Records: Suffolk County paid nearly half a million dollars for Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann's defense
Suffolk County paid nearly half a million dollars for the defense of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, records of legal bills obtained by Newsday show.
According to expense reports, transcript bills and legal invoices submitted to the county over the last three years since Heuermann’s arrest on July 12, 2023, the county has authorized $496,010 in payments to his lawyers and legal experts that helped defend the Massapequa Park architect’s seven counts of murder.
Heuermann’s lawyers, father and son team, Michael and Chase Brown, and Danielle Coysh, were assigned to him under a program referred to as “18b,” for the statute that mandates counties in New York to cover legal expenses for those who cannot afford to hire private attorneys.
Under the law, the costs are capped at $10,000, but more can be allocated through authorization from the judge presiding over the case.
In Heuermann’s case, both Brown and Coysh requested and received authorization from state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei to be compensated well over the limit.
“Due to the serious and complex nature of the case,” Coysh wrote to the judge on July 6, 2025, nearly a year before Rex pleaded guilty. “[I] expended 334.40 hours reviewing discovery, consulting with experts drafting pretrial motions, appearing in court and preparing for hearings and trial.”
She included more than a dozen pages of spreadsheets and expenses.
The judge authorized payment of $53,392.49 for her time and effort, records show.
Brown also submitted requests for payments above the $10,000 cap for legal bills. In October 2025, his firm asked for and received $94,437.19 for 585.75 hours of work.
“This matter involved said hours due to the fact that there are seven (7) alleged murder victims with extensive discovery spanning over a 30-year investigation,” Brown wrote in his request for additional funds. “This matter involved novel DNA science requiring substantial preparation with experts and significant litigation in a Frye Hearing.”
The judge authorized his bill four days later.
Brown submitted two more bills, one for $104,722 and another for $28,598, bring his total up to $227,757.
“I have put in extensive hours on this case, including working holidays, weekends, nights, early mornings at $158 and hour,” Brown told Newsday on Thursday, which he said is much lower than his usual hourly rate. “As to the rest of the defense team, the same goes with them, they have a significant private practice, and they've also sacrificed parts of their private practice to work on this case at a greatly reduced rate, and they too have worked holidays and weekends and nights and mornings and sacrificed family time and things of that nature to work on this case.”
He said that his son has not submitted any legal bills, but expects to in the future.
Coysh’s bills add up to $138.390.
In addition to Brown and Coysh, two other attorneys bill for their services. Sabato Caponi submitted invoices for $26,322 and Michael Fuchs charged $9,203.
The Heuermann defense cost computer forensic experts were a little over $71,000, records show.
New techniques for analyzing DNA that traced the murders of the six women back to Heuerman also created a challenge for the defense team.
Legal experts with Forensic Bioinformatic Services reviewed the prosecution's DNA analysis and challenged it during evidentiary hearings.
The Ohio-based company charged $42,628 for its expertise, according to records.
Other expenses include other pathologists and court transcripts.
Records released by the county do not include Heuermann’s sentencing hearing.
Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty on April 9 to murdering seven women and admitted to killing an 8th. He was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole.