Prosecutors say the defendant also planted explosives on ex-wife’s car and committed mortgage and identity fraud.
MINEOLA, N.Y. – A North Merrick man who plotted to bomb the Nassau County Department of Social Services (NCDSS) in 2024 has been sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of post-release supervision following multiple guilty pleas to weapons, fraud, and identity theft charges.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that 47-year-old James Luca was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty in June to criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree and obstructing governmental duties by means of a bomb or hazardous device, along with numerous financial crimes. The convictions stem from a failed bombing attempt at the county’s social services headquarters and a series of unrelated fraud schemes.
DA Donnelly said Luca’s actions “created panic and terrorized public servants” when he placed an improvised explosive device at the department’s entrance in the early morning hours of September 17, 2024. “This is not a man who should be free to walk our streets,” Donnelly said. “He belongs behind bars, and that is where he will be for nearly a decade.”
Homemade bomb failed to ignite outside county building
According to prosecutors, Luca left his home on Van Nostrand Avenue shortly after 1:40 a.m. that morning and met a co-defendant on Warren Street before driving to the NCDSS complex at 60 Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Uniondale. Surveillance footage showed Luca placing a 20-pound propane tank and a smaller camping tank with a torch attached at the building’s doors while his accomplice kept watch.
Investigators said Luca tried to ignite the device by throwing lit flares but was unsuccessful. The two men left the area, switched vehicles in East Meadow, and returned to Luca’s residence. Later that morning, the department’s director of investigations discovered the device and contacted police. The Nassau County Police Arson and Bomb Squad, along with the Fire Marshal’s Office and Uniondale Fire Department, evacuated the building and rendered the explosive safe.
Detectives located another propane tank nearby and recovered flares from the abandoned getaway vehicle. Luca and his co-defendant were arrested on October 3, 2024, after an extensive investigation by Nassau County Police.
Additional explosives and financial crimes uncovered
Authorities later linked Luca to a separate February 2023 incident in which he placed and detonated an explosive device on his ex-wife’s car in North Merrick, shattering her windshield. He also caused further damage to the same vehicle in January 2024.
In addition to the bombing cases, Luca pleaded guilty to a large-scale financial fraud operation that included forging documents to transfer a relative’s property into his own name, taking out a $410,000 mortgage, and defaulting on the payments—leaving the victim with more than $600,000 in debt. Prosecutors said Luca also used the same relative’s personal information to open credit cards and accumulate over $200,000 in unpaid charges.
Conviction brings closure to multiple investigations
The attempted bombing case was prosecuted by Deputy Bureau Chief Lee Genser of the Narcotics, Firearms, and Gangs Bureau, while the financial crimes were handled by Senior Investigative Counsel Heidi Bausk of the Major Financial Frauds Bureau. Both prosecutions operated under the supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Rick Whelan.
Luca’s conviction closes multiple investigations that spanned more than two years and involved violent and financial offenses across Nassau County. He remains in state custody following sentencing by Judge Terence Murphy.
