Hit on Brooklyn DA Gonzalez Follow Up With A Hit on Gatling Now the Times Tries to Define the Race Around Thompson Can't the Media Cover the Race Without Publishing Hits That Were Given to Them By the Opposing Candidates Team
Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez got rent reduction meant for low-income seniors despite $210G salary (NYDN) For the last two years, acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez benefited from a rent break intended for senior citizens who make less than $50,000 a year, the Daily News has learned. Gonzalez is 48 and makes $210,000. He did this by accepting a modest reduction to his rent courtesy of the Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption, a program that was applied to the rent he pays on his already rent-stabilized apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The city says this happened as a result of a bureaucratic bungle in May 2015 in which an actual senior citizen tenant in Gonzalez’s building applied for a exemption and the city mistakenly awarded it to Gonzalez instead.* Patricia Gatling, one of a handful of hopefuls vying to replace late Brooklyn DA Thompson has only resided in the borough for a little more than three months, city records show—and her husband continues to reside at her old East Side address. New York City Board of Elections files show Gatling only changed her voter registration from an address on York Avenue between 63rd and 64th Streets on December 19 of last year. According to the documents the Observer obtained from the board, Gatling cast a ballot in 36 primary and general elections from that Manhattan address from November 1999 right up through Nov 2016
This is All About the Unpunished Corruption of DA Joe Hynes Not DA Thompson Correcting Illegal Convictions and How It Was Allowed to Happen
Candidates Line Up Behind Legacy of Former Brooklyn District Attorney(NYT) Those running for the post once held by Ken Thompson, who died last year, are promising to build on his work to change the criminal justice system.
Is The BOE Hiding O'Hara Vs Hynes Lawsuit Evidence?
Lawyer accused of voter fraud wants to sue ex-BrooklynDA, but Board of Elections claims they don’t have his case records (NYDN) A lawyer who plans to sue the former Brooklyn DA after he was accused of voter fraud has hit a minor roadblock after he was unable to obtain paperwork regarding his case, according to a document obtained by the Daily News. During an August 2013 campaign debate between Charles Hynes and the late Ken Thompson at St. Francis College, the incumbent was questioned about his office’s three-time prosecution of John O’Hara. In the middle of the hour-long event, hosted by The News and moderated by former Daily News reporter Harry Siegal, Hynes was asked why O’Hara's case had been prosecuted and the 2010 assemblyman campaign for the late Vito Lopez’s wasn’t. Lopez was accused of election fraud when several polling locations in Ridgewood and Bushwick were attached to his name. Lopez, 74, died in 2013 from cancer. O’Hara, 56, was prosecuted an unprecedented three times since 1997 for voter fraud when he was sharing an apartment with his then-girlfriend while still holding onto his own rent-stabilized residence. The political activist was accused by prosecutors of voting in a district he did not live in anymore. “The O’Hara case was sent to me by the Board of Elections many years ago,” says Hynes at 29 Min mark “Please be advised that the Board is not in possession of any records responsive to your request," according to the letter in response to a Freedom of Information Law request made by O'Hara's attorney Dennis Kelly. According to a letter from the Board of Elections, Kelly requested “any and all records, memorandum of the investigation of John K. O’Hara from 1992-1998.” "When the Board of Elections decides to make a complaint, there has to be a vote by commissioners, they have to give notice to the individual, meaning myself, and I have to attend a hearing and none of that happened here,” O'Hara told the Daily News. O'Hara's conviction was overturned earlier this year by the office’s Conviction Review Unit and he has filed a $25 million notice of claim against Hynes for the malicious prosecution. "When the Board of Elections says, 'We don't have anything responsive to your inquiry', are they just giving me the run around? I don't know. The next step with the lawsuit, we will subpoena the Board of Elections and see if they comply with a federal judge's subpoena and go from there," said Kelly.
Former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes targeted dad of sexabuse victim instead of perv rabbi, lawsuit says (NYDN) A Brooklyn dad claims the borough’s former district attorney Charles Hynes targeted him while cutting a sweetheart deal with a prominent rabbi accused of sexually abusing boys. Samuel Kellner says in a federal civil rights lawsuit that Hynes falsely charged him with extortion after he led an effort to lock up Baruch Lebovits. “The ‘investigation’ by Hynes into [Kellner] deviated so egregiously from acceptable law enforcement activity as to demonstrate an intentional or reckless disregard for proper procedures,” reads the lawsuit targeting Hynes and the city. The sordid saga began in 2008 when Lebovits allegedly molested Kellner’s son. A prosecutor told Kellner that the district attorney’s office wasn’t going to open an investigation because the alleged offense was a misdemeanor and there were no other known victims, the suit says. But Kellner, working with a detective, found other boys who were preyed upon by Lebovits. Hynes’ office launched a probe but Kellner claims the former DA did nothing when Lebovits’ supporters succeeded in convincing one of his victims to drop the case. “Hynes’ deliberate indifference towards [the boy’s] plight and failure to protect him was part of a policy, custom and practice of deliberate indifference towards witness tampering and intimidation of victims of pedophiles and their families within the ultra-Orthodox community,” says the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court. Lebovits was ultimately convicted in March 2010 of multiple counts of sexual assault and sentenced to serve up to 32 years. Kellner’s joy was short-lived. He claims in the suit that Hynes quietly dismissed his son’s case against Lebovits in October 2010. “The suffering and courage of a victim in coming forward to report his abuse meant nothing to Hynes,” Kellner’s attorney Niall Macgiollabhui wrote in the suit. Things got worse forKellner in April 2011 when he was charged with trying to blackmail Lebovits’ wealthy family and paying a man to falsely accuse the rabbi. Hynes held a news conference trumpeting Kellner’s arrest. Lebovits was sprung from jail the next day. His conviction was overturned in 2012. “What is truly shocking is that instead of locking up pedophiles and protecting children, Hynes was instrumental in securing the release of a notorious predator from prison and dismissing the cases of two victims he and his office knew to have been abused,” Macgiollabhui told the Daily News. “At some point Hynes will have to explain why he conspired in the shadows with the family of a convicted child rapist to undermine the conviction his own office had just secured.” The criminal charges against Kellner were dropped in March 2014 after a prosecutor re-examining the case found inconsistencies in the accounts of two key witnesses. Lebovits pleaded guilty to reduced charges in May 2014 and was sentenced to serve another year. He was released after just 86 days. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said it will review the complaint. Kellner filed a defamation suit against the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper in November 2014. That case was settled in January under a confidentiality agreement.
Brooklyn DA Race
Other Races
O'Hara Cleared of 1997 Voter Fraund Conviction Plans to Sue Ex-Brooklyn DA Hynes for $25m
Lawyer cleared of 1997 voter fraud conviction plans tosue ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes for $25M (NYDN) “In an effort to obtain O’Hara’s unlawful conviction, they fabricated statements and evidence (and) coerced and intimidated witnesses to provide false testimony,” the notice of claim charged. O’Hara’s case is based in part on a shocking handwritten document delivered to the defense when the DA’s office surrendered three boxes of evidence in the summer of 2015. “They kept having trials to avoid a lawsuit,” O’Hara told the Daily News. “That's why I was the first person in Brooklyn to be tried three times on the same charges. For 20 years it worked.” A spokeswoman for the NYC Law Department said they “will review the claim.” Political outsider O’Hara — the first New Yorker prosecuted for voter fraud since Susan B. Anthony in 1873 — was cleared in January after the Brooklyn DA’s conviction review unit looked at his case. Anthony was charged with casting her ballot even though women weren't allowed to vote. O'Hara faced seven counts of voter fraud at three separate legal proceedings, beginning with a 1997 conviction. The verdict was overturned on appeal the next year, but a 1999 trial resulted in a hung jury before a third prosecution led to a felony conviction that was upheld in 2001. O'Hara’s law license was yanked, and he served 1,500 hours of community service and paid $20,000 in fines. He also spent five years on probation. A 2009 decision by the Appellate Division reinstated O’Hara as an attorney, ruling the disbarment was unwarranted. "The only good thing that came out of this is I didn't have to wait for my funeral to find out who my friends are," said O'Hara. Those also named as defendants are the NYPD, O'Mara, prosecutors Angelo Morelli, Dino Amoroso, Ronnie Jaus and Investigator Allan Presser. “We are looking to hold each and every individual who was responsible for the arrest and conviction of John O’Hara,” said his lawyer, Dennis Kelly. “And it starts with Joe Hynes, who used his political power to eliminate any type of opposition in the Democratic Party ... John was the collateral damage along with many others.”
O’Hara suing ex-DA Hynes for bogus voter-fraud conviction— and claims Assemblyman did his dirty work (Brooklyn Paper) Secret documents found stashed in the district attorney’s office show former Park Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan withheld crucial evidence that may have spared Sunset Park attorney John O’Hara from his notorious wrongful voter-fraud conviction, alleges a new civil suit O’Hara filed against ousted District Attorney Charles Hynes. The suit claims Hynes directed Brennan to conduct his own investigation into the bogus allegations that resulted in O’Hara being disbarred and disgraced back in 1997 — acting in the place of detectives in order to circumvent laws requiring prosecutors to hand over any exonerating evidence they find to a grand jury. “It was very cunning,” O’Hara said. “He had Brennan do it off the books.” O’Hara is suing Hynes and other prosecutors for $25 million for the allegedly malicious conviction that left him branded a criminal for two decades, and wasoverturned in January following an investigation kicked off by Hynes’s late successor Ken Thompson. Throughout it all, O’Hara suspected his runs against Brennan were the cause of his downfall, but it wasn’t until Thompson’s Conviction Review Unit — set up to overturn Hynes’s many wrongful convictions — last year uncovered three boxes of documents from the original case that he finally found proof, he said. Amongst the documents were notes written by the case’s prosecutor John O’Mara, which allegedly describe Brennan and his staff posing as journalists to question O’Hara’s neighbors and determine which of them would support Hynes’s narrative that he didn’t live at the Sunset Park address he’d registered to vote from, the suit claims. Throughout it all, O’Hara suspected his runs against Brennan were the cause of his downfall, but it wasn’t until Thompson’s Conviction Review Unit — set up to overturn Hynes’s many wrongful convictions — last year uncovered three boxes of documents from the original case that he finally found proof, he said. Amongst the documents were notes written by the case’s prosecutor John O’Mara, which allegedly describe Brennan and his staff posing as journalists to question O’Hara’s neighbors and determine which of them would support Hynes’s narrative that he didn’t live at the Sunset Park address he’d registered to vote from, the suit claims.
Former Brooklyn DA Candidate Abe George Says Release the Hynes Grand Jury File
Release the Hynes grand jury minutes (NYDN Ed) On Tuesday, former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles (Joe) Hynes was honored at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Michael Griffith’s death. Griffith was the tragic victim in the infamous racially charged Howard Beach case, where Hynes shined as a special prosecutor. Hynes, 81, suffered a stroke a few months ago, and appeared frail. The Griffith memorial was the first time Hynes had appeared publicly since 2014, when the city’s Department of Investigation issued a 27-page report detailing how Hynes had transformed his DA’s office into the headquarters for his 2013 reelection campaign against the late Kenneth Thompson. Almost two years ago, the public’s right to know was challenged when the officers involved in Eric Garner’s homicide were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Obviously, the public wanted answers, but former Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan refused to turn over the grand jury minutes, arguing that the grand jury process was secret under the law, and that the jurors’ decision should not be impeached. If there was confidential testimony that could genuinely jeopardize the witness or the process, then those portions of the grand jury minutes could be redacted. At the very least, the evidence or lack thereof could be summarized to provide an explanation for the prosecutor’s decision not to move forward. If there was confidential testimony that could genuinely jeopardize the witness or the process, then those portions of the grand jury minutes could be redacted. At the very least, the evidence or lack thereof could be summarized to provide an explanation for the prosecutor’s decision not to move forward. Good government depends on transparency. A prosecutor should be accountable to the public for both the cases he chooses to bring forward and the cases he chooses not to bring. Good government depends on transparency. A prosecutor should be accountable to the public for both the cases he chooses to bring forward and the cases he chooses not to bring. Whether or not Hynes is charged criminally will never obviate the sorry fact that as pioneering a DA as he was, he and his executive team presided over unparalleled civil rights violations. Just ask the 21 men whom Hynes’ successor Kenneth Thompson exonerated after having spent decades of their lives behind bars courtesy of either Hynes prosecuting them or defending against their appeals.
O'Hara Finds Justice In Brooklyn After His 20 Year Fight Against the Political Bosses Three Found Boxes Obstruction of Justice?
Hit on Brooklyn DA Gonzalez Follow Up With A Hit on Gatling Now the Times Tries to Define the Race Around Thompson Can't the Media Cover the Race Without Publishing Hits That Were Given to Them By the Opposing Candidates Team
This is All About the Unpunished Corruption of DA Joe Hynes Not DA Thompson Correcting Illegal Convictions and How It Was Allowed to Happen
Is The BOE Hiding O'Hara Vs Hynes Lawsuit Evidence?
Former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes targeted dad of sexabuse victim instead of perv rabbi, lawsuit says (NYDN) A Brooklyn dad claims the borough’s former district attorney Charles Hynes targeted him while cutting a sweetheart deal with a prominent rabbi accused of sexually abusing boys. Samuel Kellner says in a federal civil rights lawsuit that Hynes falsely charged him with extortion after he led an effort to lock up Baruch Lebovits. “The ‘investigation’ by Hynes into [Kellner] deviated so egregiously from acceptable law enforcement activity as to demonstrate an intentional or reckless disregard for proper procedures,” reads the lawsuit targeting Hynes and the city. The sordid saga began in 2008 when Lebovits allegedly molested Kellner’s son. A prosecutor told Kellner that the district attorney’s office wasn’t going to open an investigation because the alleged offense was a misdemeanor and there were no other known victims, the suit says. But Kellner, working with a detective, found other boys who were preyed upon by Lebovits. Hynes’ office launched a probe but Kellner claims the former DA did nothing when Lebovits’ supporters succeeded in convincing one of his victims to drop the case. “Hynes’ deliberate indifference towards [the boy’s] plight and failure to protect him was part of a policy, custom and practice of deliberate indifference towards witness tampering and intimidation of victims of pedophiles and their families within the ultra-Orthodox community,” says the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court. Lebovits was ultimately convicted in March 2010 of multiple counts of sexual assault and sentenced to serve up to 32 years. Kellner’s joy was short-lived. He claims in the suit that Hynes quietly dismissed his son’s case against Lebovits in October 2010. “The suffering and courage of a victim in coming forward to report his abuse meant nothing to Hynes,” Kellner’s attorney Niall Macgiollabhui wrote in the suit. Things got worse forKellner in April 2011 when he was charged with trying to blackmail Lebovits’ wealthy family and paying a man to falsely accuse the rabbi. Hynes held a news conference trumpeting Kellner’s arrest. Lebovits was sprung from jail the next day. His conviction was overturned in 2012. “What is truly shocking is that instead of locking up pedophiles and protecting children, Hynes was instrumental in securing the release of a notorious predator from prison and dismissing the cases of two victims he and his office knew to have been abused,” Macgiollabhui told the Daily News. “At some point Hynes will have to explain why he conspired in the shadows with the family of a convicted child rapist to undermine the conviction his own office had just secured.” The criminal charges against Kellner were dropped in March 2014 after a prosecutor re-examining the case found inconsistencies in the accounts of two key witnesses. Lebovits pleaded guilty to reduced charges in May 2014 and was sentenced to serve another year. He was released after just 86 days. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said it will review the complaint. Kellner filed a defamation suit against the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper in November 2014. That case was settled in January under a confidentiality agreement.
Brooklyn DA Race
Other Races
O'Hara Cleared of 1997 Voter Fraund Conviction Plans to Sue Ex-Brooklyn DA Hynes for $25m
Lawyer cleared of 1997 voter fraud conviction plans tosue ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes for $25M (NYDN) “In an effort to obtain O’Hara’s unlawful conviction, they fabricated statements and evidence (and) coerced and intimidated witnesses to provide false testimony,” the notice of claim charged. O’Hara’s case is based in part on a shocking handwritten document delivered to the defense when the DA’s office surrendered three boxes of evidence in the summer of 2015. “They kept having trials to avoid a lawsuit,” O’Hara told the Daily News. “That's why I was the first person in Brooklyn to be tried three times on the same charges. For 20 years it worked.” A spokeswoman for the NYC Law Department said they “will review the claim.” Political outsider O’Hara — the first New Yorker prosecuted for voter fraud since Susan B. Anthony in 1873 — was cleared in January after the Brooklyn DA’s conviction review unit looked at his case. Anthony was charged with casting her ballot even though women weren't allowed to vote. O'Hara faced seven counts of voter fraud at three separate legal proceedings, beginning with a 1997 conviction. The verdict was overturned on appeal the next year, but a 1999 trial resulted in a hung jury before a third prosecution led to a felony conviction that was upheld in 2001. O'Hara’s law license was yanked, and he served 1,500 hours of community service and paid $20,000 in fines. He also spent five years on probation. A 2009 decision by the Appellate Division reinstated O’Hara as an attorney, ruling the disbarment was unwarranted. "The only good thing that came out of this is I didn't have to wait for my funeral to find out who my friends are," said O'Hara. Those also named as defendants are the NYPD, O'Mara, prosecutors Angelo Morelli, Dino Amoroso, Ronnie Jaus and Investigator Allan Presser. “We are looking to hold each and every individual who was responsible for the arrest and conviction of John O’Hara,” said his lawyer, Dennis Kelly. “And it starts with Joe Hynes, who used his political power to eliminate any type of opposition in the Democratic Party ... John was the collateral damage along with many others.”
O’Hara suing ex-DA Hynes for bogus voter-fraud conviction— and claims Assemblyman did his dirty work (Brooklyn Paper) Secret documents found stashed in the district attorney’s office show former Park Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan withheld crucial evidence that may have spared Sunset Park attorney John O’Hara from his notorious wrongful voter-fraud conviction, alleges a new civil suit O’Hara filed against ousted District Attorney Charles Hynes. The suit claims Hynes directed Brennan to conduct his own investigation into the bogus allegations that resulted in O’Hara being disbarred and disgraced back in 1997 — acting in the place of detectives in order to circumvent laws requiring prosecutors to hand over any exonerating evidence they find to a grand jury. “It was very cunning,” O’Hara said. “He had Brennan do it off the books.” O’Hara is suing Hynes and other prosecutors for $25 million for the allegedly malicious conviction that left him branded a criminal for two decades, and wasoverturned in January following an investigation kicked off by Hynes’s late successor Ken Thompson. Throughout it all, O’Hara suspected his runs against Brennan were the cause of his downfall, but it wasn’t until Thompson’s Conviction Review Unit — set up to overturn Hynes’s many wrongful convictions — last year uncovered three boxes of documents from the original case that he finally found proof, he said. Amongst the documents were notes written by the case’s prosecutor John O’Mara, which allegedly describe Brennan and his staff posing as journalists to question O’Hara’s neighbors and determine which of them would support Hynes’s narrative that he didn’t live at the Sunset Park address he’d registered to vote from, the suit claims. Throughout it all, O’Hara suspected his runs against Brennan were the cause of his downfall, but it wasn’t until Thompson’s Conviction Review Unit — set up to overturn Hynes’s many wrongful convictions — last year uncovered three boxes of documents from the original case that he finally found proof, he said. Amongst the documents were notes written by the case’s prosecutor John O’Mara, which allegedly describe Brennan and his staff posing as journalists to question O’Hara’s neighbors and determine which of them would support Hynes’s narrative that he didn’t live at the Sunset Park address he’d registered to vote from, the suit claims.
Former Brooklyn DA Candidate Abe George Says Release the Hynes Grand Jury File
Release the Hynes grand jury minutes (NYDN Ed) On Tuesday, former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles (Joe) Hynes was honored at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Michael Griffith’s death. Griffith was the tragic victim in the infamous racially charged Howard Beach case, where Hynes shined as a special prosecutor. Hynes, 81, suffered a stroke a few months ago, and appeared frail. The Griffith memorial was the first time Hynes had appeared publicly since 2014, when the city’s Department of Investigation issued a 27-page report detailing how Hynes had transformed his DA’s office into the headquarters for his 2013 reelection campaign against the late Kenneth Thompson. Almost two years ago, the public’s right to know was challenged when the officers involved in Eric Garner’s homicide were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Obviously, the public wanted answers, but former Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan refused to turn over the grand jury minutes, arguing that the grand jury process was secret under the law, and that the jurors’ decision should not be impeached. If there was confidential testimony that could genuinely jeopardize the witness or the process, then those portions of the grand jury minutes could be redacted. At the very least, the evidence or lack thereof could be summarized to provide an explanation for the prosecutor’s decision not to move forward. If there was confidential testimony that could genuinely jeopardize the witness or the process, then those portions of the grand jury minutes could be redacted. At the very least, the evidence or lack thereof could be summarized to provide an explanation for the prosecutor’s decision not to move forward. Good government depends on transparency. A prosecutor should be accountable to the public for both the cases he chooses to bring forward and the cases he chooses not to bring. Good government depends on transparency. A prosecutor should be accountable to the public for both the cases he chooses to bring forward and the cases he chooses not to bring. Whether or not Hynes is charged criminally will never obviate the sorry fact that as pioneering a DA as he was, he and his executive team presided over unparalleled civil rights violations. Just ask the 21 men whom Hynes’ successor Kenneth Thompson exonerated after having spent decades of their lives behind bars courtesy of either Hynes prosecuting them or defending against their appeals.
O'Hara Finds Justice In Brooklyn After His 20 Year Fight Against the Political Bosses Three Found Boxes Obstruction of Justice?
Update: Congrats to my good friend John O'hara for having his conviction overturned
Brooklyn DA Moves to Exonerate Lawyer in Notorious VoteFraud Case (NY1) When he succeeded the late District Attorney Ken Thompson last fall, Eric Gonzalez vowed to continue Thompson's agenda. Now he's fonce again fulfilling that promise, moving to clear a man who has long said his only crime was defying Brooklyn's Democratic bosses. Now his hand-picked successor, Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, will add to that list, moving to clear lawyer John O'Hara, who was convicted of voter fraud in a controversial prosecution 20 years ago. "I was the first person ever to be tried three times," O'Hara told NY1. "It's a debilitating process, and then all the appeals that went on. It's been 20 years now. And when you have a felony conviction, you're officially a second-class citizen." O'Hara was prosecuted on charges of using his girlfriend's address - 14 blocks from his own - to vote in 1996. He was said to be the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York since Susan B Anthony in 1872. He always maintained that former DA Charles Hynes had it out for him, because O'Hara repeatedly ran for office against candidates backed by the Brooklyn Democratic machine. "When you investigate somebody on their residency, it's an excuse to get into all of their personal records, their taxes, their checks, their credit card slips," O'Hara said. After O'Hara's conviction, a judge fined him and ordered him to perform community service by picking up garbage and cleaning public toilets in city parks. He also was disbarred from practicing law. He eventually got his law license back, in 2009, but the conviction remained. The case was so notorious, it came up in a debate during Thompson's campaign to unseat Hynes three years ago. "I believe that what the appellate division said that the character and fitness division said that John O'Hara was a victim of a political hit by the machine carried out by this DA," Thompson said then. Hynes always stood by the prosecution, although his office had to try the case three separate times beforee winning a conviction that would stick. But after Thompson was elected in 2013, it was of the many controvetrsial convictions the district attorney's office moved to examine. "About one year ago, former DA Thompson's conviction review unit turned over three boxes of materials to us which we have never seen before," O'Hara says. Thompson died of cancer last fall before the review of OHara's conviction was completed. The evidence vindicating Ohara is expected to be presented in a Brooklyn court Thursday. * New York Secures the Most Affordable Housing Units in 27 Years (NYT) Over the years, lawyers unearthed documents in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office that showed illegal tactics had been used in cases far more serious than Mr. O’Hara’s. In time, this helped lead to the ouster of Mr. Hynes by Kenneth P. Thompson, who ran on a platform of undoing what he saw as the injustices of the Hynes administration. Mr. Thompson, who died in October, set up a special unit to look into possible wrongful convictions. One of the lawyers who had uncovered wrongdoing in the district attorney’s office, Joel B. Rudin, took up Mr. O’Hara’s cause, filing 620 pages of arguments and exhibits with the court. Mr. Thompson agreed to review it. Investigators traveled to the southwest United States to interview the former owner of the house. She told them that she and her husband had indeed finished the basement as a recreation area. Asked in court if it were an apartment, she had said no. But no one asked if someone could live there. That was the entire crux of the case: Mr. O’Hara could actually have lived there. Mark Hale of the district attorney’s office said these facts created “insurmountable reasonable doubt as to his guilt.” So after 20 years, three trials and hundreds of thousands of dollars in court costs, Justice Cyrulnik “nd sealed,” she said. Mr. O’Hara, now 55, reflected on those words. “That means,” he said, “there’s no fourth trial.”
The Daily News Won't Even Name Fake Reformer Former Assemblyman Jim Brennan Who Pushed Hynes to Go After O'Hara
Justice for John O’Hara: After 20 years, a convictionoverturned (NYDN Ed) O’Hara had the unhappy distinction of being the only person in New York guilty of this arcane crime since Susan B. Anthony in 1873, and the reason for his conviction was nothing more and nothing less than one man’s political spite. In a pursuit of injustice that would be right at home in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it was former Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes, a political enemy of O’Hara, who railroaded the gadfly because he had the temerity to challenge Hynes’ pals in the Democratic machine. The tale is absurd. Bothered by O’Hara’s repeated runs for office (he always lost), Hynes had a grand jury gin up seven phony felony charges that O’Hara had voted from the wrong address. O’Hara was arrested, fingerprinted and photographed. The charge was not that O’Hara had voted twice or that he had voted out of a fake address. It was that he had voted out of the wrong address — the address of a girlfriend. O’Hara was offered a deal of a single misdemeanor, which the machine thought would scare him away. Guilty of nothing, O’Hara refused. So Hynes tried him. O’Hara was convicted, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. Hynes went at him again; that trial ended in a hung jury. Then, for the first and only time in his 24 years as DA, Hynes brought a person to trial a third time. It worked because hack Judge Abe Gerges, a slug of a former councilman, all but instructed the jury to return a guilty verdict. O’Hara appealed the verdict all the way up to the state’s highest court, where a foolish majority let it stand. Hynes had speared his white whale. Because of the vindictive grudge of one politician, a lawyer who had done nothing wrong was fined $20,000, sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service and disbarred, losing his law license and legal practice. O’Hara was saddled with nearly a half million dollars in lawyers’ bills. He and his girlfriend had hoped to wed, but she worked in a heavily regulated industry where she couldn’t be married to a convicted felon. How can that be undone?
Charges Dropped Against Former DA Hynes
Prosecutors Drop Inquiry Into Charles Hynes, Former Brooklyn District Attorney (NYT) Prosecutors said on Friday that they had dropped their long-running criminal investigation into whether Charles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, misused public money in his unsuccessful 2013 re-election campaign. More than two years ago, not long after the end of his 23-year tenure, Mr. Hynes came under the scrutiny of the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn over accusations that he had illegally spent $219,000 seized from drug dealers and other defendants on a political consultant in his hard-fought campaign against Ken Thompson, who beat Mr. Hynes in a primary and the general election to become the borough’s first black district attorney. The complaints about the consultant, Mortimer Matz, surfaced in June 2014 in a city report that also claimed Mr. Hynes had used his official email account to conduct campaign business and had asked members of his staff to stump on his behalf. But in a letter sent to Mr. Hynes’s lawyer, Sean Haran, on Friday, Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said there was insufficient evidence to support the filing of charges in the matter.*
Brooklyn DA
Ken Thompson’s Successor: A ‘Pure District Attorney’ Working Under the Radar (NYT) Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez says he wants to continue the work, especially in healing community relations, that Mr. Thompson championed before dying in October.*
Cuomo The @BrooklynDA's office will remain in capable hands Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.during this difficult time
The handpicked successor of late District Attorney Ken Thompson will remain in the post until Thompson’s term ends at the close of 2017, Gov. Cuomo announced today. Thompson named his No. 2, Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, as the borough’s top prosecutor in his absence on Oct. 4 — less than a week before he succumbed to colon cancer. Cuomo has the power to appoint a replacement, but has opted to leave the reins with Gonzalez. “While we continue to mourn the loss of District Attorney Thompson, the important work of the Brooklyn’s DA office does not cease. Until the next election, the Brooklyn DA’s Office will continue to be led by Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Gonzalez,” Cuomo tweeted on Monday * Acting Brooklyn district attorney will keep his seat (NYP)* Cuomo to let actingBrooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez finish term despite push for Public Advocate LetitiaJames (NYDN)
NYP's Boss Lobbyists Arzt Fixing Election, Trying to Free Up PA for Bronx BP, If James Winds Up As Brooklyn DA
Ex-con using Eric Adams ties to push youth program’s bogus claims (NYP) An ex-con is using his close ties to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to reinvent himself as a bishop overseeing youth mentorship programs — but he hasn’t left all his troubling behavior behind, according to records and associates. Lamor Whitehead, founder of Leaders of Tomorrow Brooklyn, has appeared at more than a dozen high-profile events with Adams since his five-year stint at Sing Sing, where he served time on multiple counts of identity fraud and grand larceny before his release in July 2013. Whitehead has used the public spotlight with Adams to tout his group’s mentorship programs and raise funds, including before he registered it as a for-profit business in March 2014. But a number of Whitehead’s public claims about the group have been refuted, including by law-enforcement agencies. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office sent Whitehead a cease-and-desist letter in November 2014 after he promoted a collaborative justice initiative with the DA’s office that didn’t exist. The NYPD and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce also countered claims by Whitehead that they were partnering with his group on specific initiatives.
One Day After the Death of DA Thompson Push for PA Tish James to Replace and Ticket Shaping?
Well-placed Brooklyn lawmakers want Letitia James as next DA (NYP) * Rest in peace, Ken Thompson (NYP Ed) * Changes mayoral math as in other potential mayoral challengers, eg, Diaz, opting to run for Public Advocate. Math: known/unknown variables * The people's prosecutor (NYDN Ed) * The Death of a Visionary Prosecutor (NYT Ed) In a short time, Ken Thompson made big and welcome changes in Brooklyn’s long-troubled district attorney’s office.* HakeemJeffries slams talk of successor to D.A. Thompson, says Gonzales should begiven chance (City and State) *Ken Thompson's trail-blazing career as first black Brooklyn DA was inspired by his mother's own pioneering character (NYDN) * Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson remembered as 'driven for justice' at wake as many turn out to mourn his death (NYDN) * Latin advocatesurge Gov. Cuomo to keep acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on job instead ofappointing Letitia James (NYDN) * Brooklyncommunity fears DA Ken Thompson’s replacement won’t continue his mission tooverturn wrongful convictions (NYDN)
Brooklyn DA Thompson Dies of Cancer RIP
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson died Sunday after battling cancer, his office said. He was 50 years old. This death comes just days after the Brooklyn DA's office revealed Thompson had been diagnosed with cancer and had designated his chief deputy, Eric Gonzalez, to run the office while he received treatment. Thompson’s office did not specify with what type of cancer he was diagnosed. The statement stated he had a “hard fought battle with cancer,” and his family was at his side at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital when he passed. Gonzalez, the chief district attorney, has been with the Brooklyn DA's office since 1995 and was tapped to serve as Thompson's top lieutenant in 2014. He is the first Latino to serve in that role. In a separate statement Sunday, Gonzalez said, “the executive team and I are committed to leading the office and carrying out DA Thompson's vision and initiatives." Gonzalez said Thompson “was a giant among those seeking to reform the criminal justice system and we are all privileged to have worked under his transformative leadership these past three years.” “In that short period, he transformed the office into a model urban prosecutor's office, with a mandate to do justice and treat everyone and every case fairly and with utmost integrity. Among his many initiatives, he created a model for correcting wrongful convictions, instituted a marijuana policy that would later be replicated citywide and started a summons forgiveness program that would also be instituted in several other jurisdictions,” he said. “May he rest in peace, knowing that he has made Brooklyn and New York City a better place.” Thompson took office in January 2014. His career included working as a federal prosecutor, where he prosecuted the case against a police officer accused in the 1997 assault of Abner Louima. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was saddened to learn of the “sudden passing” of Thompson. “A lifelong New Yorker, Ken was known as an effective, aggressive civil rights leader – and a national voice for criminal justice reform. When he took office in 2014, Ken became the first African-American in history to serve as Brooklyn District Attorney,” Cuomo said. Thompson is survived by his wife of 17 years, Lu-Shawn Thompson, his two children, Kennedy and Kenny, his mother, father, brother and sister. * Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Dies After Disclosing Cancer (NYT) * Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson dies at 50 after battle with cancer (NYP)
After being absent from his office for nearly two months, Mr. Thompson, who took over the job in 2014, announced last week that he had Brooklyn district attorney says he has cancer (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson is battling an “aggressive” form of cancer and has left the day-to-day operations of his office to his second-in-command. Thompson, 50, who took office in... * Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Says He Has Cancer and Will Take Leave
Something About the Brooklyn DA's Office
Check, please, for the DA: Ken Thompson's big meal mistake (NYDN Ed) For treating his security detail like gofers and for billing the taxpayers for his meals, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has paid a hefty fine — and, more important, suffered a blow to his reputation.Thompson took office in 2014 after leaving a private-sector law firm at which, no doubt, underlings fetched expense-account meals. He seems not to have realized those days were over.Worse, Thompson seems to have bypassed reading city regulations governing official conduct — while running an office in which no one stood up to say that sending cops to pick up lunches and dinners was a no-no, that having them lay out the money was a no-no and reimbursing them out of the office budget was a no-no.In fining Thompson $15,000, the Conflicts of Interest Board hit Thompson with a record sum against a DA. He will also pay restitution. On the upside, the conflicts board applied a measure of punishment to a top official, rather than just hammer those lower down. In one case, the board forced a sanitation worker out of a job for taking a Christmas tip. That may be a cautionary tale for Thompson down the road.
Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Is Fined for Misusing Funds on Meals (NYT)
Mr. Thompson used police officers to get his meals and pay for them before being reimbursed with office funds, said the Conflicts of Interest Board, which levied a $15,000 penalty. * Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson must pay $15G fine for taxpayer-funded lunch and dinners totaling more than $5,000(NYDN) * Ken Thompson’s $15K fine may not be end of free meal drama (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson refused to say Thursday whether he’d been privately admonished for misconduct before getting blistered by the city Conflicts of Interest Board — and it could spell trouble for his law license if he was, an expert on legal ethics told The Post.* Investigator: Ken Thompson fired me because I’m former DA’s ally(NYP) * ‘Imperial Ken’ Thompson, the perk-crazed Brooklyn DA(NYP Ed) * Sister of 1986 hate attack victim sues Brooklyn DA for $15M, saying she was fired due to political ties(NYDN) * According to a new $20 million lawsuit, a longtime investigator is calling out Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson for firing her because she’s a close ally of his predecessor and claims she was demoted and replaced by someone who worked on his campaign, the Post writes. * Post exclusive sparked probe into Thompson’s free lunches(NYP)
Brooklyn DA Moves to Exonerate Lawyer in Notorious VoteFraud Case (NY1) When he succeeded the late District Attorney Ken Thompson last fall, Eric Gonzalez vowed to continue Thompson's agenda. Now he's fonce again fulfilling that promise, moving to clear a man who has long said his only crime was defying Brooklyn's Democratic bosses. Now his hand-picked successor, Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, will add to that list, moving to clear lawyer John O'Hara, who was convicted of voter fraud in a controversial prosecution 20 years ago. "I was the first person ever to be tried three times," O'Hara told NY1. "It's a debilitating process, and then all the appeals that went on. It's been 20 years now. And when you have a felony conviction, you're officially a second-class citizen." O'Hara was prosecuted on charges of using his girlfriend's address - 14 blocks from his own - to vote in 1996. He was said to be the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York since Susan B Anthony in 1872. He always maintained that former DA Charles Hynes had it out for him, because O'Hara repeatedly ran for office against candidates backed by the Brooklyn Democratic machine. "When you investigate somebody on their residency, it's an excuse to get into all of their personal records, their taxes, their checks, their credit card slips," O'Hara said. After O'Hara's conviction, a judge fined him and ordered him to perform community service by picking up garbage and cleaning public toilets in city parks. He also was disbarred from practicing law. He eventually got his law license back, in 2009, but the conviction remained. The case was so notorious, it came up in a debate during Thompson's campaign to unseat Hynes three years ago. "I believe that what the appellate division said that the character and fitness division said that John O'Hara was a victim of a political hit by the machine carried out by this DA," Thompson said then. Hynes always stood by the prosecution, although his office had to try the case three separate times beforee winning a conviction that would stick. But after Thompson was elected in 2013, it was of the many controvetrsial convictions the district attorney's office moved to examine. "About one year ago, former DA Thompson's conviction review unit turned over three boxes of materials to us which we have never seen before," O'Hara says. Thompson died of cancer last fall before the review of OHara's conviction was completed. The evidence vindicating Ohara is expected to be presented in a Brooklyn court Thursday. * New York Secures the Most Affordable Housing Units in 27 Years (NYT) Over the years, lawyers unearthed documents in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office that showed illegal tactics had been used in cases far more serious than Mr. O’Hara’s. In time, this helped lead to the ouster of Mr. Hynes by Kenneth P. Thompson, who ran on a platform of undoing what he saw as the injustices of the Hynes administration. Mr. Thompson, who died in October, set up a special unit to look into possible wrongful convictions. One of the lawyers who had uncovered wrongdoing in the district attorney’s office, Joel B. Rudin, took up Mr. O’Hara’s cause, filing 620 pages of arguments and exhibits with the court. Mr. Thompson agreed to review it. Investigators traveled to the southwest United States to interview the former owner of the house. She told them that she and her husband had indeed finished the basement as a recreation area. Asked in court if it were an apartment, she had said no. But no one asked if someone could live there. That was the entire crux of the case: Mr. O’Hara could actually have lived there. Mark Hale of the district attorney’s office said these facts created “insurmountable reasonable doubt as to his guilt.” So after 20 years, three trials and hundreds of thousands of dollars in court costs, Justice Cyrulnik “nd sealed,” she said. Mr. O’Hara, now 55, reflected on those words. “That means,” he said, “there’s no fourth trial.”
Justice for John O’Hara: After 20 years, a convictionoverturned (NYDN Ed) O’Hara had the unhappy distinction of being the only person in New York guilty of this arcane crime since Susan B. Anthony in 1873, and the reason for his conviction was nothing more and nothing less than one man’s political spite. In a pursuit of injustice that would be right at home in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it was former Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes, a political enemy of O’Hara, who railroaded the gadfly because he had the temerity to challenge Hynes’ pals in the Democratic machine. The tale is absurd. Bothered by O’Hara’s repeated runs for office (he always lost), Hynes had a grand jury gin up seven phony felony charges that O’Hara had voted from the wrong address. O’Hara was arrested, fingerprinted and photographed. The charge was not that O’Hara had voted twice or that he had voted out of a fake address. It was that he had voted out of the wrong address — the address of a girlfriend. O’Hara was offered a deal of a single misdemeanor, which the machine thought would scare him away. Guilty of nothing, O’Hara refused. So Hynes tried him. O’Hara was convicted, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. Hynes went at him again; that trial ended in a hung jury. Then, for the first and only time in his 24 years as DA, Hynes brought a person to trial a third time. It worked because hack Judge Abe Gerges, a slug of a former councilman, all but instructed the jury to return a guilty verdict. O’Hara appealed the verdict all the way up to the state’s highest court, where a foolish majority let it stand. Hynes had speared his white whale. Because of the vindictive grudge of one politician, a lawyer who had done nothing wrong was fined $20,000, sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service and disbarred, losing his law license and legal practice. O’Hara was saddled with nearly a half million dollars in lawyers’ bills. He and his girlfriend had hoped to wed, but she worked in a heavily regulated industry where she couldn’t be married to a convicted felon. How can that be undone?
Charges Dropped Against Former DA Hynes
Brooklyn DA
Ken Thompson’s Successor: A ‘Pure District Attorney’ Working Under the Radar (NYT) Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez says he wants to continue the work, especially in healing community relations, that Mr. Thompson championed before dying in October.*
Mr. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau on His Years as District Attorney: ‘I Don’t Look Back’ (NYT) Mr. Morgenthau, now 97, saw crime and the city change during his decades as a top prosecutor. As for any mistakes along the way, he says he doesn’t revisit closed chapters.
Cuomo The @BrooklynDA's office will remain in capable hands Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.during this difficult time
NYP's Boss Lobbyists Arzt Fixing Election, Trying to Free Up PA for Bronx BP, If James Winds Up As Brooklyn DA
One Day After the Death of DA Thompson Push for PA Tish James to Replace and Ticket Shaping?
Well-placed Brooklyn lawmakers want Letitia James as next DA (NYP) * Rest in peace, Ken Thompson (NYP Ed) * Changes mayoral math as in other potential mayoral challengers, eg, Diaz, opting to run for Public Advocate. Math: known/unknown variables * The people's prosecutor (NYDN Ed) * The Death of a Visionary Prosecutor (NYT Ed) In a short time, Ken Thompson made big and welcome changes in Brooklyn’s long-troubled district attorney’s office.* HakeemJeffries slams talk of successor to D.A. Thompson, says Gonzales should begiven chance (City and State) *Ken Thompson's trail-blazing career as first black Brooklyn DA was inspired by his mother's own pioneering character (NYDN) * Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson remembered as 'driven for justice' at wake as many turn out to mourn his death (NYDN) * Latin advocatesurge Gov. Cuomo to keep acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on job instead ofappointing Letitia James (NYDN) * Brooklyncommunity fears DA Ken Thompson’s replacement won’t continue his mission tooverturn wrongful convictions (NYDN)
Brooklyn DA Thompson Dies of Cancer RIP
After being absent from his office for nearly two months, Mr. Thompson, who took over the job in 2014, announced last week that he had Brooklyn district attorney says he has cancer (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson is battling an “aggressive” form of cancer and has left the day-to-day operations of his office to his second-in-command. Thompson, 50, who took office in... * Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Says He Has Cancer and Will Take Leave
Something About the Brooklyn DA's Office
Check, please, for the DA: Ken Thompson's big meal mistake (NYDN Ed) For treating his security detail like gofers and for billing the taxpayers for his meals, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has paid a hefty fine — and, more important, suffered a blow to his reputation.Thompson took office in 2014 after leaving a private-sector law firm at which, no doubt, underlings fetched expense-account meals. He seems not to have realized those days were over.Worse, Thompson seems to have bypassed reading city regulations governing official conduct — while running an office in which no one stood up to say that sending cops to pick up lunches and dinners was a no-no, that having them lay out the money was a no-no and reimbursing them out of the office budget was a no-no.In fining Thompson $15,000, the Conflicts of Interest Board hit Thompson with a record sum against a DA. He will also pay restitution. On the upside, the conflicts board applied a measure of punishment to a top official, rather than just hammer those lower down. In one case, the board forced a sanitation worker out of a job for taking a Christmas tip. That may be a cautionary tale for Thompson down the road.
Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Is Fined for Misusing Funds on Meals (NYT)
Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Is Fined for Misusing Funds on Meals (NYT)
Mr. Thompson used police officers to get his meals and pay for them before being reimbursed with office funds, said the Conflicts of Interest Board, which levied a $15,000 penalty. * Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson must pay $15G fine for taxpayer-funded lunch and dinners totaling more than $5,000(NYDN) * Ken Thompson’s $15K fine may not be end of free meal drama (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson refused to say Thursday whether he’d been privately admonished for misconduct before getting blistered by the city Conflicts of Interest Board — and it could spell trouble for his law license if he was, an expert on legal ethics told The Post.* Investigator: Ken Thompson fired me because I’m former DA’s ally(NYP) * ‘Imperial Ken’ Thompson, the perk-crazed Brooklyn DA(NYP Ed) * Sister of 1986 hate attack victim sues Brooklyn DA for $15M, saying she was fired due to political ties(NYDN) * According to a new $20 million lawsuit, a longtime investigator is calling out Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson for firing her because she’s a close ally of his predecessor and claims she was demoted and replaced by someone who worked on his campaign, the Post writes. * Post exclusive sparked probe into Thompson’s free lunches(NYP)
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Asian-Americans Get No Respect
A political awakening is taking hold with Asian-American New Yorkers (NYP Ed) Liang supporters ask: Why was he convicted when other, non-Asian cops got the benefit of the doubt after similar shootings? Is it just that their community gets no respect?Smaller issues have sparked sea changes — and activists tell The Post they plan on mobilizing against Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson’s re-election next year. Another flashpoint: the state crackdown on the heavily Asian-American nail-salon business after last year’s dubious New York Times reporting. Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) says the state’s actions are unparalleled. Gov. Cuomo’s “targeted enforcement will cripple the nail-salon industy . . . More than 71 percent of owners are trying to close their shops and 54 percent have laid off employees. How is this helping our workers?” Kim asked this week. Meanwhile, other New Yorkers of Asian descent worry about the drive to alter admissions standards at the city’s elite public high schools. Asians already see themselves as victimized by quotas at Harvard University New York ’s quietest communities starts to speak up.* The details of state inspections of nail salons are perhaps most revealing about just how challenging it is to regulate a largely immigrant-run industry in which almost everything is done off the books and employers are often unfamiliar with the intricacies of state labor laws.
Chinese-American Mad At Thompson for Locking Up Officer Liang
Will the Asian Vote Become A Major Force in NYC?
Chinese-American activists, angered by last week’s conviction of former NYPD Officer Peter Liang for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, are seeking a candidate to run against Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson next year.* Thousands rallying in Brooklyn for Officer Peter Liang - PBA nowhere to be seen.* Nearly 10,000 protesters — most of them Asian Americans —are rallying in Brooklyn in support of ex-copPeter Liang (NYT) In New York,thousands protest Officer Peter Liang’s manslaughter conviction
More than 10,000 protesters rallying in support of ex-cop Peter Liang (NYP) * Supporters rally behind Peter Liang, cop convicted in Akai Gurley’s shooting death (NYDN) * Biased DA, city scapegoat the Asian-American community (NYP) * 'ALL HE DID WAS WALK DOWN STAIRS': Ex-NYPD cops fired for deadly Akai Gurley shooting respond to $50M lawsuit by claiming it was Gurley’s fault he was shot (NYDN) * "Supporters of Officer Liang noted the strained relationship between the police and African-Americans across the country, after a string of incidents in which unarmed black men were killed by officers, many of whom were never charged. Officer Liang, in their view, was the one who had to pay the price. One of the printed announcements for the rally read, 'In the wake of so many unfortunate deaths of unarmed black men, some cops gotta hang.' The evidence against Officer Liang, his supporters contend, did not seem as clear-cut compared to the cases of other officers who have not been prosecuted. Some also believed that the gunfire had been an accidental discharge. 'All the policemen have no punishment for all they did,' said Tommy Shi, 30, who lives in Manhattan and works in a restaurant. 'Peter Liang is a scapegoat for all this ... That's why we stand for Peter Liang.'" (NYT) -- Counterprotest - amNY's: "Black Lives Matter activists on Saturday disrupted a rally supporting [Liang]. Disorder-control police stood shoulder to shoulder to separate the groups ..."
Crooked Brooklyn Judge, DA and Author
Crooked Brooklyn Judge Garson: 'CROOKED BROOKLYN': New book details how Brooklyn D.A. took down dirty matrimonial judge selling rulings for a fee (NYDN) Frieda Hanimov is an attractive blonde with a Brooklyn accent right out of Russia via Israel. She is endearing and attractive. For 13 years, she was married to a man she paints as a con artist who left her and their three children penniless. Now, two years after the divorce, her ex was after custody of the children. So far, all of Judge Gerald P. Garson’s decisions were going against her. The first time she appeared in court, she was stung by Garson’s ranting at her and telling her she had no chance to get the kids. One day, Frieda, a nurse, complained about Garson to a woman she saw often in court. She was told Nissim Ellman, an electronics dealer, could help her. Ellman revealed he knew a lawyer who was close to Garson who, for the right sum, could pay off the judge and get Frieda custody of her children.
Crooked Brooklyn DA Hynes: The rise and fall of Joe Hynes - Leonard Levitt | am New York * Ex-Brooklyn Prosecutor Charles J. Hynes Accused of Misuse of Funds (NYT) A New York City Department of Investigation inquiry has implicatedCharles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, in the improper use of money seized from drug dealers and other criminal defendants to pay a political consultant more than $200,000 for his work on Mr. Hynes’s unsuccessful re-election campaign last year. * Ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes may have used drug money seized from drugdealers, crooks to fund reelection bid: investigation (NYDN) A report by the city’s Department of Investigations says the former district attorney paid a political consultant more than $200,000 — possibly seized from drug dealers and other felons — and allowed staffers to work on his campaign on the job. Hynes' reputation had already been sullied by a spate of wrongful murder convictions and accusations of unlawful prosecution tactics when he was in office. * Man released from prison after wrongful conviction - AOL
Shadow Govt Campaign Consultan Lobbyists Arzt Questions In DA Hynes Investigation in Shady-Spending
Witnesses subpoenaed in Charles Hynes’ shady-spending case (NYP) The criminal probe of former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes — over allegations he used crime-fighting cash to pay a political consultant — is heating up, with authorities subpoenaing multiple witnesses in the past few weeks, sources told The Post. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn interviewed two more people under subpoena last week, in addition to questioning multiple DA staffers and campaign workers in the past month, according to sources. Almost a dozen investigators from the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office, and both the city and state comptroller’s offices asked the ex-staffers whether Hynes’ neighborhood community relations offices were being used as de facto campaign outposts in the 2013 race, a source said.
Is A 2014 Lawsuit of Hynes Wrongful Conviction Driving the Feds Investigation?
Hynes’ ex-spokesman testifies advisor held weekly meetings (2014, NYP) Arzt was deposed as part of a $150 million lawsuit by a man wrongfully convicted by Hynes’ office, Jabbar Collins, who was locked up for 15 years before he was exonerated.
Dirty Advance Group Also Worked for Hynes Were They Called In By the Feds?
Advance was payed $600,000 by the Hynes Campaign
“The bottom line is, did anyone who worked on the campaign get paid with city funds or state funds or forfeiture funds? That’s really the issue,” a source familiar with the probe said. Investigators are also looking at whether the community relations workers were on the DA’s Office payroll or whether they were consultants paid from another source. Former Hynes staffers interviewed in the past month include campaign spokesman George Arzt, DA spokesman Jerry Schmetterer and campaign manager Dennis Quirk, who is also head of the court officers union, sources said. Arzt didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Quirk and Schmetterer declined to comment. The Post was the first to report in June 2014 that a Department of Investigation report accused Hynes of wrongly using $1 million in forfeiture funds seized from crooks to pay political p r consultant Morty Matz in his losing 2013 campaign against current DA Ken Thompson.
How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election
Hynes Spokesman Says He Was Paid for Officials DA Work, Arzt Says He Was At Campaign Meetings 
A campaign spokesman for Charles Hynes said the advisor whom authorities say was paid out of forfeiture cash held weekly campaign meetings with the then-DA and staffers during Hynes’ reelection bid But in a sworn deposition Monday, former Hynes spokesman George Arzt testified that Matz attended weekly campaign meetings — which included DA staff — and advised the campaign. “Was Matz present at all the meetings . . . in the summer of 2013?” lawyer Joel Rudin asked, according to the deposition. “Most or many,” answered Arzt “What was his role?” Rudin asked. “An adviser,” Arzt answered. “To Mr. Hynes?” Rudin pressed. “To the campaign,” Arzt said. Arzt also answered, “Yes,” when asked whether Matz “provided campaign advice” at those meetings, held in the Manhattan offices of the court-officers union. Reached Wednesday, Matz declined to comment Arzt was deposed Monday as part of a $150 million lawsuit by a man wrongfully convicted by Hynes’ office, Jabbar Collins, who was locked up for 15 years before he was exonerated. * Hynes' ex-spokesman testifies advisor held weekly meetings 2014, nypost.com/
Arzt Who Talk to Feds Works As A Campaign Consultant So He Can Rake In the $$$ As A Lobbyists
How Killing the Moreland Help Arzt's Real Estate Client Excell
Cuomo said he has no problem with the anti-corruption Moreland Commission he convened sending subpoenas to real estate companies that have contributed to his campaign, including Extell Development, the Times Union writes: * Evan Davis, a lawyer who served as counsel to former Gov. Mario Cuomo, is spearheading the launch of a survey that will review the effectiveness and potential improvements for the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, theTimes Union writes: * George Arzt's clients is Extell, and Extell is the sponsor of the exclusive, luxury condo called One57 that is the target of an investigation for possible corruption. Extell has funneled approximately $75,000 in campaign contributions to Christine Quinn. According to this report, generated moments ago from the New York City Campaign Finance Board Web site, Mr. Arzt has contributed $90,500 in political donations to municipal candidates.2013-08-23 George Arzt Campaign Donations - Master List - Quick Search - New York City Campaign Finance Boa... * NYC : News & Analysis: George Arzt : The $90,500 ...Arzt contributed to political candidates. Tax break to Midtown luxury condo tower will cost NYC $65.6M in property taxes (NYDN) The city isn't getting much bang for its buck by awarding a huge tax break to a luxury condo tower in Midtown, the Independent Budget Office found. A tax break for One57 will cost the city $65.6 million in property taxes over 10 years, money that could have paid for 367 affordable apartments. Instead, under the deal with One57's developer, Extell Group, only 66 affordable units were built. That means taxpayers subsidized apartments at a rate of nearly $1 million per unit when affordable units on average cost $179,000 apiece. Hundreds protest tax breaks to New York City real estate developers in shadow of skyscraper for mega rich (NYDN) * Upper West Side condo has separate entrances for rich and poor(NYP) This is rich! The poor will use a separate door under plans for a new Upper West Side luxury tower — where affordable housing will be segregated from ritzy waterfront condos despite being in the. * Extell Lobbyist Money is Also Flying At the Hudson Yards * Sheldon Silver aided Gov. Cuomo in sneaking through tax breaks for luxury developer(NYDN) Two developers who stood to benefit from the tax breaks gave Cuomo big donations days before his bill-signing. Several sources involved in the process identified Silver as the creator of the lucrative tax relief. One 57th St. building in Manhattan was projected to save $35 million over 10 years. Between 2007 and 2011, as the median family income in the city dropped by 6.8%, the median monthly rent went up by 8.6%. Thirty-one percent of New Yorkers spent more than half their income on rent, as those not lifted up by New York ’s booming, knowledge-intensive fields felt the squeeze.
Real Estate Developers, Tax Breakes and Politics, 421-a
How Does the Daily News Reporter Who Covered the DA Now Work for Him?
Last Act As A Daily News Reporter Puff Piece for His New Boss
Oren Yaniv, the tabloid's beat reporter at Brooklyn Courts, is joining Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson's office as senior communications officer, he confirmed to Capital. * Two reporters leaving the New York Daily News (Capital) * Daily News reporter writes Ken Thompson puff piece before going to work for him(NYP) Daily News Editor-in-Chief Colin Myler published a fawning news story about Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson’s record in reducing crime even though one of the two reporters whose byline appears on the piece had already told his bosses he was quitting — to take a job in Thompson’s communications department. B’klyn is king in crime fight,” blared the Monday headline in reporter Oren Yaniv’s story — just days before he might be writing a press release touting the same. Yaniv told his superiors on Friday he was heading to the DA’s office. The headline on the web version was even more laudatory trumpeting “EXCLUSIVE: Shootings, homicides are up in the city — except Brooklyn .” Clearly, sources said, Yaniv was interviewing for the job with the DA while he was reporting the story on his future boss.
NYP Brooklyn Thompson DA Light On Hard Crime Hynes Scandal Cop
Ken Thompson’s indictment strategies go soft on hard crime (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has indicted or obtained guilty pleas before indictment on the lowest percentage of felony complaints of any prosecutor citywide — a disturbing drop that could signal soft treatment of criminals, experts warn. A Post investigation found that Thompson indicted or won a guilty plea on just 32 percent of felony complaints in 2014, his first year in office — a 10 percentage point drop from predecessor Charles Hynes’ last two years in office, when the average was 42 percent. And during the first two months of 2015, Thompson’s figure plummeted even lower — 29 percent, a rate almost 8 percentage points lower than the city average of 36.9 percent.* ‘He’s soft on crime’: Cops blast Brooklyn DA’s indictment rates(NYP)* Meet 7 people freed after DA reviews scandal-plagued cop’s cases(NYP) * Scandal-scarred NYPD detective defends his most infamous cases
Brooklyn DA Will New Pot Police Clog the Courts?
By KENNETH P. THOMPSON
The new marijuana rules will overload the summons system.
Hynes Judge Campaign Consultant Leaving
Facing Removal, Judge Who Led New York’s Criminal Courts Will Leave Bench(NYT)The judge who oversaw New York City’s criminal courts as well as policy and planning for the state court system has agreed to resign rather than face the prospect of removal for allegedly discussing pending cases and engaging in improper political activity in 2013 with the Brooklyn district attorney at the time. The commission began its inquiry into the allegations against Justice Kamins in June, based on a report by the city’s Department of Investigation. The report found that the widely respected jurist had improperly provided political and legal advice to the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, in a series of emails exchanged during Mr. Hynes’s unsuccessful 2013 re-election campaign. The report also found that Justice Kamins and Mr. Hynes, friends for more than 40 years, had improperly discussed matters that the prosecutor’s office was actively pursuing. Both were violations of the code of judicial conduct.Judge who gave political advice to Charles Hynes resigns (NYDN) Judge Barry Kamins agreed to step down Wednesday after an investigation revealed he gave the then-embattled Brooklyn district attorney advice to help his reelection campaign and wrongful convictions controversy.
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Asian-Americans Get No Respect
A political awakening is taking hold with Asian-American New Yorkers (NYP Ed) Liang supporters ask: Why was he convicted when other, non-Asian cops got the benefit of the doubt after similar shootings? Is it just that their community gets no respect?Smaller issues have sparked sea changes — and activists tell The Post they plan on mobilizing against Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson’s re-election next year. Another flashpoint: the state crackdown on the heavily Asian-American nail-salon business after last year’s dubious New York Times reporting. Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) says the state’s actions are unparalleled. Gov. Cuomo’s “targeted enforcement will cripple the nail-salon industy . . . More than 71 percent of owners are trying to close their shops and 54 percent have laid off employees. How is this helping our workers?” Kim asked this week. Meanwhile, other New Yorkers of Asian descent worry about the drive to alter admissions standards at the city’s elite public high schools. Asians already see themselves as victimized by quotas at Harvard University New York ’s quietest communities starts to speak up.* The details of state inspections of nail salons are perhaps most revealing about just how challenging it is to regulate a largely immigrant-run industry in which almost everything is done off the books and employers are often unfamiliar with the intricacies of state labor laws.
Chinese-American Mad At Thompson for Locking Up Officer Liang
Will the Asian Vote Become A Major Force in NYC?
More than 10,000 protesters rallying in support of ex-cop Peter Liang (NYP) * Supporters rally behind Peter Liang, cop convicted in Akai Gurley’s shooting death (NYDN) * Biased DA, city scapegoat the Asian-American community (NYP) * 'ALL HE DID WAS WALK DOWN STAIRS': Ex-NYPD cops fired for deadly Akai Gurley shooting respond to $50M lawsuit by claiming it was Gurley’s fault he was shot (NYDN) * "Supporters of Officer Liang noted the strained relationship between the police and African-Americans across the country, after a string of incidents in which unarmed black men were killed by officers, many of whom were never charged. Officer Liang, in their view, was the one who had to pay the price. One of the printed announcements for the rally read, 'In the wake of so many unfortunate deaths of unarmed black men, some cops gotta hang.' The evidence against Officer Liang, his supporters contend, did not seem as clear-cut compared to the cases of other officers who have not been prosecuted. Some also believed that the gunfire had been an accidental discharge. 'All the policemen have no punishment for all they did,' said Tommy Shi, 30, who lives in Manhattan and works in a restaurant. 'Peter Liang is a scapegoat for all this ... That's why we stand for Peter Liang.'" (NYT) -- Counterprotest - amNY's: "Black Lives Matter activists on Saturday disrupted a rally supporting [Liang]. Disorder-control police stood shoulder to shoulder to separate the groups ..."
Crooked Brooklyn Judge, DA and Author
Crooked Brooklyn Author Michael F. Vecchione: Under Fire, Brooklyn Deputy ProsecutorWill Retire (NYT) * Brooklyn DA Michael Vecchione; congenital liar, ethicalleper-con *
Crooked Brooklyn DA Hynes: The rise and fall of Joe Hynes - Leonard Levitt | am New York * Ex-Brooklyn Prosecutor Charles J. Hynes Accused of Misuse of Funds (NYT) A New York City Department of Investigation inquiry has implicatedCharles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, in the improper use of money seized from drug dealers and other criminal defendants to pay a political consultant more than $200,000 for his work on Mr. Hynes’s unsuccessful re-election campaign last year. * Ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes may have used drug money seized from drugdealers, crooks to fund reelection bid: investigation (NYDN) A report by the city’s Department of Investigations says the former district attorney paid a political consultant more than $200,000 — possibly seized from drug dealers and other felons — and allowed staffers to work on his campaign on the job. Hynes' reputation had already been sullied by a spate of wrongful murder convictions and accusations of unlawful prosecution tactics when he was in office. * Man released from prison after wrongful conviction - AOL
Shadow Govt Campaign Consultan Lobbyists Arzt Questions In DA Hynes Investigation in Shady-Spending
Witnesses subpoenaed in Charles Hynes’ shady-spending case (NYP) The criminal probe of former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes — over allegations he used crime-fighting cash to pay a political consultant — is heating up, with authorities subpoenaing multiple witnesses in the past few weeks, sources told The Post. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn interviewed two more people under subpoena last week, in addition to questioning multiple DA staffers and campaign workers in the past month, according to sources. Almost a dozen investigators from the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office, and both the city and state comptroller’s offices asked the ex-staffers whether Hynes’ neighborhood community relations offices were being used as de facto campaign outposts in the 2013 race, a source said.
Is A 2014 Lawsuit of Hynes Wrongful Conviction Driving the Feds Investigation?
Hynes’ ex-spokesman testifies advisor held weekly meetings (2014, NYP) Arzt was deposed as part of a $150 million lawsuit by a man wrongfully convicted by Hynes’ office, Jabbar Collins, who was locked up for 15 years before he was exonerated.
Dirty Advance Group Also Worked for Hynes Were They Called In By the Feds?
Advance was payed $600,000 by the Hynes Campaign
“The bottom line is, did anyone who worked on the campaign get paid with city funds or state funds or forfeiture funds? That’s really the issue,” a source familiar with the probe said. Investigators are also looking at whether the community relations workers were on the DA’s Office payroll or whether they were consultants paid from another source. Former Hynes staffers interviewed in the past month include campaign spokesman George Arzt, DA spokesman Jerry Schmetterer and campaign manager Dennis Quirk, who is also head of the court officers union, sources said. Arzt didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Quirk and Schmetterer declined to comment. The Post was the first to report in June 2014 that a Department of Investigation report accused Hynes of wrongly using $1 million in forfeiture funds seized from crooks to pay political p r consultant Morty Matz in his losing 2013 campaign against current DA Ken Thompson.
Hynes Spokesman Says He Was Paid for Officials DA Work, Arzt Says He Was At Campaign Meetings
Arzt Who Talk to Feds Works As A Campaign Consultant So He Can Rake In the $$$ As A Lobbyists
How Killing the Moreland Help Arzt's Real Estate Client Excell
Cuomo said he has no problem with the anti-corruption Moreland Commission he convened sending subpoenas to real estate companies that have contributed to his campaign, including Extell Development, the Times Union writes: * Evan Davis, a lawyer who served as counsel to former Gov. Mario Cuomo, is spearheading the launch of a survey that will review the effectiveness and potential improvements for the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, theTimes Union writes: * George Arzt's clients is Extell, and Extell is the sponsor of the exclusive, luxury condo called One57 that is the target of an investigation for possible corruption. Extell has funneled approximately $75,000 in campaign contributions to Christine Quinn. According to this report, generated moments ago from the New York City Campaign Finance Board Web site, Mr. Arzt has contributed $90,500 in political donations to municipal candidates.2013-08-23 George Arzt Campaign Donations - Master List - Quick Search - New York City Campaign Finance Boa... * NYC : News & Analysis: George Arzt : The $90,500 ...Arzt contributed to political candidates. Tax break to Midtown luxury condo tower will cost NYC $65.6M in property taxes (NYDN) The city isn't getting much bang for its buck by awarding a huge tax break to a luxury condo tower in Midtown, the Independent Budget Office found. A tax break for One57 will cost the city $65.6 million in property taxes over 10 years, money that could have paid for 367 affordable apartments. Instead, under the deal with One57's developer, Extell Group, only 66 affordable units were built. That means taxpayers subsidized apartments at a rate of nearly $1 million per unit when affordable units on average cost $179,000 apiece. Hundreds protest tax breaks to New York City real estate developers in shadow of skyscraper for mega rich (NYDN) * Upper West Side condo has separate entrances for rich and poor(NYP) This is rich! The poor will use a separate door under plans for a new Upper West Side luxury tower — where affordable housing will be segregated from ritzy waterfront condos despite being in the. * Extell Lobbyist Money is Also Flying At the Hudson Yards * Sheldon Silver aided Gov. Cuomo in sneaking through tax breaks for luxury developer(NYDN) Two developers who stood to benefit from the tax breaks gave Cuomo big donations days before his bill-signing. Several sources involved in the process identified Silver as the creator of the lucrative tax relief. One 57th St. building in Manhattan was projected to save $35 million over 10 years. Between 2007 and 2011, as the median family income in the city dropped by 6.8%, the median monthly rent went up by 8.6%. Thirty-one percent of New Yorkers spent more than half their income on rent, as those not lifted up by New York ’s booming, knowledge-intensive fields felt the squeeze.
How Does the Daily News Reporter Who Covered the DA Now Work for Him?
Last Act As A Daily News Reporter Puff Piece for His New Boss
Oren Yaniv, the tabloid's beat reporter at Brooklyn Courts, is joining Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson's office as senior communications officer, he confirmed to Capital. * Two reporters leaving the New York Daily News (Capital) * Daily News reporter writes Ken Thompson puff piece before going to work for him(NYP) Daily News Editor-in-Chief Colin Myler published a fawning news story about Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson’s record in reducing crime even though one of the two reporters whose byline appears on the piece had already told his bosses he was quitting — to take a job in Thompson’s communications department. B’klyn is king in crime fight,” blared the Monday headline in reporter Oren Yaniv’s story — just days before he might be writing a press release touting the same. Yaniv told his superiors on Friday he was heading to the DA’s office. The headline on the web version was even more laudatory trumpeting “EXCLUSIVE: Shootings, homicides are up in the city — except Brooklyn .” Clearly, sources said, Yaniv was interviewing for the job with the DA while he was reporting the story on his future boss.
NYP Brooklyn Thompson DA Light On Hard Crime Hynes Scandal Cop
Ken Thompson’s indictment strategies go soft on hard crime (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has indicted or obtained guilty pleas before indictment on the lowest percentage of felony complaints of any prosecutor citywide — a disturbing drop that could signal soft treatment of criminals, experts warn. A Post investigation found that Thompson indicted or won a guilty plea on just 32 percent of felony complaints in 2014, his first year in office — a 10 percentage point drop from predecessor Charles Hynes’ last two years in office, when the average was 42 percent. And during the first two months of 2015, Thompson’s figure plummeted even lower — 29 percent, a rate almost 8 percentage points lower than the city average of 36.9 percent.* ‘He’s soft on crime’: Cops blast Brooklyn DA’s indictment rates(NYP)* Meet 7 people freed after DA reviews scandal-plagued cop’s cases(NYP) * Scandal-scarred NYPD detective defends his most infamous cases
Brooklyn DA Will New Pot Police Clog the Courts?
By KENNETH P. THOMPSON
The new marijuana rules will overload the summons system.
Hynes Judge Campaign Consultant Leaving
Two More Hynes-era #Brooklyn Convictions Reversed http://nyti.ms/XkVIWv
NYT Supports the Brooklyn DA Low Level Pot Policy
The district attorney served justice and common sense in saying he wouldn’t prosecute low-level pot cases.
More Trouble for Former DA Hynes
14 More Brooklyn Convictions Linked to Scarcella Are Examined(NYT)
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has expanded the scope of its broad inquiry into Louis Scarcella, a former New York City police detective.* Another wrongful settlement surfaces under Hynes(NYP) * EXCLUSIVE: Brooklyn District Attorney declares man who wrongfully served 16 years in prison for killing rabbi 'innocent' (NYDN) Kenneth Thompson believes that a 'travesty of justice happened' in the 1995 conviction of Jabbar Collins, which affect an ongoing $150 million federal lawsuit.
Hynes Campaign Manager Judge Removed, Will Return to the Bench
Judge removed for giving ex-DA political advice returns to bench(NYP) The judge called out in a city probe of ex-District Attorney Charles Hynes for impropriety in giving Hynes political advice will be back on the bench in Queens next week earning his $174,000 a year salary, a court spokesman said.Barry Kamins was chief administrator for the New York City Criminal Court until the Department of Investigations report was released last month. He is currently under investigation by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, sources said.“He’ll be a Supreme Court judge sitting in the civil term,” confirmed David Bookstaver, spokesman for the Office of Court Administration.
Hynes Shreded Files After Losing to Thompson
More on the Charges Against Hynes
Daily News Asks the Brooklyn DA to Stop the Political Prosecution of John O'Hara
Clear John O’Hara after two decades of political prosecution in Brooklyn (NYDN Ed) It was exactly 20 years ago, also days before a presidential election, when Brooklyn lawyer and political gadfly John O’Hara was indicted on felony charges by Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes. O’Hara surrendered and was fingerprinted and photographed. The offense: voting from the wrong address. Not double voting. Not voting from a fake address, or under a false name. But voting from one residence instead of another. It was a set-up. O’Hara had run candidates against the Democratic bosses, and the bosses hit back. Hard. Hynes ended up trying O’Hara three times, the only case he tried three times during his 24-year tenure. In 1999, O’Hara was convicted on seven counts. Joining Susan B. Anthony as the only two New Yorkers ever to be convicted of illegal voting, he was fined $20,000, sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service and disbarred, losing his livelihood. In 2009, when his sentence was complete and the courts returned O’Hara’s law license, the accompanying report stated: “Mr. O’Hara, accurately it appears, claims that the machine went gunning for him.” It looked like right would prevail at long last when Ken Thompson, who had pledged to finally get justice for O’Hara, ousted Hynes. Thompson set up a Conviction Review Unit, which has gone on to correct several miscarriages under Hynes. O’Hara filed a petition with the unit, seeking exoneration. That was in Jan. 2015, nearly two years ago. The assistant DA running the unit, Mark Hale, a Hynes holdover, has done nothing but stall. Thompson died last month, leaving Eric Gonzalez, another Hynes man, as acting district attorney. Gonzalez’ duty is to honor Thompson’s promise, correct Hynes’ miscarriage — and give O’Hara back his good name.
Corrupt DA Hynes Hunted and Damaged Anti-Machine Lawyer Time to Fix
Clear John O'Hara'swrongly stained record (NYDN) Ex-Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes hypocritically targeted a political enemy for outlandish punishment, which DA Ken Thompson must wash clean. It’s time to clear the record of John O’Hara, an attorney and gadfly who was turned into a felon by the persecuting machinations of former Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes. O’Hara has filed a petition for exoneration in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Hynes’ successor, DA Ken Thompson, should give his blessing and a judge grant approval forthwith. As this page has documented, O’Hara persistently annoyed both Hynes and Hynes’ patrons in the Brooklyn Democratic machine. Hynes struck back by indicting O’Hara for voting from the wrong address — not a fake address, but the address of his girlfriend who lived 14 blocks away.* False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments - Times
How the Media, Pols and DA's Protect Parkside and Ignore Injustice
Why was John Kennedy O'Hara convicted for illegal voting by Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes for running for office out of his girlfriend's residence. While Evan Stavisky gets away with being registered in Queens while he lives with his wife in Rockland County? Lawyer O'Hara lost his law license which destroyed his life, while Stavisky makes millions with an incompetent politically connected consultant company? Why does the press ignore this outrageous legal injustice? They don't care and they are too dumb to understand. Did Parkside Stavisky Get Special Favors On His Rockland Mortgage to Protect His District Leadership in Queens The Mortgage Documents of Evan Stavisky & Kristen Stavisky For Their Home In Rockland County(Queens Politics)Please note the highlighted portion [linked] regarding establishing a permanent residence after 90 days of signing the document suffice a written dispensation from the broker and any convoluted election law loopholes that permit him to buy a home in Rockland County and live there while holding elected office in Queens. So Rockland County Democratic Party Chair Kristen Stavisky lives in a big house in Rockland County & her District Leader husband Evan Stavisky lives in a small apartment in Queens ? It couldn't be that he needs to be a resident of Queens to be a District Leader there and continue his "Pay to Play" game of handing out Democratic Party Endorsements? * O'Hara and Stavisky Voting Residence Injustice While the Media looks the other way(True News) * From Nanuet Patch: Rockland Democrats gathered at Clarkstown Town Hall Thursday evening to elect Kristin Zebrowski-Stavisky their new chairwoman.
Hynes Spokesman Says He Was Paid for Officials DA Work, Arzt Says He Was At Campaign Meetings
A campaign spokesman for Charles Hynes said the advisor whom authorities say was paid out of forfeiture cash held weekly campaign meetings with the then-DA and staffers during Hynes’ reelection bid
“Most or many,” answered Arzt “What was his role?” Rudin asked. “An adviser,” Arzt answered.
“To Mr. Hynes?” Rudin pressed. “To the campaign,” Arzt said. Arzt also answered, “Yes,” when asked whether Matz “provided campaign advice” at those meetings, held in the Manhattan offices of the court-officers union. Reached Wednesday, Matz declined to comment Arzt was deposed Monday as part of a $150 million lawsuit by a man wrongfully convicted by Hynes’ office, Jabbar Collins, who was locked up for 15 years before he was exonerated.
Hynes Ducks Deposition
Hynes ducks deposition in wrongful imprisonment case(NYP) Beleaguered former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has dodged a fresh deposition in the case of a Brooklyn man who was wrongly convicted of murdering a rabbi — but a former top prosecutor will have to face a grilling, according to Brooklyn federal court papers.The attorney for Jabbar Collins, Joel Rudin, had requested a new shot at Hynes after a Department of Investigation report revealed that he allegedly looted public funds to aid in his failed re-election bid last year.
Hynes’ ex-spokesman testifies advisor held weekly meetings(NYP)The campaign spokesman for embattled ex-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says an adviser — whom authorities say was paid out of criminal forfeiture cash — — held weekly campaign meetings with the then-DA and top crime-fighting staffers during his failed re-election bid. Since the city Department of Investigation released a report last month criticizing Hynes for his use of office staff and funds for campaign work, Hynes’ lawyer and people close to Mortimer Matz, 89, have maintained the veteran p.r. man only was paid for public-information work.* Once high-flying prosecutor faces threat to legacy (AP)
Fed Hynes Slush Fund Investigation Expands
Among those paid were Lisa Smith, a Brooklyn Law School professor and former assistant DA under Hynes, and Larry Morrish, a Bay Ridge community activist, a source told The Post.
“God only knows what else came out of that account,” the source said. Morrish said he worked in Bay Ridge and did “outreach to present the services of the DA’s office to the community.” He wouldn’t disclose his salary. Records show he wasn’t on the city payroll Smith said she worked as a consultant and helped write grants. She said she did not know where her compensation came from. She worked for Hynes in the ’90s, her bio at Brooklyn Law says. Her husband, David Dince, also work
Hynes Calls Reporters Stenographers in His Emails to A Judge
Former DA Hynes in his emails wasclosely attuned to how he’s portrayed in the press, using a variety of disparaging adjectives to describe journalists. One is called “irrelevant,” another “sloppy” while others are dismissed as “stenographers.”
Feds Join Investigation of Hynes
Before the Feds Got Involved True News Said:
No Word On Who if Any Prosecutor Will Bring Any Criminal Charges Against the Former DA
No Word On Who if Any Prosecutor Will Bring Any Criminal Charges Against the Former DA
True News Wags the Feds?
Feds join Charles Hynes probe (NYP)
The feds have already interviewed two DA detective investigators who, sources say, chauffeured Mortimer Matz — the political consultant at the center of the Hynes probe — to and from his Upper East Side home during the years he allegedly worked as Hynes’ personal political consultant.
“Matz only worked about three days a week but on those days a detective investigator would pick him up and drop him off,” a source said.* Assistant U.S. attorneys from New York’s Eastern District are coordinating with an investigation by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into alleged misuse of funds by former Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes, The New York Times writes: * Feds subpoena investigator in alleged corruption probe of ex-DA Charles Hynes(NYDN) * EXCLUSIVE: Former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes may have to testify about alleged money laundering(NYDN) Hynes has been grilled twice already in the $150 million lawsuit filed by Jabbar Collins, a Brooklyn man who served nearly 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The embattled former DA is facing a third round of questioning in light of allegations that he may have looted public funds, the Daily News has learned.* Feds join investigation into possible fraud by former Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes. (Pro Publica)* Joe Hynes' dubious battle:
Ultra-Orthodox Votes For Hynes Looking the Other Way
How Low Can Joe Go?(NYPD Confidentials, Levitt) As was his modus operandi, he had a top aide do the dirty work. First it was Dennis Hawkins, who deep-sixed a forgery case against one Simon Jacobson of Crown Heights and Miami, who had allegedly bilked an 80-year woman out of her $200,000 life savings.
Then it was Michael Vecchione. After Rabbi Abraham Rubin of Borough Park was kidnapped and beaten while refusing his wife a Jewish divorce, known as a “get,” Vecchione promised swift justice. No one was ever prosecuted. In 1995 Vecchione convicted a black man, Jabbar Collins, for the murder of Rabbi Abraham Pollack. Collins spent 16 years in prison before revelations of prosecutorial misconduct led to his release in 2011.In her decision overturning the verdict, federal judge Dora Irizarry ruled that Hynes’s office “had wrongfully withheld a key witness’s recantation, had knowingly coerced and relied on false testimony and argument at trial, had knowingly suppressed exculpatory evidence and impeachment evidence and had acted affirmatively to cover up such misconduct for 15 years.”Collins’s $150-million lawsuit in 2013 named nine A.D.A.s, detective investigators and Vecchione as defendants. Federal Judge Frederick Block, who presided over Collins’s civil trial, said he was “disturbed” and “puzzled” that Hynes continued to praise Vecchione. “This was horrific behavior on the part of Vecchione,” Block said. “We are going to have a civil proceeding and all of this is going to be uncovered.” Over the years, Hella Winston of the Jewish Week has documented Hynes’ coziness with the Hasidic community, particularly his willingness to allow prominent figures to cover up allegations of sexual abuse of children. Last year, David Ranta, another man apparently falsely convicted, was released from prison where he had served 23 years for the 1990 murder of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger. The New York Times has reported that Hynes’s office had sent Ranta and scores of others to prison on false evidence turned up by Detective Louis Scarcella.
Organize Crime Politics
Its was NY's Corrupt Political System that Made the Once Guy Hynes into A Common Criminal
A Proud Career That Seemed to Curdle(NYT)Many
moons ago, in the early 1980s, tenant organizers traveled to Downtown
Brooklyn to hear the new fire commissioner talk of a plague of arson
that had turned so many apartment buildings in so many neighborhoods
into bonfires.I was one of those organizers, and we were a skeptical lot. A forward-thinking fire commissioner? Please. Then
the commissioner, a good-looking 45-year-old with a Brooklyn brogue,
spoke, and his passion was infectious. In his populist insistence on
defending the poorest and tracking down the arsonists, he left us
soaring.* When district attorneys go south(NYP)
IG Donated to Hynes Opponent Thompson, In 2005 NYT Said Hynes 2 Political, But Endorsed Him Anyway
Investigation chief donated to Hynes' rival(Capital) Peters, an attorney active in Brooklyn politics, ran against Hynes in a crowded Democratic primary in 2005. At the time, Peters said, “The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, with some exceptions, has become a very political shop. The District Attorney in Brooklyn, Joe Hynes, is more interested in hiring his cronies than he is in hiring competent prosecutors.” The Times praised Peters and another attorney, Arnold Kriss, during the race, saying “their criticism of Mr. Hynes rings true.” But the paper eventually endorsed Hynes, writing, “He is also the only candidate who stands a realistic chance of defeating [State Senator John] Sampson's empty-suit candidacy.”
Sampson, 47, last month was accused of embezzling nearly $500,000 of
escrow money that he was supposed to safeguard in the sale of foreclosed
homes in Brooklyn while acting as a court-appointed referee.
Prosecutors say he used the money to finance his failed bid for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005. Federal prosecutors say that when Sampson learned he was being probed, he used a mole in Brooklyn’s federal court to help him thwart the investigation. He is the only minority candidate in the race, and his face and name bedeck glossy color posters from downtown Fulton Street to Starrett City. His handlers, who include political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, appear to be banking on a straight-out ethnic appeal to the borough's black voters, who make up 44 percent of the voting rolls.
Hynes Got Even With Norman for Running Sampson Against Him in 2005
While Joe Hynes can hope for the residual goodwill of those who remember him as the prosecutor who won convictions in the vicious 1986 Howard Beach racial attack, as well as for steady declines in crime, he must also cope with the blowback from his multiple indictments of the borough's black Democratic county leader, Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., charges that Hynes only sought after the Daily News editorial board repeatedly slammed him for failing to address corruption in the borough's courts. Norman never formally endorsed Sampson, but he's made no pretense about his preference. Norman Guilty of Extorting Judge - The New York Sun * Judgeships For Sale In New York? | Judicial Watch
Brooklyn DA 6 Degrees of Seperation and Corruption
IG Donated to Hynes Opponent Thompson, In 2005 NYT Said Hynes 2 Political, But Endorsed Him Anyway
Investigation chief donated to Hynes' rival(Capital) Peters, an attorney active in Brooklyn politics, ran against Hynes in a crowded Democratic primary in 2005. At the time, Peters said, “The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, with some exceptions, has become a very political shop. The District Attorney in Brooklyn, Joe Hynes, is more interested in hiring his cronies than he is in hiring competent prosecutors.” The Times praised Peters and another attorney, Arnold Kriss, during the race, saying “their criticism of Mr. Hynes rings true.” But the paper eventually endorsed Hynes, writing, “He is also the only candidate who stands a realistic chance of defeating [State Senator John] Sampson's empty-suit candidacy.”
Sampson Who the NYT Was Trying to Stop With Their Hynes Endorsement in 2005, Used Embezzled Court Money to Fund His DA Campaign
Prosecutors say he used the money to finance his failed bid for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005. Federal prosecutors say that when Sampson learned he was being probed, he used a mole in Brooklyn’s federal court to help him thwart the investigation. He is the only minority candidate in the race, and his face and name bedeck glossy color posters from downtown Fulton Street to Starrett City. His handlers, who include political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, appear to be banking on a straight-out ethnic appeal to the borough's black voters, who make up 44 percent of the voting rolls.
Hynes Got Even With Norman for Running Sampson Against Him in 2005
While Joe Hynes can hope for the residual goodwill of those who remember him as the prosecutor who won convictions in the vicious 1986 Howard Beach racial attack, as well as for steady declines in crime, he must also cope with the blowback from his multiple indictments of the borough's black Democratic county leader, Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., charges that Hynes only sought after the Daily News editorial board repeatedly slammed him for failing to address corruption in the borough's courts. Norman never formally endorsed Sampson, but he's made no pretense about his preference. Norman Guilty of Extorting Judge - The New York Sun * Judgeships For Sale In New York? | Judicial Watch
Hynes' old-boys network that saw itself as above the law
Thursday Update
Hynes’ political advice search in violated ethics codes: DOI(NYP)
Proud Career, Then It Curdled. The Sad self-propelled Fall of Joe Hynes. My Gotham: (NYT)
How Much Does Hynes' Operation Have in Common With the Other DAs?
Hynes is the poster boy for political corruption in New York City(NYP) This is the real-life version of “Crooklyn,” the Spike Lee film where everybody is at least a little dirty. The smell of decay has long permeated the borough’s judicial system, its politics and, not least of all, Hynes’ office. Now a big source of the stink has been revealed: Hynes himself. Through six terms, he ran the DA’s Office like a private fiefdom. From shielding sexual-abuse convictions and ducking questions about tainted murder cases, Hynes often played by his own rules. The report should be required reading for anybody wanting to understand why the public distrusts government.* * New York City Department of Investigation commissioner Mark Peters, whose office issued a report this week about potentially illegal campaign activity by former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, last year contributed to the candidate who eventually unseated him, Capital New York reports:
Hynes to Advance $500,000 Under Investigation by the FBI for Their Role in the NYCLASS PAC
The Consultants Paid By Hynes
Advance Group
George Arzt
Brandford Communications
Douglas Schoen
Millenial Strategies
VICTORY CONSULTING
Hynes Shredding Room
Ken Thompson became the first candidate in decades to topple a sitting district attorney in New York City. His prize, upon taking office this year, was a room of shredded documents.
On the first day of the new year, Mr. Thompson entered the 350 Jay Street headquarters of his predecessor, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. Mr. Thompson, a Democrat, walked into a large conference room and saw at least a dozen trash bags stuffed with documents accumulated from the 24 years Mr. Hynes, also a Democrat, served as district attorney, sources with direct knowledge of that morning recall,\“It was absolute chaos,” a source close to Mr. Thompson who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Observer. “There were literally bags of shredded documents everywhere. Contents unknown. Hynes and his henchman just arbitrarily shredded documents.”
Cop's Brother Commits Suicide Blames Hynes For Letting His Brother Out to Dry
Hynes blamed ex-cop for wrongful conviction: City investigators(NYP) City investigators released e-mails Friday from a politically desperate DA Charles Hynes blaming a wrongful murder conviction on an NYPD detective — whose cop brother just left behind a suicide note blasting the former prosecutor. David Ranta was investigated by then-Detective Louis Scarcella and prosecuted by then-DA Hynes and convicted for the 1990 murder of a rabbi before Hynes asked a judge to overturn the conviction last year.Hynes blamed Scarcella’s shoddy police work for the wrongful conviction, and later opened an investigation into all of the detective’s homicide cases.Scarcella’s younger brother’s body was found Thursday with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He left a note that bashed Hynes for hanging his big brother out to dry. “My brother’s a good man, a good detective . . . Hynes is a liar,” NYPD Officer Michael Scarcella, 50, wrote in the note.
.
The overall tone of cynicism from a DA, his staff, a judge and a consultant unmasks all the niceties about public service. They were so arrogant, they put it all in writing on public computers, and got caught.As the report shows, Hynes erased all the boundaries between being a prosecutor, a pol and a crook. It was all the same thing to him — it was his personal mafia. As for Kamins, among his advice was that Hynes stack a panel examining tainted convictions with supporters, saying it would have “the appearance of independent judgment.” That’s astonishingly cold considering that potentially innocent men were locked up. The report examined more than 6,000 e-mails from Hynes’ official account, and found 95 percent dealt with politics. Stealing from taxpayers so he could keep the office apparently was his full-time job, and key members of his staff were also using public time to work on his campaign.The report also noted that Hynes forwarded Kamins’ e-mails to people in and out of the office to illustrate that it was no secret that Kamins was engaging in partisan politics. Federal prosecutors should waste no time in putting the screws to both for violating their public oaths. The report is probably just a narrow slice of their corruption, and the feds must also look to squeeze them and Matz for dirt on others in the political-judicial world. * Longtime press agent Mortimer Matz, whose payments from Hynes’ office have been questioned, has long had a presence in the New York political scene, the Times reports: * The New York Times writes that former Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes’ already compromised reputation is sliding lower to the possibly criminal amid a report from the New York City Department of Investigation that accuses him of various wrongdoing:* The shameful DA(NYDN) The arrogance of power screams from the Department of Investigation report that convincingly accuses former Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes of filching more than $1 million in public money to pay a public relations man for political advice.
Judge Kamins Fat Joke Directed At NYT's Dorothy Samuels
He was clever and aggressive, always one slippery step ahead of the damning fact. Kamins was obsequious and snarky, writing that they should invite a chubby New York Times writer to lunch with the promise that “she can have two entrees.”
Inquiry Implicates Former Brooklyn D.A. in Misuse of Public Funds
Hynes Use Drug Money to Pay A Political Consultant to Run His Campaign
 A Department of Investigation inquiry has implicated Charles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, for improperly using money seized from drug dealers and other criminal defendants to pay a political consultant more than $200,000 for his work on Mr. Hynes’s unsuccessful re-election campaign last year. The report, which has been referred to the state attorney general and several other agencies, concluded that Mr. Hynes could face felony larceny charges for the misuse of public funds The investigation also found that a widely respected jurist, Barry Kamins, the administrative judge for New York City’s criminal courts, violated the judicial code of ethics by advising Mr. Hynes on his campaign, offering legal advice and discussing matters that the district attorney’s office was actively prosecuting. Judge Kamins has been relieved of all administrative duties, a state courts spokesman said on Monday.*Report says former DA Charles Hynes misused funds(NYP) Who Knew That Norman and Hynes Would Connect Again  Political Consultant Judge Kamins  Ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes may have used drug money seized from drug dealers, crooks to fund reelection bid: investigation(NYDN) In addition, Hynes used “personnel and email resources in connection to his ultimately unsuccessful 2013 reelection campaign,” DOI has found. DOI reviewed about 6,000 emails sent or received by Hynes, some 300 of them from Kamins. Many of them “demonstrate that (he) engaged in political activity as a sitting judge,” the report said. It cites emails in which the respected jurist advises Hynes on how to attack Thompson in debates and how to respond to embarrassing news reports. “I charge very little to be a consultant,” Kamins wrote in one email. In Exchange for Political Support Hynes Allow Lopez to Run A Criminal Organization Funded By Member Items and other Government $$$ |
A report by the city’s Department of Investigations says the former district attorney paid a political consultant more than $200,000 — possibly seized from drug dealers and other felons — and allowed staffers to work on his campaign on the job. Hynes' reputation had already been sullied by a spate of wrongful murder convictions and accusations of unlawful prosecution tactics when he was in office.The DOI investigation also uncovered evidence that Hynes used his official staff and email accounts in an attempt to bolster his unsuccessful 2013 reelection campaign.“Several high-level [DA] staff appeared to have assisted Hynes in his reelection campaign,” the report states.
The 27-page report also alleges that state Supreme Court Judge Barry Kamins – who is chief of policy and planning for the New York State courts – “engaged in political activity by a sitting judge.”“As indicated by the dates and time-stamps associated with these e-mails, many of them were sent and received during regular … business hours. Kamins was found to have improperly been “advising Hynes regarding his campaign and… engaged in communications with Hynes regarding matters actively being prosecuted by the KCDA and provided Hynes with legal advice,” according to the report.Judge Kamins been relieved of all his administrative responsibilities both overseeing the NY criminal courts and his responsibilities as chief of policy and planning,” said Office of Court Administration spokesman David Bookstaver on Monday. “Judge Kamins is currently on annual leave.”The report also states that Hynes wrongly used his office’s state asset forfeiture funds to pay for a consultant to provide him with personal political services.* Investigation Criticizes Hynes Payments to Consultant(WSJ) * Former Brooklyn DA Hynes Accused In Report Of Misusing Funds For Campaign(CBS) * DOI Report: Former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes Used Drug Money for Campaign NY1
More About DA Hynes
Another Hynes FU: Corrupt Justice
Roger Logan, found guilty in a 1997 killing, was freed on Tuesday, the
result of his own plea for justice and a review of 90 cases by the
Brooklyn district attorney’s office.* Wrongful, 17-year conviction ends for ‘framed’ Brooklyn man(NYP)
Brooklyn DA Johnson Also Investigation Hynes
DA probing Hynes for alleged improper use of forfeiture money(NYP)
More Bad Hynes Convictions, Thompson Requests Exoneration. . .
The Brooklyn district attorney’s request to exonerate the men, who are half-brothers, comes after a review of trial convictions obtained through the work of Detective Louis Scarcella.* 3 convicted half-brothers to be cleared in 1980s murders(NYP) * Brooklyn Judge Vacates Murder Convictions of 3 Half Brothers(NYT)
More About the Brooklyn DA Blown Cases
The Judges Rip Off Phillips Estate. . .
DA probes prominent judge’s penniless death in nursing home(NYP) The Brooklyn DA is probing how a prominent judge came to die penniless in a nursing home, after angry relatives claimed his estate had been looted and demanded an investigation.Relatives of Civil Court Judge John Phillips — known as “the kung-fu judge” because of his black belt — say his court-appointed guardians took exorbitant fees and ran up a million-dollar IRS bill by failing to file taxes. The Rev. Samuel Boykin, a nephew of the Alzheimer’s- stricken Phillips, estimates the alleged rip-off cost the judge and his heirs $20 million to $30 million. One guardian was accused in 2006 of improperly paying herself out of Phillips’ assets. Then-DA Charles Hynes referred the case to the Appellate Division, and the guardian was suspended for taking $327,000.
More About the Brooklyn DA Office
Brooklyn DA Hynes . . .
DA Hynes Remembers Differently Each Day
Hynes’s Lack of Curiosity May Come at a Cost(Powell, NYT)
Charles J. Hynes was the head of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office
when Jabbar Collins was prosecuted and wrongly imprisoned.Tracking the explanations of the former Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes,
for his office’s malpractices is like hunting a rabbit: The prey keeps
bouncing here and there before disappearing under a hedgerow. Mr.
Richardson was present when I interviewed Mr. Hynes 15 months ago.
He
had come to help his boss. I could not reach him this week, but George
Arzt got on the telephone.Mr.
Arzt had served as a spokesman for Mr. Hynes’s unsuccessful re-election
bid and he had also sat in on my interview with the district attorney. I
asked about his recollection of Mr. Hynes’s answer. “I think you asked
if Jabbar Collins was guilty,” adding that Mr. Hynes “said he believed
that he did it.”Mr. Hynes’s lack of curiosity was as remarkable as the cases themselves.
Under oath, he said, he recognized there were “palpably egregious”
violations in the Collins case.
Flashback both George Arzt and the Advance Group were worked for the 2013 Hynes' campaign in the primary
More About DA Hynes
In 2013 George Artz Was Paid $75.00 By the Hynes Campaign
Another appalling tall tale by Brooklyn's graceless ex-DA, whose own spokesman agrees he lied.
@tommy_robb George Arzt after he runs a losing campaign for Hynes throws him under the bus
More About DA Hynes
In 2013 George Artz Was Paid $75.00 By the Hynes Campaign
Another appalling tall tale by Brooklyn's graceless ex-DA, whose own spokesman agrees he lied.
Tom Robbins
True News
Thompson is trying to steal lawyers from other boroughs’ DA offices(NYP)
A Brooklyn prosecutor improperly used his investigation into a man
accused of stealing a Picasso from the Long Island mansion of a Sony
executive to subpoena bank records in support...
Brooklyn DA Brooklyn DA fires opponent supporter’s son(NYP) Andrew Vecchione, 26, is the son of controversial former rackets chief Michael Vecchione, whom Thompson sharply criticized during his bitter campaign against former DA Charles Hynes last year, vowing to fire him once he took office in January. But the elder Vecchione retired in December, before Thompson could carry out his vow *B’klyn DA Thompson slow to fix wrongful convictions: critics(NYDN).
Under ex-DA Hynes, seems like perjury was par for the course: Ex-prosecutor says Hynes’ attorney told her to lie http://nydn.us/1j1jSwS
Proposal to Limit Prosecutions Of Marijuana Cases in Brooklyn(NYT)
Five Men Are Charged in a Brooklyn Beating
Prosecutors said five Hasidic men indicted in the brutal attack on a gay
black man in Williamsburg were associated with a Hasidic neighborhood
patrol. The patrol disputed that assertion.
Former DA Hynes' Holiday Inn Hell
They were not free to leave, they were prisoners': Former Brooklyn DA finally admits to detaining witnesses in hotels(NYDN)
The selective memory of an ex-DA: Hynes admits to detaining witnesses, a practice he denied last year
Former DA Hynes' Holiday Inn Hell
They were not free to leave, they were prisoners': Former Brooklyn DA finally admits to detaining witnesses in hotels(NYDN)
The selective memory of an ex-DA: Hynes admits to detaining witnesses, a practice he denied last year
Daily News Investigate DA Hynes
The Daily News editorial board called for ex-Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes to be probed: “There could hardly be a more grievous violation of legal ethics than for a prosecutor to allow a wrongfully convicted man to remain imprisoned after a miscarriage of justice has come to light.”
Thompson Fixing the Brooklyn DA Fixing
* BK DA-Elect Thompson sends Hynes "stern and demanding" letter not to pay chief staffer $285K for unused vacation days(NYP)* Outgoing Brooklyn District Attorney Hynes plans to follow through with a plan to pay his rackets bureau chief more than $285,000 in unused vacation time despite objections from his successor, Ken Thompson, the Post reports:
Incoming DA Refuses to Sit on Predecessor's Toilet Seat(Political Wire)
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Hynes
Dear NYP Hynes is Running On GOP Line Because He Lost Not That He Wants To Build the GOP
Will Hynes help the GOP grow?(NYP) Well, welcome to the fight. I say that as another long-time Democrat who eventually concluded the party was headed in a different direction. My own switch happened after September 2001, when I entered the polling place for the mayoral primary and asked for a ballot that would permit me to vote for Herman Badillo.* Bill de Blasio Tells His Supporters To "Redouble" Efforts For Ken Thompson(NYDN)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
et tu Williamsberg
Honored to have support of both Aaroni & Zalmani Satmar sects + Jewish leaders representing Boro Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush & W'burg* DC37 Reverses No-Endorsement Policy for Brooklyn D.A.’s RaceEndorses Ken Thompson
Ken Thompson
Hynes Rally Hecklers and GOP
Hynes officially kicks off Republican campaign for DA(NYP)
Protesters Crash Joe Hynes Re-Election Launch(NYO)
_____________________________________
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes heckled as he announces re-election bid as a Republican and Conservative (NYDN)
Charles Hynes Sees a Path to Victory on the Republican Line(WFP) * Protesters rock DA Hynes's campaign rally(Brooklyn Paper)
Hynes and PR great insider who ran the last two Hynes reelection campaigns blames George Arzt for the primary loss. Arzt was not at the rally kick off yesterday.
Hynes Is Met by Hecklers as He Renews Bid for Brooklyn District Attorney(NYT)* The Hynes Legacy Has Gone South(frumfollies) Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes’s sudden re-election
launch got off to an acrimonious start today when supporters of rival
Ken Thompson, who defeated Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary last
month, heckled and interrupted the event. The press conference, held on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall, was
delayed for several minutes as Hynes backers strained to drown out the
chants. “Let’s go Joe!” they cried from the steps. Supporters waded into
the throng to thrust their own blue signs in front.* QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is
all about a pre-election. I don’t mind dissent as you can yell all you
want, but at least be decent enough to listen to what I have to say …
You’ve already demonstrated you’re opposed to the democratic process.” –
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes at his campaign re-launch, via
Politicker. * Hynes Looks To Preserve DA Tenure On GOP Line (NY1) * Brooklyn
District Attorney Charles Hynes formally threw his hat back into the
ring Tuesday, but for the first time he's not running as a Democrat. (NY1)
Brooklyn DA-elect asks Hynes staff to replace private toilet seat(NYP)
Despite New Evidence, Review of Conviction in 1989 Brooklyn Killing Stalls(NYT)
New DA booting prosecutor who nailed Clarence Norman(NYP) Several staffers of lame-duck DA Charles Hynes, whom Thompson ousted in
the November election, told The Post they believe Kevin Richardson was
booted as a favor to Norman, who sources say helped Thompson get out the
vote against 23-year incumbent Hynes.* Wrong to the end
(NYDN Ed) Two more bad judgment calls from the outgoing Brooklyn
district attorney. First, Hynes has approved a whopping payout of
$286,000 to his
just-retired chief assistant district attorney, Michael Vecchione, for
an astonishing 78 weeks of unused vacation time.
Kenneth P. Thompson, in a letter to the departing District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, protested “a potential gross overpayment” for unused vacation to Michael F. Vecchione, who recently retired.
Brooklyn prosecutor claims $230G in unused vacation days(NYP)
Hynes allies want off of police review panel(NYP) Members of a special “independent” panel of retired judges, law professors, and lawyers appointed by Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to probe 40 controversial convictions based on investigations by a tainted Kellner Case Reveals Split In DA’s Office (Jewish Week) New documents suggest Rackets Division did end-run around Sex Crimes unit in Chasidic whistleblower prosecution.
More on the Brooklyn DA
__________________________________________________________________________________
Bklyn DA
Dems irked by Mario Cuomo’s support of new GOPer Hynes(NYP) Gov. Mario Cuomo is ignoring Democratic Party leaders’ demands that
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes be shunned for running as a Republican — by
donating to his campaign.* With one week until Election Day, the race for #Brooklyn DA is heating up between #Hynes and #Thompson.*Inbox: Democratic CM Mike Nelson endorses @HynesForDA on the GOP/Cons lines* Brooklyn DA candidate Ken Thompson wants to represent ex-editor suing @newyorkpost via @POLITICO
Brooklyn DA Race Nears Bitter End (WNYC)
For District Attorney in Brooklyn(NYT Ed)
The Times recommends Kenneth Thompson, the winner of the Democratic primary who has shown passion for combating crime and injustice."Mr. Thompson is smart and has shown passion for combating crime and injustice."
In nearly 24 years in office, Mr. Hynes has had an important role in developing drug treatment programs and other cost-effective alternatives to incarceration as well as programs to help domestic violence victims and former inmates re-entering society.
Councilman @NYCGreenfield endorsing @KenThompson4DA for brooklyn district attorney
But these parts of his record are overshadowed by charges of political favoritism in his handling of child sex-abuse allegations in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, his loyalty to tarnished deputies and reports that his office relied on discredited witnesses to wrongly convict defendants in a string of cases.The New York Times, like the Daily News before it, offered a rather reluctant endorsement to Ken Thompson for Brooklyn district attorney. Mr. Thompson, they wrote, “is not an ideal successor. He lacks significant managerial experience, and we were not reassured by his publicity-oriented approach to representing Nafissatou Diallo.” FLASHBACK: Times sat out the Democratic primary between Hynes and Thompson. * After attacking Ken Thompson in the strongest terms in the primary, David Greenfield endorses him in the general:
Hamodia profiled Brooklyn district attorney rivals Ken Thompson and Joe Hynes. For his part, Mr. Hynes declared Mr. Thompson “hasn’t got a connection to the broad Jewish community as I have,” while Mr. Thompson noted his personal and professional relations with the community.*
Greenfield didn’t think his endorsement would swing overwhelming numbers of voters But claimed credit in primary
Charles Hynes Sees a Path to Victory on the Republican Line(WFP) * Protesters rock DA Hynes's campaign rally(Brooklyn Paper)
Hynes and PR great insider who ran the last two Hynes reelection campaigns blames George Arzt for the primary loss. Arzt was not at the rally kick off yesterday.
Hynes Is Met by Hecklers as He Renews Bid for Brooklyn District Attorney(NYT)* The Hynes Legacy Has Gone South(frumfollies) Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes’s sudden re-election
launch got off to an acrimonious start today when supporters of rival
Ken Thompson, who defeated Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary last
month, heckled and interrupted the event. The press conference, held on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall, was
delayed for several minutes as Hynes backers strained to drown out the
chants. “Let’s go Joe!” they cried from the steps. Supporters waded into
the throng to thrust their own blue signs in front.* QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is
all about a pre-election. I don’t mind dissent as you can yell all you
want, but at least be decent enough to listen to what I have to say …
You’ve already demonstrated you’re opposed to the democratic process.” –
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes at his campaign re-launch, via
Politicker. * Hynes Looks To Preserve DA Tenure On GOP Line (NY1) * Brooklyn
District Attorney Charles Hynes formally threw his hat back into the
ring Tuesday, but for the first time he's not running as a Democrat. (NY1)
____________________________________________
Hynes Ugly End Continues
Despite New Evidence, Review of Conviction in 1989 Brooklyn Killing Stalls(NYT)
Jonathan Fleming says he was wrongly convicted of murder, but his and
other cases remain in limbo as Charles J. Hynes hands over the office to
the incoming Brooklyn district attorney.
Kenneth P. Thompson, in a letter to the departing District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, protested “a potential gross overpayment” for unused vacation to Michael F. Vecchione, who recently retired.
Brooklyn prosecutor claims $230G in unused vacation days(NYP) Hynes allies want off of police review panel(NYP) Members of a special “independent” panel of retired judges, law professors, and lawyers appointed by Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to probe 40 controversial convictions based on investigations by a tainted Kellner Case Reveals Split In DA’s Office (Jewish Week) New documents suggest Rackets Division did end-run around Sex Crimes unit in Chasidic whistleblower prosecution.
More on the Brooklyn DA
__________________________________________________________________________________
Bklyn DA
For District Attorney in Brooklyn(NYT Ed)
The Times recommends Kenneth Thompson, the winner of the Democratic primary who has shown passion for combating crime and injustice."Mr. Thompson is smart and has shown passion for combating crime and injustice."
In nearly 24 years in office, Mr. Hynes has had an important role in developing drug treatment programs and other cost-effective alternatives to incarceration as well as programs to help domestic violence victims and former inmates re-entering society.
But these parts of his record are overshadowed by charges of political favoritism in his handling of child sex-abuse allegations in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, his loyalty to tarnished deputies and reports that his office relied on discredited witnesses to wrongly convict defendants in a string of cases.The New York Times, like the Daily News before it, offered a rather reluctant endorsement to Ken Thompson for Brooklyn district attorney. Mr. Thompson, they wrote, “is not an ideal successor. He lacks significant managerial experience, and we were not reassured by his publicity-oriented approach to representing Nafissatou Diallo.” FLASHBACK: Times sat out the Democratic primary between Hynes and Thompson. * After attacking Ken Thompson in the strongest terms in the primary, David Greenfield endorses him in the general:
Greenfield didn’t think his endorsement would swing overwhelming numbers of voters But claimed credit in primary
Last Ugly Days of Hynes
A New Dispute Emerges in Brooklyn Prosecutor’s Office(NYT)The office of District Attorney Charles J. Hynes of Brooklyn, who was ousted by voters after 24 years, fired an assistant who forwarded embarrassing emails about his campaign that BuzzFeed published.
More Brooklyn DA dysfunction: Top Hynes prosecutor Michael Vecchione will split rather than help with transition
More on the Brooklyn DA
Outgoing Brooklyn DA wants probe of ‘forged’ bigot e-mails(NYP) * Thompson Wants Delay in Rabbi Case(WSJ) Brooklyn DA-elect Thompson seeks a delay in the prosecution of an Orthodox rabbi charged with sex abuse A mess grows in Brooklyn (NYDN Ed) Joe Hynes’ disgrace exit. With the defeat of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes after six terms in office, there appeared to be little reason to comment further on his misrule of the city’s largest prosecution office. No such luck. His last years were shadowed by a long failure to effectively prosecute sex abuse in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, a powerful voting bloc; by accusations (taken seriously by two federal judges) that top lieutenant Michael Vecchione had railroaded a man named Jabbar Collins for a rabbi’s murder; and by evidence that now-retired Detective Louis Scarcella may have helped the DA’s office win convictions with hyped evidence.Case Suffers Setback (Jewish Week)
Vecchinoe First to the Door
More Brooklyn DA dysfunction: Top Hynes prosecutor Michael Vecchione will split rather than help with transition
Thompson Wants Delay in Rabbi Case(WSJ) Brooklyn DA-elect Thompson seeks a delay in the prosecution of an Orthodox rabbi charged with sex abuse
A mess grows in Brooklyn (NYDN Ed) Joe Hynes’ disgrace exit. With the defeat of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes after six terms in office, there appeared to be little reason to comment further on his misrule of the city’s largest prosecution office. No such luck. His last years were shadowed by a long failure to effectively prosecute sex abuse in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, a powerful voting bloc; by accusations (taken seriously by two federal judges) that top lieutenant Michael Vecchione had railroaded a man named Jabbar Collins for a rabbi’s murder; and by evidence that now-retired Detective Louis Scarcella may have helped the DA’s office win convictions with hyped evidence.
Under Fire, Brooklyn Deputy Prosecutor Will Retire(NYT)
Michael F. Vecchione had been a friend and right-hand man to District
Attorney Charles J. Hynes, who was defeated for re-election. Vecchinone
will retire from the office on Dec. 12, becoming the first in what is
likely to be a wave of high-ranking deputies leaving as the district
attorney, Charles J. Hynes, prepares to step down. Vecchione kicks out two Brooklyn assistant DAs(NYP)In a stunning move that reveals the turmoil inside lame-duck Brooklyn
DA Charles Hynes’ office, controversial rackets chief Michael Vecchione
kicked two veteran assistant district attorneys
out of his bureau Friday for demanding he dismiss an
evidence-challenged extortion case involving the Orthodox Jewish
community, The Post has learned. Prosecutors Joseph Alexis and Nicholas Batsidis told Vecchione their
case against Sam Kellner, a Hasidic Jew accused of paying a young man to
make up sex-abuse claims against a Brooklyn cantor, had to be dismissed
because of a lack of evidence, a law-enforcement source said. * 'REALITY'
BITES! Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to have his own controversial TV show
used against him in court battle with tainted NYPD detective(NYDN)
________________________________________
Brooklyn DA
Convicted Bklyn Boss Norman Not Only Got Even With Hynes Who Put Him in Jail Primary Night He Also Got Even With Political Consultant Scott Levinson Who Testify Against Norman in His Extortion Trial
Political Consultant Tells of Party Boss Norman’s Demands(Brooklyn Eagle) A political consultant with a strategically selective memory echoed the testimony of earlier prosecution witnesses yesterday in the ongoing coercion trial of former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman Jr. Scott Levinson, of the political consulting firm Advance Group, had been hired by incumbent Civil Court Judge Karen Yellen to produce campaign literature, take part in meetings with party officials and provide general advice to her re-election campaign in the 2002 primary. On the stand, Levinson was able to recall in precise detail the meeting at which Norman is alleged to have coerced Yellen’s campaign into paying for efforts he believed were not in her best interest, under the threat that she would lose the party’s endorsement if she were noncompliant. Friends of Joe Hynes paid Levinson's Advance Group $600,000 during the primary. There have been no payments to Advance in the General. In a one week period CrainsNY wrote several stories how Advance Used PAC to help it private clients and in some race support more then one candidate in a race. There have no articles by CrainsNY in two weeks.* Charles Hynes Closing Campaign With Musical Score(NYO) *
DA Hynes Unwinding Continues
Sharron Ivory told detectives that he had lied nearly 20 years ago in
giving crucial evidence in one of about 40 trial convictions handled by
the now-retired detective, Louis Scarcella, that are under new scrutiny
by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
,
_____________________________________
Last Ugly Days of Hynes
Extortion Case Becomes Connected to Hynes Loss
Under Fire, Brooklyn Deputy Prosecutor Will Retire(NYT)
Michael F. Vecchione had been a friend and right-hand man to District
Attorney Charles J. Hynes, who was defeated for re-election. Vecchinone
will retire from the office on Dec. 12, becoming the first in what is
likely to be a wave of high-ranking deputies leaving as the district
attorney, Charles J. Hynes, prepares to step down.
Judge to Review Files on Brooklyn Detective Scarcella(NYT)
After Ugly Campaign, Finding Little Grace in Brooklyn District Attorney’s Exit (NYT)* The Times’ Michael Powell notes
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ ungraceful exit from the
position he lost, with Hynes reversing a decision not to prosecute an
Orthodox Jewish whistle blower in a flimsy extortion case
Vecchione kicks out two Brooklyn assistant DAs(NYP)In a stunning move that reveals the turmoil inside lame-duck Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ office, controversial rackets chief Michael Vecchione kicked two veteran assistant district attorneys out of his bureau Friday for demanding he dismiss an evidence-challenged extortion case involving the Orthodox Jewish community, The Post has learned. Prosecutors Joseph Alexis and Nicholas Batsidis told Vecchione their case against Sam Kellner, a Hasidic Jew accused of paying a young man to make up sex-abuse claims against a Brooklyn cantor, had to be dismissed because of a lack of evidence, a law-enforcement source said. * 'REALITY' BITES! Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to have his own controversial TV show used against him in court battle with tainted NYPD detective(NYDN)
_____________________________________
Thompson Brooklyn DA
Won't Take Hynes Call
Thompson cruises in Brooklyn DA race — and declines Hynes’ call(NYP)
Democrat Kenneth Thompson defeated incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes by a wide margin, becoming the borough’s first African-American district attorney, and likely ending Hynes’ long public career, The Wall Street Journal writes:
* Thompson Defeats Hynes, Again, for Brooklyn District Attorney (NYT)
* Ken Thompson dethrones Joe Hynes for Brooklyn DA(NYDN)
* Hynes Out as Brooklyn D.A.(WSJ)
'No regrets': Hynes caps a long career with a questionable campaign
BITTER END TO BROOKLYN D.A. RACE — Ken Thompson Ousts Charles Hynes, won't take his call — Capital’s Gloria Pazmino and Eliza Shapiro: “'It's a substantial vote, it gives Ken Thompson a clear mandate, which he didn't have in the primary,’ said Hynes, who told supporters he had conveyed his concession to a Thompson aide, because Thompson was "was apparently very, very busy." Hynes to reporters: “I could tell you I'm not going to kick up my heels and relax and read good books, I still have a lot to offer.’”Thompson to supporters: "You had a very important choice to make: would the great people of Brooklyn give into fear-mongering and-race baiting?" http://goo.gl/NYIso1 * Ken Thompson Celebrates a Sweeping Second Victory(NYO)
Under questioning from a lawyer, Michel Vecchione, the head of the
rackets bureau in Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes' office, "suffered rapid
memory loss" and said the phrase "I don't recall" more than 300 times. [Michael Powell]
Brooklyn DA seems to have violated NY's rules of conduct:http://propub.ca/16yTCRB Brooklyn District Attorney candidate
-
Dennis Quirk, the Court Officers Union Chief (& his extended family) who keep on giving, and givimng to DA Hynes: http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2013/08/tangled-web-patronage-and-thousands-of-dollars-in-contributions-call-hynes-campaign-into-question-234.html …
Michael Powell
___________________________________________________________________________________
Prosecutor Calls For Hooker
A married Brooklyn prosecutor shamelessly called hookers from his office phone — and was caught after another assistant district attorney recognized his number while probing a call-girl service, sources told The Post.
Ken Thompson Beat the Brooklyn Machine and That Has Consequences
A Journalism Failure Causes A Sorry DA Rematch That Did Not Have to Happen
Fact-Checking Hynes’s Take on a Reversal(NYT)
Powell does an excellent job point out Hynes flip-flop on his election
night statement to support the democrat winner Thompson. He also point
out Hynes' failure to go after mortgage scammers and house flippers who
descended like locusts on working-class black and Latino Brooklynites.
He also is right that there is no evidence that Norman played Svengali
to Mr. Thompson. Hynes is charging that Norman who he put in jail for
selling judgeships ran the field operation against him. This whole sorry
rematch is really journalism failure to push away Norman during the
campaign. A few stories about Norman would have caused Thompson find out
what was going on and push Norman far away from his campaign. Thompson
would have won big if Norman was told to stay away anyway. If it were
not for Hynes sorry reentering the race the media would never reported
that Norman was going around taking credit for electing Thompson. The
media including the NYT should have follow up the NYP story of Norman's
involvement in Central Brooklyn campaigns before the primary. Spitzer's 70G to shady Dem group | New York Post
Hynes has files on half of Brooklyn's political leaders. Thompson staff
will have there hands full making sure that the pols that endorse him
are helping him on election day. * Both Aronis and Zalis endorse @KenThompson4DA. Rare show of unity. @BrooklynDA's very uphill fight was at least predicated on Ortho support
Hynes
Got in Trouble for Protecting Some In Williamsberg From Sexual Abuse
Charges and Today Leaders Of ThatCommunity Endorsed His Opponent
- Honored to have support of both Aaroni & Zalmani Satmar sects + Jewish leaders representing Boro Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush & W'burg
Hynes Rally Today Hecklers
Hynes officially kicks off Republican campaign for DA(NYP)
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes’s sudden re-election launch got off to an acrimonious start today when supporters of rival Ken Thompson, who defeated Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary last month, heckled and interrupted the event. The press conference, held on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall, was delayed for several minutes as Hynes backers strained to drown out the chants. “Let’s go Joe!” they cried from the steps. Supporters waded into the throng to thrust their own blue signs in front.*
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is all about a pre-election. I don’t mind dissent as you can yell all you want, but at least be decent enough to listen to what I have to say … You’ve already demonstrated you’re opposed to the democratic process.” – Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes at his campaign re-launch, via Politicker. * Hynes Looks To Preserve DA Tenure On GOP Line (NY1) * Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes formally threw his hat back into the ring Tuesday, but for the first time he's not running as a Democrat. (NY1)
Brooklyn Machine Last Hurrah 2 Old Bulls Finish Each Other
Blackmail: Hynes Could Put Brooklyn Boss Seddio in Jail If He Does Not Pull Out the Vote For Him
Seddio: Leave the Gun Take the Cannolis(True News) There is a lot to be learned by investigating how
Seddio used the machine and government to make $$$ and remain in power
in a community with dramatic racial change and his loss of ability to
deliver the vote. Debate Moderator
Mark Fertig asked Seddio when he was briefly running for council if Planning
Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano should be fired because of her
involvement in the Kruger scandal. Seddio did not only answer the
question but he called Fertig a very inappropriate name.It
is clear from the guilty plea of Kruger and his lobbyist Lipsky that
Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano was deeply involved in the
Kruger corruption. Yet astonishly she still remains as chairman of that
board. Turano Still Planning Bd Manager After the Feds Called Her A Bag Woman for Kruger
In 2007 when a BJ was chosen for that site with a different developer (the
developer who the indictment said sent checks to Turaino house) Frank
Seddio small business group changed their mind and accepted BJ’s at
Canarsie Plaza. The Feds say Kruger partner Michael Dorothy son was
delivered the bribe money shortly after the vote. After rejecting plans for a retail
development at a vacant site in 2004, she and the board approved a
similar proposal in March 2007. Within a few weeks, a developer Aaron
Malinsky involved
in the proposal began sending checks totaling $472,500 to Michael’s
(Dorothy son)
bank accounts. The Feds say a check was even delivered to Kruger house
where Dorothy and her sons lived with the state senator. In 2004 Seddio
represented small businesses at Canarsie Plaza who opposed building a
Home
Depot on that site. In 2007 he worked for and pushed for BJs according
to Fertig.Hynes used government e-mail to discuss campaign: report(NYP)Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes used his government email account to plot campaign strategy with Sol Wachtler, a political ally and New York’s former chief judge, who used a racial slur in one of the alleged emails
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Brooklyn DA
Hynes Campaign Team Spins He Can Win
DN Op-Ed Brooklyn Lucky to Have A Race
Charles Hynes‘s campaign, arguing they have a path to victory, released an internal poll showing him behind rival Ken Thompson 48 to 36 percent, but winning after testing a negative message against Mr. Thompson. The Thompson campaign noted that it’s not usually a sign of strength to release an internal poll showing your candidate behind.* Hynes’ weapon: opponent’s ‘corruption ties’(NYP)
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NYT Endorses Thompson Bklyn DA
For District Attorney in Brooklyn(NYT Ed)
The Times recommends Kenneth Thompson, the winner of
the Democratic primary who has shown passion for combating crime and
injustice."Mr. Thompson is smart and has shown passion for combating crime and injustice."
In nearly 24 years in office, Mr. Hynes has had an important role in developing drug treatment programs and other cost-effective alternatives to incarceration as well as programs to help domestic violence victims and former inmates re-entering society.
Dems irked by Mario Cuomo’s support of new GOPer Hynes(NYP) But these parts of his record are overshadowed by
charges of political favoritism in his handling of child sex-abuse
allegations in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, his loyalty to
tarnished deputies and reports that his office relied on discredited witnesses to wrongly convict defendants in a string of cases.The New York Times, like the Daily News before it, offered a rather reluctant endorsement to Ken Thompson
for Brooklyn district attorney. Mr. Thompson, they wrote, “is not an
ideal successor. He lacks significant managerial experience, and we were
not reassured by his publicity-oriented approach to representing
Nafissatou Diallo.” FLASHBACK: Times sat out the Democratic primary between Hynes and Thompson.
Pot Changes In Brooklyn, Move to Alter Policy on Pot Ken Thompson said that if elected Brooklyn district attorney, he'll order his prosecutors to dispose of nearly all cases involving less than 15 grams of pot. Instead, he would offer noncriminal fines.* And District Attorney Joe Hynes has a new television ad focused on allegations that rival Ken Thompson is tied to ex-party boss Clarence Norman (Video) * Brooklyn DA – Thompson Calls On Hynes To Take Down Racist-Claim Yiddish Ad(http://jpupdates.com/2) * Video of@HikindDov criticizing D.A. Hynes ad in Satmar weeklies:
* Reelect Hynes#BrooklynDA Bus Tour Starts tomorrow!! Join #ourDA in all corners of #Brooklyn and help #beatcorruption pic.twitter.com/1qR88qzM9d *Charles Hynes Says Rival’s Campaign ‘Like a Seinfeld Episode’
Hynes Uses Greenfield's Statement - Remains Silent
Prosecutor Silent on Questionable Claim(NYT) Mr. Greenfield, who represents Midwood, Borough Park and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, attacked Kenneth P. Thompson, who is black and the opponent of Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary. He “should scare you,” the councilman said at a news conference. “He said he’s going to target the Jewish community,” Mr. Greenfield said as Mr. Hynes stood next to him, barely blinking. “That’s something that quite frankly is shocking. It’s outrageous, and it’s unacceptable.” *Kings County DA, Charles Hynes, endorsed by the Jewish Voice.
The NYT Michael Powell calls out
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes for standing by while his endorser, NYC
Councilman David Greenfield, accused his opponent, Kenneth Thompson, of
planning to “target” the Jewish community if elected.* Hynes and Thompson Clash in Furious Brooklyn DA Forum(NYO) Peppering his language with words like “hell” and “damn,” Mr. Hynes
resembled a cantankerous father scolding an impudent son, dismissing Mr.
Thompson as a liar with a flimsy résumé. Mr. Thompson, meanwhile,
painted Mr. Hynes as a corrupt product of a political machine completely
out of touch with the needs of minority Brooklynites. * Abner Louima endorses in the Brooklyn D.A. race (Capital)
David Greenfield Answer
@Yechiel_M
I'm suggesting that Ken Thompson was trying to appeal to other parts of
Brooklyn by falsely claiming Jews get better treatment. * @miri613 He was scoring points by criticizing the current DA by claiming that Orthodox Jewish defendants receive better treatment. #NotTrue * Fact is Ken Thompson introduced race/religion in DA's race by singling
out my community to score pts. Now he's upset that I called him out?
Greenfield's Radio Show
.@NYCGreenfield: Ken Thompson is running a campaign theme against treating the Orthodox Jewish community better. "It's offensive." #am620 * DG: "This fellow" is trying to inject race and religion to get a few
cheap votes. This should disqualify him becoming Brooklyn's next DA
In nearly 24 years in office, Mr. Hynes has had an important role in developing drug treatment programs and other cost-effective alternatives to incarceration as well as programs to help domestic violence victims and former inmates re-entering society.
Strategy And A Slur In “Hynes Emails”(Buzz Feed)
Leaked emails show the Brooklyn district attorney fighting for his life in the race against Ken Thompson. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes used his government email
account to plot campaign strategy with his political allies, one of whom
apparently used a racial slur in a message to Hynes, according to
emails obtained by BuzzFeed. Pot Changes In Brooklyn, Move to Alter Policy on Pot Ken Thompson said that if elected Brooklyn district attorney, he'll order his prosecutors to dispose of nearly all cases involving less than 15 grams of pot. Instead, he would offer noncriminal fines.* And District Attorney Joe Hynes has a new television ad focused on allegations that rival Ken Thompson is tied to ex-party boss Clarence Norman (Video) * Brooklyn DA – Thompson Calls On Hynes To Take Down Racist-Claim Yiddish Ad(http://jpupdates.com/2) * Video of
* Reelect Hynes
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Brooklyn DA Race
CM Says DA Candidate Said He Will Make Jews A Target, NYT Says Not True
The Times’ Michael Powell criticizes
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes for not speaking up when
Councilman David Greenfield wrongly criticized his opponent Kenneth
Thompson of “targeting” the Orthodox Jewish communityBrooklyn DA Race
CM Says DA Candidate Said He Will Make Jews A Target, NYT Says Not True
Hynes Uses Greenfield's Statement - Remains Silent
Prosecutor Silent on Questionable Claim(NYT) Mr. Greenfield, who represents Midwood, Borough Park and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, attacked Kenneth P. Thompson, who is black and the opponent of Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary. He “should scare you,” the councilman said at a news conference. “He said he’s going to target the Jewish community,” Mr. Greenfield said as Mr. Hynes stood next to him, barely blinking. “That’s something that quite frankly is shocking. It’s outrageous, and it’s unacceptable.” *Kings County DA, Charles Hynes, endorsed by the Jewish Voice.
David Greenfield Answer
David G. Greenfield
Greenfield's Radio Show
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Brooklyn DA
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