Dentes died of a heart attack in 2006. His widow alleges that a cardiologist at Cayuga Cardiology Associates in Ithaca failed to see that her husband was suffering from coronary artery disease in the months before his death.

Dentes was the DA from 1990 through 2005. He died in Albany while working for the New York Prosecutors Training Institute.

Cayuga Cardiologists had no comment on the suit.