Queens prosecutors got promoted despite repeated trial misconduct

 

Gothamist asks in their headline if Katz will keep them in charge. On the Queens D.A. website under divisions and bureaus you get this:

 When you click press releases you get this:

When you click photos, you get this:

  So who the hell knows who's there. Transparency, the Queens Machine way

D.A. Brown's entire legacy erased

Queens DA

Looks like the first order of the new district attorney was to construct a memory hole

 


Update:

Today, home page is not as foreboding.

New Queens D.A. Melinda Katz promises less prosecution

NY Post

 Queens District Attorney-elect Melinda Katz announced Tuesday she will go softer on criminal defendants when she takes over as the borough’s chief prosecutor on Jan. 1.

Katz said she will make it easier for criminal defendants to have their cases heard by a grand jury within five days of an arrest, without losing their right to plea bargain.

The former borough president said defendants have a legal right to have a grand jury hearing within five days. But the current policy of the Queens DA’s office refuses to bargain with a defendant who does not wave his right to the five-day grand jury rule.

“Beginning with cases newly arraigned on January 1, 2020, the DA’s staff will at all times be open to discussions aimed at resolving cases and will not withhold plea offers from persons who choose to exercise this statutory right,” a press statement put out by Katz’s transition team said.

Likewise, Katz said the existing policy of refusing to engage in plea discussions with defendants who’ve been indicted by a grand jury “will also be abandoned.”

“The level of evidence necessary to secure a grand jury indictment is a ‘reasonable cause’ to believe that the person has committed the crime. Based on such a low standard of evidence, the rigid refusal to consider options other than a ‘top count’ guilty plea or trial is inconsistent with DA-elect Katz’s commitment to an open minded approach to case resolution that considers all possible dispositions of a case that will serve the ends of justice,” the statement said.

Katz said she made the changes to “foster a new spirit of cooperation” with all parties — including defendants — to seek justice.

Tiffany Caban has her own machine to help with the recount

THE CITY

Tiffany Cabán has marshalled a volunteer army of attorneys to fight for votes in the Queens district attorney Democratic primary recount.

The insurgent candidate has actively recruited helpers to monitor the tallying of some 91,000 votes. 

The process officially began earlier this week at a Board of Elections voting machine facility in Middle Village after a paper ballot count left Borough President Melinda Katz holding a razor-thin lead of 16 — triggering a full recount.

The Cabán campaign on Thursday said about 165 lawyers have enrolled pro bono to aid the ballot review. That’s on top of more than 200 volunteers charged with providing administrative support.

Meanwhile, Katz bolstered her legal team by hiring top election lawyer Martin Connor, a former Brooklyn state senator.

“I’m joining their legal team, but 99 other people aren’t,” Connor said, taking a shot at Cabán’s swelling volunteer ranks.

Experts noted the size of Cabán’s volunteer legal squad is unusual.

“I can see having shifts of watchers,” said Sarah Steiner, a former chair of the Election Law Committee for the New York City Bar Association. “But it’s the having that many that is impressive. I’ve never heard of that many volunteer lawyers for a recount… You’d normally be lucky to get a single volunteer lawyer.”

Steiner said the volunteers could come in handy with counting sessions as long as 12 hours a day, giving the lead campaign lawyers a chance to take breaks and rest their eyes

.“In that position, they can be very helpful,” she said of the volunteers. “They are getting a crash course on the short list of legal objections and how to spot them. They don’t need to know any other election law.”