DA candidate Dwimoh renews calls for independent review of Brooklyn DA’s office

July 31, 2017 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

After yet another conviction in Brooklyn was overturned last week, DA candidate Ama Dwimoh renewed her calls for an independent investigator into the Brooklyn DA’s Office. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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Yet another person was released from prison last week after courts determined that there was a wrongful conviction, but nobody involved with causing the wrongful conviction was punished, and one of the candidates for district attorney in Brooklyn has had enough of the lack of repercussions.

Tasker Spruill, now 51, was released from prison on Thursday after Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Evelyn LaPorte overturned his 1998 murder conviction. Spruill was released on $200,000 bail and is not allowed to leave the city until prosecutors appeal the decision.

“Another Brooklyn man is released after spending decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, and, yet again, [Acting DA Eric Gonzalez] did not hold anyone responsible,” Dwimoh said. “Despite the fact that the judge in Mr. Spruill’s case cited prosecutorial misconduct, acting DA Gonzalez has not allowed for an independent investigation into what happened in this case and nearly two dozen others.

“To date, Gonzalez has still not held a single prosecutor or law enforcement official accountable for their role in a wrongful conviction,” Dwimoh continued.

Judge Michael Gerstein was the one who initially raised the issue of prosecutorial misconduct.

During hearings, judges and prosecutors discuss what went wrong that led to the wrongful conviction. NYPD detectives and Brooklyn assistant district attorneys’ names are often mentioned as contributing to the cause, but to date prosecutors have failed to charge any parties with crimes.

The issue of having an independent prosecutor investigate the bad actors that led to wrongful convictions has been a central one to Dwimoh’s campaign, and something that Gonzalez has denied is necessary.

In June, Dwimoh stood alongside Jabbar Collins and Shabaka Shakur, two men who were freed from prison after being wrongfully convicted, to call for systemic change within the DA’s Office, particularly when it comes to holding people responsible for wrongful convictions.

“It’s been several years since the first of nearly two dozen people wrongfully prosecuted by the Brooklyn DA’s Office were exonerated,” Dwimoh said at the time. She added, “Very little has changed in the way the DA’s Office operates to ensure that these tragic miscarriages of justice will not happen again.”

Dwimoh has released a plan that she calls “Justice Matters,” which, among other things, calls for a special prosecutor to be appointed to cases of potential misconduct of a prosecutor that lead to an overturned case.

Dwimoh has also repeated called attention to Tara Lenich, the assistant district attorney who was found guilty of forgery and illegal wiretapping of a love interest of hers. Lenich forged more than 20 court documents before she was caught, which has led Dwimoh to openly question how she was able to get away with it for so long.

More than 20 convictions have been overturned in Brooklyn since the late Ken Thompson became district attorney less than four years ago. Gonzalez, who took over the DA’s Office after Thompson’s death in October, was a part of the group that helped Thompson to create that unit.

“It is factually inaccurate and irresponsible for anyone to make such erroneous accusations,” said Lupe Todd-Medina, spokesperson for Eric Gonzalez for District Attorney. “All cases of wrongful conviction are reviewed by an independent panel of attorneys as part of the innovative and groundbreaking Conviction Review Unit. District Attorney Gonzalez has worked zealously to ensure that the CRU restores justice in Brooklyn. That is why it is a national model emulated by other offices.”