Brooklyn’s top prosecutor calls for criminal justice reforms

Continues Push-Back on Special Prosecutors; Explains Halt of Brooklyn’s Gun Buyback Program

March 10, 2015 By Charisma L. Troiano, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

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On Nov. 20, 2014, Akai Gurley was shot and killed by a probationary officer who was conducting a vertical patrol of the Louis Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn. Gurley’s death, unanimously understood to be the tragic result of an unintentional killing, is one of many similarly tragic encounters between unarmed men of color and city police officers.

A few months earlier, in Staten Island, Eric Garner was killed after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer after being questioned on allegations of selling “loosies”—single, untaxed cigarettes. Bystander cellphone video captured much of the events leading up to and including Garner’s death, along with his final words, “I can’t breathe.”

Civil rights advocates and Garner supporters deemed the widely viewed footage as videotaped proof that the unarmed man was placed in a banned police chokehold; this opinion is also held by Brooklyn’s District Attorney, Ken Thompson. “Yes. I believe he was placed in a chokehold,” Thompson said in response to a direct question by this reporter.

And while the NYPD has been criticized for its over-policing policies and training protocols with regard to the use of force in civilian interactions, so too have local prosecutors, for their seeming failure to bring charges against officers for purported acts of misconduct and excessive force—a reason that rests in the inherent conflict between the two law enforcement agencies that many point to as an explanation for the few indictments by grand juries when charges are levied.

According to the popular blog FiveThirtyEight, prosecutorial bias—the idea that prosecutors, who depend on police as they work on criminal cases, tend to present a less compelling case against officers, whether consciously or unconsciously—may explain why grand juries rarely indict police officers.

The trend is one seen nationwide. Days after Gurley was killed in Brooklyn, a St. Louis grand jury declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. (After a federal investigation, the Justice Department determined Wilson would not face federal civil rights charges, but did fault the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson for maintaining a systemic racial bias in law enforcement.)

And closer to Brooklyn, in Staten Island, a grand jury also declined to vote on an indictment against the officer in Garner’s case.

Brooklyn Bucking the Trend

As explained in a 2014 Daily News article, as of December 2014, there were 179 police-involved shootings and only three indictments with one conviction—an analysis that began with the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo and ended with the Gurley shooting.

But Brooklyn appears to have bucked the trend. In the past year, a total of four police officers have either been charged, indicted or investigated by the Brooklyn DA’s Office for acts of alleged wrongdoing. In November 2014, Officers Tyrane Isaac and David Afandor from the 79th Precinct were charged with assaulting a teenager with the butt of a gun; in February, Officer Joel Edouard of the 81st Precinct was charged with two counts of assault for stomping on a suspect who was already handcuffed on the ground; and also last month, a Brooklyn grand jury returned an indictment against Officer Peter Liang for Gurley’s shooting death.

When asked how Brooklyn has been able to avoid the perception of conflict between the NYPD and prosecutors, Thompson, who was raised by his police officer mother, replied, “The way I get around the conflict is I believe that the main duty of a prosecutor — my main duty as Brooklyn’s DA — is justice. That means to keep the public safe, but also to make sure that our criminal justice system treats everyone fairly — and I’m someone who was raised by a police officer.”

In Queens, there have been 11 court cases against NYPD officers from 2014 through March of 2015 with some cases still pending, the Queens District Attorney’s office informed the Eagle. Of the 11 cases, none involve alleged offenses committed while the officer was on-duty, a spokesperson from the office further advised.

The Bronx District Attorney’s office levied charges against 13 police officers in 2011 for the notorious NYPD ticket-fixing scheme. And in September 2014, two NYPD officers from the Bronx were found guilty of attempted assault and are currently awaiting sentencing.

In Staten Island, two officers have been indicted in the most recent year. “This office takes accusations of official misconduct against any public servant very seriously,” said Douglas Auer, director of communications for the Staten Island DA’s office. “Public servants who are accused of violating their sworn duties, or who are accused of violating any law for that matter, are subjected to the same legal processes as other citizens of Richmond County.”

Thompson said respect for police officers and the equal application of the law go hand in hand. “I support our police officers. Officers Ramos and Liu gave their lives to keep us safe, but at the same time, I believe that the laws apply equally to everyone,” Thompson said of the two Brooklyn detectives who were ambushed while sitting in their patrol car last December.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and others have argued that local prosecutors simply cannot be trusted to fairly handle police-involved cases, and, in particular, police-involved killings. “We must eliminate the inherent conflict of interest when a district attorney seeks to indict members of the police department. To that end, I am calling on the governor and attorney general to create a special prosecutor in all cases involving police misconduct,” NYC Public Advocate Letitia James said in a December press release.

Thompson, who has been vocal against the need for special prosecutors, acknowledges that there is a need for criminal justice reform in order to restore “faith” in the system.

Where Have Gun Buyback Programs Gone?

While Thompson has made news for adding new units and programs to the Brooklyn DA’s Office, including an Immigration Fraud Unit and a Forensic Science Unit, notably missing from the DA’s agenda are the gun buyback programs frequently utilized by Thompson’s predecessor. “I did not end it,” Thompson said when asked why there have been no buyback programs since he took office. The last scheduled buyback program in Brooklyn was in October 2013 at the Beit El-Madqdis Islamic Center in Sunset Park.

“We support gun buyback programs, but right now, we’re in a period of triage,” said Thompson. Instead, Thompson’s administration has focused its efforts on blocking the flow of guns that make their way from Southern states—where gun possession laws are more lax than in New York State—to the streets of Brooklyn. “A single arrest of a gun dealer does not solve the problem. I’m determined to trace the evidence … wherever it leads us to find out where is the source of the guns.”

Most recently, Thompson and NYPD investigators uncovered a gun-smuggling ring that exposed federal airport security loopholes that allowed for guns from the state of Georgia to be smuggled onto planes and bought and sold in Brooklyn.

“I get [that] the folks down South and [in] these states…want to have their gun rights, but that does not mean they take advantage of lax gun laws in their home states to send these guns up to New York City where 14- and 15-year-old kids are shooting each other,” Thompson said. He expressed his desire for a balance of an individual’s Second Amendment rights with a degree of government restriction.

Gun buyback programs have long been viewed as a popular crime prevention tool. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, buyback programs help reduce the number of handguns and help reduce violence and other crimes.

“It’s not that we’re not supporting it; we are,” Thompson noted, adding that the next program will likely be held at the 69th Precinct. But according to Brooklyn’s top prosecutor, the programs are only partial fix to a larger problem.

“I’m not diminishing it; they play a role,” he explained. “But I think that doing undercover investigations, getting to the source of the guns and trying to reach these kids before they pull out their guns is the way to go.”

A Restoration of Faith in Brooklyn’s System; A Mother’s Advice to Her Son

At the Kings County Criminal Bar Association’s February CLE dinner meeting, with Thompson as the evening’s keynote speaker, the Brooklyn DA’s Office announced an open-door policy to members of Brooklyn’s criminal defense bar. “We don’t want an adversarial relationship,” ADA Mark Hale, chief of the office’s Conviction Review Unit, said that night, inviting criminal attorneys to work with the DA’s Office to clear wrongful convictions.

“The criminal defense bar welcomes and appreciates DA Thompson’s eagerness to receive our input, especially with regard to the serious issue of wrongful convictions,” Kings County Criminal Bar Association (KCCBA) President Michael Farkas told the Eagle. “His diligence in this important area demonstrates his sincere commitment to justice for all Brooklynites.”

Former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes also frequented KCCBA events and made his open-door policy known to members, Farkas noted.

“It is important for us to join the community and see them as part of our effort,” said Thompson. “Law enforcement needs the community, and the community needs law enforcement; it’s that simple.”

In the vein of reform, Thompson expressed support for videotaped custodial interrogations of witnesses and suspects, a legislative proposal pushed by some Brooklyn politicians, including Assemblymember Joe Lentol.

For Thompson, the taped footage “will also help us protect police officers who are often falsely accused of coercing someone to testify.”

But most important, according to Thompson, is a “dialogue with the community.”

“I think that we have to have a dialogue with the community… strengthening our relationships so that we can all figure this thing out,” said Thompson. “The police don’t have all of the answers; the prosecutors don’t have all of the answers. But collectively, with the community, we can do better.”

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Editor’s Note: A spokesperson from the Manhattan DA’s office previously told the Eagle, “If you look at the past few years our numbers are comparable,” with regard to indictments against NYPD officers for wrongdoing. Further, all case information, involving cases against NYPD officers, from jurisdictions outside of Kings County have been provided by the respective DA offices and in some instances, include a only sampling of cases prosecuted in the jurisdiction. In Staten Island, one police officer’s case is being heard in Supreme Court and the other case has not been indicted and currently remains in Criminal Court.
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Charisma L. Troiano, Esq., spoke with Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson on Thursday, March 5. The quotes in this article were taken from that interview, which was scheduled to broadcast on BK Live on Monday, March 9, and Wednesday, March 11.