Attorney Tierney’s office coordinated the introduction of a bipartisan legislation package to help combat the current fentanyl crisis. He traveled to Albany with family members whose loved ones were killed by fentanyl poisoning in order to urge lawmakers to rectify the loopholes in our current laws. While there, District Attorney Tierney also stood alongside victims whose lives were torn apart by drugged drivers that have yet to be held accountable due to the lack of common-sense laws in New York State.
During his long career as a prosecutor, DA Tierney has received numerous awards including: 1) Federal Law Enforcement Association's "Prosecutor of the Year" for the successful prosecution of over twenty MS-13 members in United States v. Alvarenga, et al., November 2016; 2) FBI Long Island Gang Task Force “Meritorious Service Award” for successful prosecution and support of the FBI’s mission to combat, disrupt, and dismantle the MS-13 gang, March 2015; 3) Federal Law Enforcement Association's "Prosecutor of the Year" for successful trial prosecution of several MS-13 members in United States v. Geovany Prado, et al., November 2014; 4) Federal Agent’s “True American Hero Award” for successful trial prosecution of Colombian Norte Valle Boss in United States v. Carlos Arturo Patiño Restrepo, March 2011; 5) Southampton Town Police Department’s “Full Court Press Prosecution Award” for successful prosecution in United States v. Manning, Coffey, Johnson, Hopson, and Gilliam, September 2010; 6) Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office's "Distinguished Trial Advocacy Award" for successful trial prosecution in People v. Austin Offen and Constantine Chronis, July 1999.
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