By Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
JAY STREET — The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is one of the biggest and busiest prosecutorial offices in the world. And its chief attorney, DA Charles J. Hynes, seems to have been extra busy these last couple weeks.
In addition to the normal array of murder, assault and other felony cases that his office handles each and every day, Hynes seems to have been all over the borough of Brooklyn recently — making speeches, giving lectures, accepting and presenting awards, reading essays and signing books.
Early yesterday morning, the Brooklyn DA presented 22 men and women with the Law Enforcement Appreciation Awards at Brooklyn Law School. (See photo 2.) The honorees from the NYPD, FDNY, District Attorney’s Office and criminal courts included slain New York police officer Russell Timoshenko who was shot and killed last summer during a traffic stop in Crown Heights.
Perhaps in an effort to curtail such crimes before they occur, Hynes co-sponsored a youth essay contest last week, with the theme of stopping illegal guns on the streets. The essay question to be answered was: “If you were the commanding officer, what would you do to get illegal guns off the streets in your community?” There was one winner, between the ages of 6 and 12, from each of the 18 NYC Housing Authority community centers. (See photo 3.)
The day prior, on Tuesday, the District Attorney hosted a lecture at Middle School 51 for parents and teachers who wanted to educate themselves on the threats their children face on the Internet. The cyber-predator lecture will be given again in Cobble Hill on Monday, May 12. See full story by Mary Frost, Predators are on Internet Protect Your Children .
Another educational presentation was given the night before. Hynes hosted a panel discussion on hate crimes directed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. NYPD officers also spoke at the Prospect Park YMCA on Ninth Street about how these hate crimes are investigated.
The last week of April, however, found Brooklyn’s head prosecutor at numerous award ceremonies — both in honor of himself and others.
On Saturday, April 26, the Kings County Criminal Bar Association hosted their annual dinner and dance at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach. More than 200 judges, prosecutors and criminal-defense attorneys attended the notable awards ceremony. DA Hynes presented awards to former Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Ronald J. Aiello and to Assistant District Attorney Michael F. Vecchione, the chief of Hynes’ rackets bureau. (See photo 1; Vecchione at right.)
Hynes may have been relieved that night to have only had two awards to give — as two days later, he honored nearly three dozen “extraordinary” women at his office at Renaissance Plaza on Jay Street. (See photo 4.) The 31 women were inducted into their roles as “neighborhood ambassadors,” and will join the “extraordinary women” from 2007. Hynes honored one woman per day for each of the 31 days in March, which is Women’s History Month.
It was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that was the group that took the time to honor the DA. At the Marriott Hotel on Adams Street, the NAACP presented Hynes with the Legal Leadership Award at its Annual Freedom Awards Reception. (See photo 5, with NY Daily News columnist Errol Louis and NAACP Brooklyn Branch President Karen Boykin-Towns.)
And with all these events and awards, the Brooklyn District Attorney even found the time to stop by Eamonn Doran’s Irish pub on Montague Street for a book-signing on Monday. Hynes wrote a murder-mystery novel last year entitled, “Triple Homicide.” He has been very busy indeed.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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