Former Suffolk County employee sentenced in bribery, license fraud case

A former Suffolk County licensing assistant used her access to county paperwork and exam material to sell shortcuts for home-improvement and vocational licenses, prosecutors said, then ended up facing prison. Brianna Hassett, 33, of Wading River, was sentenced Thursday to 1 1/2 to 3 years after admitting she took cash bribes while working in the licensing unit of the Suffolk County Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs.

Hassett’s position put her inside the office that handles licensing gatekeeping for contractors and tradespeople across Suffolk County. Prosecutors said she was hired in June 2021 and, in late January 2025, accepted cash in exchange for falsifying a Home Improvement license application and for providing questions and answers to a Suffolk County vocational license proficiency exam. That meant the scheme reached into the county process that decides who can legally operate and compete for work, a direct concern for residents and taxpayers who depend on fair enforcement.

Hassett and her husband, Esteban Bermudez, were arrested Feb. 13, 2025. Hassett resigned from her county job on May 14, 2025. She later pleaded guilty on March 25, 2026, to Attempted Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree, a Class E felony. Bermudez pleaded guilty the same day to Offering a False Instrument in the First Degree and was sentenced May 27, 2026, to five years’ probation.

The case exposed a weak point in county oversight: a single employee in the licensing unit could allegedly alter an application and leak exam material from inside the department that was supposed to protect the public from fraud. For Suffolk residents, the fallout is not abstract. It goes to whether license approvals are earned or bought, and whether county workers can be trusted to guard the process instead of selling access to it.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said, “Government employees work for the people, and when that trust is broken there needs to be consequences.” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney called the conduct an “egregious and systematic breach of public trust” and said corruption in public service would be prosecuted aggressively. The case was handled by Deputy Bureau Chief Laura de Oliveira and Bureau Chief Kevin Ward of the Public Corruption Bureau and investigated by Deputy Sheriff Sergeant Matthew Matz of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.