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HAPPY
HOLIDAYS
First off, I would like to wish
everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! 2010 has been a very productive
year for my office. We have received many honors. It was also very
heartwarming to be able to reach out to the community and provide
assistance, especially to those who are in need. We implemented new
programs aimed at making Brooklyn a safer place to live and work and
celebrated the continued success of many of our existing programs. We
also took great measures to reduce the number of guns on the street.
Before
we take a look at this past year, I want to emphasize that I look
forward to a very productive 2011. In the new year, we will widen our
investigations to prosecute despicable sex traffickers and see to it
that they spend long terms of imprisonment.
Our
commitment to our environment promises many more prosecutions in 2011.
The most important goal of 2011 is to identify young males returning
from Juvenile Centers, whose recidivism rate is 78 percent in three
years and provide re-entry services to reduce re-offending rates. I plan
to expand my Girls re-entry program whose success rate of 18 percent is
demonstrably successful. Reducing the rate of crime for young offenders
will protect the people of Brooklyn and raise levels of public safety.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2010
My office takes a strong stance
against those who pollute our waters and we vigorously prosecute those
who are responsible. We had several environmental pollution cases this
year. In January and December, we announced indictments for pollution
as businesses dumped raw sewage into Newton Creek and the Shellbank
Creek in Sheepshead Bay. These cases show a total disregard for the
environment and public health, and I am proud to say that, with the help
of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and NYC Department
of Environmental Protection, we have had tremendous success at getting
once-polluted waterways cleaned up.
Fraud comes in many forms including
money laundering, mortgage fraud, identity theft and welfare fraud. In
February, April and September, in separate cases, I announced
indictments of 60 individuals and corporations for enterprise
corruption, mortgage and real estate scams, welfare fraud and Medicaid
fraud. In some cases, victims were swindled out of millions of
dollars. In addition, many of these cases took money out of taxpayers’
pockets and these schemes significantly reduced the available funds for
those who actually need public assistance. Investigations were
conducted by my Mortgage Fraud and Real Estate Crimes Unit, which was
created within the Rackets Division, in February 2009, with the
assistance of an $875,000 federal grant secured by Sen. Schumer.
For the fourth consecutive year, in
March, I honored 31 extraordinary women as part of Women’s History
Month. The women were lauded for their accomplishments in their careers
and their service to the communities in which they live and serve. One
woman, Suzanne Charles Augustine, was recognized for her commitment to
her local parish as well as the plight of the Haitian people.
There are many Haitians living in
Brooklyn, and it really struck my heart to see so many of our Haitian
American residents struggle to cope with the nightmare that struck their
home country as a devastating earthquake killed many people and ruined
many homes and businesses.
My office staff responded to the
earthquake that struck near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince on January
12 by collecting over $3,000 in checks to be sent to the American Red
Cross to aid in the Haiti relief effort.
In April, we contributed to the
Haiti Disaster Relief by sending seven truckloads of confiscated goods
to Haiti that was seized in raids. The items were confiscated from
counterfeiters in three large-scale takedowns in 2008 and 2009. My
office obtained permission from the manufacturers to donate seven
tractor-trailers of clothing and other merchandise to earthquake victims
in Haiti. The companies that agreed to have their knockoffs donated to
charity include Nike, Timberland, Antik Denim Jeans, Ed Hardy, True
Religion, Diesel, Jordan, Rockawear, Black Label, Christian Augidier and
Affliction.
This year, my office implemented
new programs designed to ensure the safety of some of our workers. We
have many people in our community such as police officers and school
safety officers who are susceptible to violence on the job. In the
past, we announced programs to protect police officers and transit
workers from assaults.
In May, I announced the creation of
the Assault on School Safety Officers Program, designed to ensure that
assaults on school safety officers will be prosecuted to the full extent
of the law. The program is similar to the DA’s Office’s Assault on
Police Officer Program (APOP) and Assault on Transit Workers Program,
which were implemented in 2008, in that the programs’ goals are to
protect those officials from random attacks. These programs consist of
a team of prosecutors and investigators, who specialize in cases where
an officer, transit worker or school safety officer has been seriously
injured, shot at or attacked with a deadly weapon, or if there is an
attempted assault.
In June, we started Project Safe
Surrender, which allowed people with summons warrants to clear those
warrants, at St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church. Project Safe
Surrender is a collaborative effort involving St. Paul’s Community
Baptist church, Brooklyn Congregations Together, the Kings County
District Attorney’s Office, the Office of Court Administration and the
New York City Police Department.
In October, DA Deafway was
launched, a new program designed to help the deaf and hard of hearing
community access information on programs and services that are available
to them through the District Attorney’s Office. Members of the deaf and
hard of hearing community can go directly to the program at
http://www.brooklynda.org/DEAFWAY/DADEAFWAY.HTM, and get information
from a Deaf Victims Advocate and five Community Ambassadors.
As an animal lover myself, I find
it incomprehensible why people would hurt animals. But unfortunately,
it does happen and those people need to be held accountable for their
actions. My office aggressively investigates and prosecutes the crimes
of animal neglect, fighting and cruelty. We seek jail time for every
defendant convicted of felony animal cruelty or fighting. In March, I
announced the conviction of a defendant who beat his five-month-old
puppy to death.
The best way to reduce violence is
to get guns off the streets. Even just one less gun can save lives.
Joining forces with the NYPD and six local churches, we had a gun
buyback in May, where people could turn in their guns and get $200 in
return. We collected 287 guns that were eventually melted down and
turned into coat hangers.
Our Drug Treatment
Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP)program is an alternative-to-prison program
for drug offenders based on the premise that chronic offenders will
return to society in a better position to resist drugs and crime after
treatment than after spending a comparable amount of time in prison at
nearly twice the cost. DTAP diverts drug-addicted, non-violent repeat
felony offenders, following a guilty plea, into residential substance
abuse treatment in lieu of mandatory prison. This year, I honored 51
new graduates of the program, which continues to be a huge success. The
graduates all made incredible strides to overcome their drug addictions
and turn their lives around.
In June, I created a new Sex
Trafficking Unit in my office, within our Rackets Division, to target
this criminal activity. The unit works with the NYPD and other agencies
and community groups to combat sexual exploitation. We set up a 24-hour
hotline, which victims and people with knowledge of sex trafficking can
call. That number is (718) 250-2770.
In October, we initiated a
community outreach campaign aimed at educating the public about sex
trafficking and offering help to victims. Advertising firm LPNY devoted
its time and talent to create posters, leaflets and public service
announcements including Emmy Award winning actress Sarah Jessica Parker
and Oscar Award nominee and Brooklyn native Gabourey Sidibe recording
public service announcements. You can hear the PSA’s by going to the
following links:
http://www.brooklynda.org/News/extras/SARAH.wma
http://www.brooklynda.org/News/extras/GABOUREY.wma
One of the most high-profile murder
cases this year involved a case where two defendants attacked a couple
of Ecuadorian immigrants because they thought they were gay. They saw
the two victims, who were brothers, walking arm-in-arm and mistook them
for homosexuals, shouting anti-gay slurs. They attacked them, using
weapons including a beer bottle and an aluminum baseball bat. One of
the victims died. One of the defendants was sentenced to 37 years to
life. The other defendant received 37 years in prison.
This past July, the Family Justice
Center has its fifth anniversary, celebrating the success of the Center
which has had a record of 32,806 clients who have visited the Center on
at least one occasion since its opening in 2005. The Family Justice
Center provides information and services for domestic violence victims
who can walk in and choose which services they want including
counseling, advocacy, meeting with a prosecutor, shelter and housing
help, meeting with a clergy member, and legal information – all while
their children play safely in the next room called Margaret’s Place,
which is funded by Joe Torre’s Safe at Homes Foundation. Before the
Center, victims would need to travel to numerous agencies to receive
these services.
This is a festive time when we get
together with our family and friends to celebrate the holidays. We
exchange gifts and reflect on how thankful we are for everything that we
have. Unfortunately, some people in our communities are not as
fortunate as others.
My office was fortunate enough to
receive a generous donation of canned goods to be given to domestic
violence victims in our Family Justice Center. The goods were donated
by the 88th Police Precinct Council and Brooklyn Endeavor
Experience, Inc., an advocacy and educational organization that was
created to improve the quality of life of our community.
We donated unwrapped toys for
children from St. John’s Parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The St. Johns
University School of Law Brooklyn chapter organizes a holiday party to
benefit the children of St. Johns every year, and the toys were
distributed there. In addition, my office participated in another toy
drive, sponsored by Bushwick’s Progress High School. The toys were
delivered by Progress High School’s student government to children at
Woodhull Hospital and homeless shelters in the area.
Every year, we select a “Christmas
family” that needs a little help around the holidays. This year’s
family was a single mother from Brownsville with five children – three
boys and two girls. Kings County District Attorney staff members
donated clothes and toys which were delivered to the family so they
could enjoy a merry Christmas.
Unfortunately, bullying occurs on a daily basis in
schools and schoolyards throughout the borough. My Crime Prevention
Division developed a program where attorneys educate students, teachers
and parents about the dangers of bullying and cyber bullying, and advise
them on how to take action against this type of behavior.
Since bullying is such a major problem, I decided to
hold a contest to raise awareness. The 2010 Legal Lives Bullying Video
Contest was judged by a panel of Assistant District Attorneys who are
participants in the Legal Lives program. We reviewed many videos from
participants from fifth grade classrooms and announced two winners who
created a rap about bullying. Winners, Nairan St. Phard and Jeremiah
Hyde, who were fifth grade students at P.S. 119, did a remarkable job on
their video, and as a reward, they get to be District Attorney for a day
on a date yet to be announced. You can see the video on our website.
Due to the success of the 2010 Bullying Video contest, it will be an
annual event.
If you notice signs of bullying, report it to your
child’s school or if you have questions about bullying, contact the DA’s
hotline at (718) 250-3395.
Due to the prosecutions we have
made and the new programs that have been implemented, Brooklyn continues
to be a safer place to live. We are here to protect you and we will
continue our efforts to make Brooklyn a safer place in the new year.
You can read more about our
programs and the activities of my office at
www.brooklynda.org. Again, I want to wish you a Happy & Healthy New
Year. |
