Bragging decarceral rights

  

NY Post

 Who needs soft-on-crime judges when the district attorney doesn’t even want to lock up the bad guys?

Manhattan’s new DA has ordered his prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for hordes of criminals and to downgrade felony charges in cases including armed robberies and drug dealing, according to a set of progressive policies made public Tuesday.

In his first memo to staff on Monday, Alvin Bragg said his office “will not seek a carceral sentence” except with homicides and a handful of other cases, including domestic violence felonies, some sex crimes and public corruption.

“This rule may be excepted only in extraordinary circumstances based on a holistic
analysis of the facts, criminal history, victim’s input (particularly in cases of
violence or trauma), and any other information available,” the memo reads.

Assistant district attorneys must also now keep in mind the “impacts of incarceration,” including whether it really does increase public safety, potential future barriers to convicts involving housing and employment, the financial cost of prison and the racial disparities over who gets time, Bragg instructed.

In cases where prosecutors do seek to put a convict behind bars, the request can be for no more than 20 years for a determinate sentence, meaning one that can’t be reviewed or changed by a parole board.

 The Office shall not seek a sentence of life without parole,” the memo states.

Under state law, that punishment is reserved for the most heinous of murderers, including terrorists, serial killers, cop killers and fiends who kill children younger than 14 during in connection with sex crimes or torture.

Bragg’s memo also detailed the following instructions for prosecutors to reduce charges filed by cops in various cases:

• Armed robbers who use guns or other deadly weapons to stick up stores and other businesses will be prosecuted only for petty larceny, a misdemeanor, provided no victims were seriously injured and there’s no “genuine risk of physical harm” to anyone. Armed robbery, a class B felony, would typically be punishable by a maximum of 25 years in prison, while petty larceny subjects offenders to up to 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

• Convicted criminals caught with weapons other than guns will have those felony charges downgraded to misdemeanors unless they’re also charged with more serious offenses. Criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a class D felony, is punishable by up to 7 years behind bars.

• Burglars who steal from residential storage areas, parts of homes that aren’t “accessible to a living area” and businesses located in mixed-use buildings will be prosecuted for a low-level class D felony that only covers break-ins instead of for more serious crimes. Those more serious crimes, class B and class C felonies, would be punishable by up to 25 and up to 15 years in prison respectively. 

• Drug dealers believed to be “acting as a low-level agent of a seller” will be prosecuted only for misdemeanor possession. Also, suspected dealers will only be prosecuted on felony charges if they’re also accused of more serious crimes or are actually caught in the act of selling drugs. That felony would mean facing up to seven years behind bars.

Melinda Katz and Mike Gianaris making a go for State A.G.

  

THE CITY

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is weighing a statewide campaign for attorney general if Letitia James leaves the seat to run for governor, eight people familiar with the matter told THE CITY.

In recent weeks, they say, Gonzalez has been making calls to his top supporters and elected officials to float a possible campaign in the 2022 race.

“He’s looking to run. He’s fishing around,” said a close ally of Gonzalez who has helped him raise campaign cash in the past.

Also sniffing out support are Queens DA Melinda Katz and state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), according to sources familiar with their activities.

Gonzalez served for years as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA’s office before ascending to the top job in 2016 following the death of his predecessor, Ken Thompson. The following year, Gonzalez became the first Latino to be elected as a district attorney in New York.

 Meanwhile, Katz, who secured the Democratic primary win for Queens DA in 2019 by just 60 votes when she was borough president, is also considering a run for the statewide office, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

One source close to Katz told THE CITY Thursday that “she’s certainly going to be ready to run” if James vacates her position to run for governor.

“Melinda is the candidate to run against the DSA and more in alignment with the mainstream Democratic voters,” said the source, referencing the Democratic Socialists of America who backed soon-to-be councilmember Tiffany Cabán in the Queens DA race.

Gianaris, who heads the Senate Democrats’ campaign efforts, is also contemplating an AG campaign, pending James’ decision, according to people close to him. The Senate’s deputy majority leader has amassed a $3 million warchest for past attorney general runs that didn’t materialize and in his state Senate campaign account.

 

DeBlasio unfairly seizing properties

From Kings County Politics:

Mayor Bill de Blasio today defended the city’s taking of more than 60 properties in Brooklyn – including those of at least three fully paid off African American owned properties worth millions of dollars – and transferring their ownership for “re-development” to non-profit and for profit companies.

But New York State Attorney General Candidate Keith Wofford took de Blasio and the entire city government to task for incompetence at best, and illegal political corruption at worst, in seizing the properties.

“What’s happening here is disgraceful and likely illegal. Mayor De Blasio lives nearby and sleeps securely at night, while his administration creates anxiety and fear among vulnerable citizens whose largest asset is ripped away without compensation or due process,” said Wofford.

Wofford went so far as to call the foreclosure proceedings “unconstitutional,” and urged the Mayor to act immediately in stopping anymore transfers under the program.

The program that the city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) utilizes in taking properties is called the Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, which goes back to the 1980s when New York City had many blighted and burned out properties. The program designates qualified sponsors to purchase and rehabilitate distressed vacant and occupied multi-family properties in order to improve and preserve affordable housing for low-to moderate-income households.

Over the years the program has been amended in its definition of distressed properties, most recently in 2016, in which the City Council approved an expansion of the program to include buildings which are subject to Environmental Control Board (ECB) judgments as a result of building code violations in the amount of a lien to value ratio equal to or greater than 25%.

In order for HPD to obtain the foreclosure judgments, the agency sought, needed and received city council approval – an approval that some city council members now say they approved because HPD misled them.

The story came to light, when KCP learned the city foreclosed on Marlene Saunders, 74, a retired nurse, who nearly lost her paid-off and in pristine condition brownstone at 1217 Dean Street on a rapidly gentrifying block in Crown Heights.

The three-story brownstone had been in the Saunders family for 30 years and has been appraised at over $2.2 million. Saunders son showed KCP copies of checks paid and cashed by the city for property and water taxes, but were never applied to the property. He also stated the family knew nothing about the court proceeding, in which a foreclosure judgement was issued and only learned the family no longer owned the property through a flyer delivered to the brownstone months after they lost the deed.

Chon gets away with it

From the NY Post:

One of the honchos of Spa Castle pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted tax fraud charges, while the notorious Queens bathhouse agreed to pay $2.5 million for cheating the system by under-reporting income.

Daniel Chon was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge — and no jail time — after copping to felony attempted criminal tax fraud charges.

The College Point spa mecca, meanwhile, was convicted of criminal tax fraud charges and agreed to pay the millions in restitution and damages as part of a simultaneous civil action.

The state Attorney General’s Office brought a slew of indictment charges against Spa Castle, Chon and several members of his family last year, claiming they failed to pay $1.5 million in taxes by under-reporting revenue.

Weinstein noted, however, that Chon pleaded guilty to just one count related to attempting to not remit sales tax “in excess of $10,000.”

The cases against Chon’s siblings — Victor Chon, Stephanie Chon and Spa Castle owner Steve Chon — were all dismissed with prejudice, according to Weinstein.

“We have zero tolerance for tax cheats who leave New Yorkers to foot the bill,” Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in announcing the pleas. “The defendants orchestrated a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud taxpayers.”

Wow, this is zero tolerance?

Who will be appointed to AG role?

This article mentions Letitia James and Michael Gianaris as possible Schneiderman replacements. Please take either one! We're not using them.

World's quickest takedown?

Click here for the explosive story.

Breaking News: 4 women are said to have accused New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, of assault. He had long cast himself as a champion of women. https://t.co/AvFzL5EVfH

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 7, 2018

Bid riggers busted

From the Daily News:

Two men were charged with a bid-rigging scheme to fix construction prices at a luxe Brooklyn development, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

Christopher Chierchio and Anthony Molohnic were arrested and charged with colluding to avoid competition on bids for plumbing, sprinkler, and heating and air conditioning at the new luxury condo building on Baltic Street.

Chierchio — a reputed Genovese mafia soldier — was also charged with tax fraud for evading $94,094 in personal income taxes since April 2016, and could face up to 19 years in prison, according to the attorney general’s office.

Swindled workers will be paid after settlement

From AM-NY:

Three Queens construction companies have pleaded guilty to withholding more than $370,000 from 150 workers, according to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The companies, Lotus-C Corporation of Jackson Heights, Johnco Contracting Inc. of Bayside, and RCM Painting Inc. of Maspeth, failed to provide workers with overtime wages between 2012 and 2017. Additionally, the employers had the workers, who were painters, sign a form stating that they were independent contractors instead of employees, the attorney general said.

The companies also underreported their staff numbers to the state, which resulted in major underpayment of unemployment contributions to the state, Schneiderman said.

As part of their plea deal the owners of the companies have dissolved their offices and are banned for five years from bidding on public works contracts in New York State. They will also pay a total of $371,447.01 for unpaid wages and $359,747.86 in unpaid unemployment contributions to the State Department of Labor, the attorney general said.

Council to strengthen certain deed restrictions

From the NY Times:

The New York City Council is expected to pass legislation on Tuesday that would require mayors to personally approve any alteration to or removal of a city-imposed deed restriction, and would create an online database to track existing deed restrictions and changes to them.

The bill, which aides to Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would sign into law, represents the latest effort by city officials to prevent the circumstances that allowed a protected Manhattan nursing home, known as Rivington House, to be sold to luxury condominium developers this year.

The proposed law creates new standards for the agency that handles deed restriction changes, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which approved the removal of the restriction on Rivington House in 2015 in exchange for $16.15 million. That action allowed a for-profit nursing home company, the Allure Group, to sell the property to a developer for a roughly $72 million profit early this year, after it had paid $28 million for the property several months earlier.

The transactions prompted overlapping investigations by the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, and the Department of Investigation, which found no criminal wrongdoing but highlighted breakdowns in communication between city agencies, and a lack of attention within the de Blasio administration. The New York State attorney general is investigating the matter.

Slumlord arrested, sued

From New York Magazine:

Even in a city filled with bad landlords, Steven Croman stood out. A regular on “worst landlord” lists, his company would buy up Manhattan apartment buildings, then push for tenants in rent-regulated apartments to leave, either by buying out their leases or, tenants said, harassing them until they left. Then, once he deregulated the rent-stabilized apartments, he would charge much higher rents. But this morning Croman was charged with 20 felonies, including grand larceny, falsifying business records, and a scheme to defraud; he faces up to 25 years in prison.

That’s not all the bad news for Croman: The Times reports that the New York state attorney general’s office also sued Croman today, seeking to force him not just to give up his real-estate business, but to pay millions of dollars in restitution to tenants and penalties. In its lawsuit, the attorney general’s office, which investigated Croman for nearly two years, accused him of harassing and coercing “countless working-class and low-income families out of their longtime homes.”

Malcolm Smith probe may not yet be over

From Lohud:

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office used an Orthodox Jewish radio program in an elaborate sting operation that helped the government convict Malcolm Smith and other New York politicians in a corruption scandal, a four-month investigation by The Journal News/lohud revealed.

It is unclear whether there are other targets, including New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who appeared on the show as a state senator prior to the 2010 election with Moses Stern, later revealed to be an FBI cooperator. Stern appeared twice on the show prior to election day using aliases, posing as both a political analyst and a resident from Brooklyn. He urged listeners to vote for Schneiderman.

Prosecutors disclosed little about the New York Jewish Communications Channel to defense lawyers for two people convicted in the sting operation. The show was hosted by longtime Orthodox radio personality Zev Brenner, who owns Talkline Communications Network, and registered with the state by Joseph Markowitz, whose name was linked to thousands in campaign donations to Schneiderman, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, and an illegal donation to Halloran. After the Smith arrests, Schneiderman pledged to donate the contributions from Markowitz and Markowitz's wife to charity.

AG slaps car dealerships

From NY1:

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is suing some car dealerships in Queens for allegedly illegally inflating car prices.

Wednesday, Schneiderman's office announced the lawsuit, which claims that several Koeppel dealerships throughout Queens, owned by the Koeppel family, illegally sold "after-sale" services, such as identity theft protection and credit repair, to more than 1,400 customers.

As a result, customers were overcharged without their knowledge, according to the state attorney general's office.

The suit claims that between Jan. 2013 and Nov. 2014, the dealerships collected more than a million dollars through the practices, costing some costumers up to $2,000.

AG Gianaris?

From Capital New York:

Laying the groundwork for a possible run for attorney general, State Sen. Mike Gianaris has reactivated a long-dormant campaign account and begun raising funds for a statewide campaign in 2018.

Gianaris, a Queens legislator who leads the Democrats' efforts on the chamber floor and chairs their campaign committee, told POLITICO he would seek re-election to his seat in 2016 and remained committed to helping Democrats win the chamber majority.

“My priority continues to be my commitment to bring a lasting Democratic majority to the state Senate, and that is where my focus lies. But it's always good to be prepared for the future,” he said during a brief interview.

Gianaris said campaign finance disclosures set to be filed on Friday would show he has raised $315,000 in the statewide account, New Yorkers for Gianaris, that had its roots in his abortive run for attorney general in 2006, when Eliot Spitzer vacated the office to run (successfully) for governor. Spitzer was succeeded that year by Andrew Cuomo. Gianaris said his account will have between $1.7 million and $1.8 million on hand.

Developers fail to register apartments with tax incentives

From the NY Times:

Developers of nearly 200 small buildings in New York City have flouted the terms of tax breaks they received by failing to place their apartments on the rent-stabilization rolls, state and city officials said.

In letters that went out Tuesday, officials from three agencies told the owners to register their units as rent-stabilized or risk a range of penalties, including being required to return the value of their tax incentives. The action affects 2,472 apartments in 194 buildings scattered across the city, but mostly in Brooklyn.

The developers received discounts on property taxes under a state program known as 421-a, which is meant to spur construction. Advocates for affordable housing and Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, had criticized the program, which led to $1 billion in forgiven taxes in New York City last year, for not producing enough low-cost housing. They persuaded the Legislature this year to modify the rules to require more units for low-income tenants in exchange for the tax breaks.

The buildings in question did not necessarily have to offer below-market rents, but if the apartments were rentals, the 421-a program required the owners to register them with the state as rent-stabilized apartments. That would entitle tenants to leases whose rents are regulated by the city and the guarantee to renew their leases every year.

The 421-a program also benefits condominiums, and in each of the 194 buildings in question, the owners had originally intended to build condos, but changed their mind, possibly because of market conditions, and decided to rent the apartments rather than sell them, officials said.

Regardless of motivation, the officials said, by avoiding rent-regulated leases the owners could give themselves flexibility to clear out tenants when they decided to go through with the sales.

Schneiderman unveils anti-corruption plan

From the Daily News:

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed an ethics reform agenda Monday to address what he called “a golden age of graft” among legislators.

Schneiderman called for barring lawmakers from making outside income, saying measures to force greater disclosure don’t go far enough.

Instead, Schneiderman would raise the current $79,500 base pay for lawmakers to between the $112,500 paid to New York City Council members and the $174,000 those in Congress receive.

He’d also do away with the flat $172 daily travel expense state lawmakers are paid. Instead, lawmakers would be reimbursed for expenses they actually incurred.

Hoping to stop “non-stop re-election fund-raising and campaigning,” Schneiderman pushed to change the state Constitution to make legislative terms four years, instead of the current two.

He’s also calling for campaign finance reform that would include the public financing of campaigns, “dramatically reduced” contribution limits and closing of loopholes that allow some donors to give basically unlimited amounts.

AG candidate wants Parkside Group investigated

From the Daily News:

Ramon Jimenez, a Bronx lawyer and Green Party candidate for Attorney General, called on the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the actions of a lobbying firm representing FreshDirect in its bid to move to the Bronx.

In the complaint, filed Friday, Jimenez accuses the lobbyist, The Parkside Group, of contacting Mayor de Blasio’s office on behalf of the online grocer and not properly disclosing its activities to the ethics commission.

“We want the law followed as far as them having to record all contact they have with officials,” Jiminez told The News Friday. “It’s a concern for the people of New York, and especially to everyone in the South Bronx.”

A Parkside representative said the group was well within the boundaries of New York’s lobbying laws, and chalked up the complaint as a campaign tactic.

“We are proud to be working on a project that is creating thousands of good paying jobs in the poorest Congressional district in America, and we have always complied with all requirements of city and state lobbying laws,” said Evan Stavisky, a Parkside Group spokesman. “This is just another last-ditch political stunt.”

Isn't it interesting that a political leader who purports to represent part of Queens is actively lobbying to move jobs out of the borough?

Attempt to make affordable housing permanent

From the NY Times:

In a policy shift that could help New York City retain its existing supply of affordable housing, the state will allow owners of hundreds of mixed-income rental buildings to sell most of their apartments as long as they permanently preserve their low-income rentals or increase their number.

The new policy guidelines apply to existing rental buildings that participate in government programs offering subsidies such as bond financing and tax breaks to property owners who set 20 percent of apartments aside for low-income households.

The affordability restrictions on these buildings typically expire after a fixed period, often 30 years or more. At that point, many owners convert their properties to condominiums and co-ops and the affordable units are lost.

The owners of many rental buildings in New York want to take advantage of a booming real estate market and sell their units, but cannot do so while the affordability restrictions on their buildings are in effect, officials and real estate industry representatives said.

Now, under a change made by the New York state attorney general’s office that is to take effect on Friday, landlords will be allowed to sell their market-rate rentals — or up to 80 percent of an individual building — in exchange for preserving or expanding the number of low-income apartments they own. Market-rate renters would be the first to be offered the option to buy their units, officials said, and those who choose not to buy would be protected by existing rules from being forced out.

Any partial conversion plan requires the approval of city and state housing agencies, and the specific terms of the apartment sales would still have to be negotiated between owners and the agencies. But officials with the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio said that before approving any sales the city would require owners to commit to making at least 20 percent of their units permanently affordable.

The agencies that oversee the programs — the state’s Housing Finance Agency and the city’s Housing Development Corporation and Department of Housing Preservation and Development — have collectively agreed to require the same general conditions, the attorney general’s office said.

I thought this nutshell explanation of how gentrification happens was also interesting. And for good measure, here's Letitia James' 2014 slumlord list.

Another pol arrested...

From WPIX:

New York State assemblyman William Scarborough was arrested by investigators from the attorney general’s office Wednesday morning.

Scarborough, who represents the 29th Assembly District in Southeast Queens, is expected to appear in NYS Court in Albany Wednesday.

In late March, investigators from Attorney General Schneiderman and the FBI raided his Queens district office and Queens home, as well as his Capital office.

Scarborough admitted himself to media that investigators were probing whether he abuses the state’s travel voucher system, which reimburses elected officials for certain work-related expenses.

The attorney general and state comptroller will discuss the developments at 2 p.m.

Pathways to hell

From the Daily News:

Since 2010, more than 1,300 eviction notices have gone out because Pathways [to Housing] — which serves 700 mentally ill clients — stopped paying rent for months at a time. Pathways’ contract with the state was recently canceled, and the state attorney general is now investigating where all that taxpayer money went.

In fact, Pathway clients have good reason to fear getting the knock.

The state Office of Mental Health, Pathways’ main source of funding, said on Friday that Pathways admits 52 clients have actually been evicted since 2010. Legal Aid Society lawyers trying to fight the evictions say 24 of those evictions have occurred since Jan. 1, 2013.

So I guess we'll need more homeless shelters then?

AirBnB hosts sue to stop records release

From The Real Deal:

More than two dozen New York Airbnb hosts filed a lawsuit early this morning to block the disclosure of their personal information as stipulated in an agreement between the New York attorney general and the online rental service.

The group of 25 anonymous hosts are fighting to keep their information private following a deal hammered out in May between Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office and Airbnb.

The suit, filed this morning in New York State Supreme Court, is seeking an injunction blocking the turnover of information including names, addresses and social security numbers, Adam Leitman Bailey, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told The Real Deal. He was citing the U.S. Stored Communications Act, which he said precludes Airbnb from turning over the information without a warrant or court order.

The suit also says the disclosure would be a violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment against illegal searches and seizures, as well as violations of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, the suit claims.

In addition, he added that prevailing law prohibits the turnover.

“Under federal law, you are not allowed to release that information,” Bailey said. “Last month, we followed our normal procedures and notified a small number of hosts that their data had been requested by the New York Attorney General under a subpoena,” Airbnb said in a statement. “We will not take action with data from hosts who have previously filed suit until the court makes a decision and we will respect the court’s decision.”

About a quarter of the hosts are unemployed, and at least one is a single mother, Bailey said. Most of his clients had more than one unit, but Bailey would not disclose how many the largest had.