A Long Island federal judge awarded a group of Nassau County correction officers more than a quarter of a million dollars and threatened to appoint a monitor for the county sheriff's office after ruling that the guards were unfairly denied gun permits after retiring from the jail on disability.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Brown said the behavior of Michael Sposato , the former Nassau County sheriff, was "disgraceful" and gave the lawyers on both sides in the case 30 days to weigh in on assigning a special master now that Sposato has returned to the jail as the Commissioner of Corrections.

In a blistering 32-page decision , the judge ruled that Nassau County and Sposato violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution by denying five former correction officers and one deput

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