HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR VISITS DA’S OFFICE AND FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER

This month, we welcomed esteemed Harvard University Law Professor Charles Ogletree, Jr. to our office as he took a tour of our Family Justice Center, an all-in-one center for domestic violence victims to receive help by getting services such as counseling, advocacy, meeting with a prosecutor, housing assistance and legal information.  Mr. Ogletree saw first hand how the Center operates and came away very impressed. 

Wanda Lucibello, Chief of our Domestic Violence Bureau led him on the tour, explaining to him how the Center operates and showing him the many different offices within the Center.

Mr. Ogletree also visited our ComALERT (Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together) program, which provides assistance and services to parolees returning to the community. Created in 1999, the program assists formerly incarcerated individuals in making a successful transition from prison to home by providing drug treatment and counseling, mental health treatment and counseling, transitional housing and employment. Mr. Ogletree called his visit to the Family Justice Center and ComALERT breathtaking. 

It was a privilege to have Mr. Ogletree visit our office.  He is a very impressive man. He is one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States, a passionate advocate of a defendant’s right to a fair trial.

I found his insight on the criminal justice system interesting and we shared our views.  Professor Ogletree worked for several years in the public defender’s office in Washington D.C. and then continued his career at Harvard Law School where he has significant inroads into how students at the country’s most prestigious legal training ground view both the African-American community and its relationship to the criminal justice system.

The professor’s personal brushes with the law were as a child, watching his father taken away in handcuffs after incidents of domestic violence in their home.  That experience instilled in him feelings of powerlessness towards the law enforcement community, and influenced him to pursue a career in law.  My own similar experience led me to open the first Domestic Violence Bureau in a DA’s Office after I was first elected in 1990.

Professor Ogletree received his Bachelors and Masters Degree from Stanford University and graduated from Harvard Law School with a Jurist Prudence Degree.  He has also taught at American University and Antioch Law School, and was a partner at the law firm of Jessamy, Fort and Ogletree.

RACKETS BUREAU CHIEF AND DEPUTY BUREAU CHIEF HONORED BY DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

     Patricia McNeill (center) with other honorees. 

On July 2, the U.S. Department of Justice honored my Rackets Bureau Chief Patricia McNeill and Deputy Bureau Chief Dennis Ring for their roles in taking down an international, multi-million dollar drug trafficking/money laundering operation.  They received an award at the Department of Justice’s 2009 OCDETF (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces) Asset Forfeiture National Leadership Conference in Washington DC for Outstanding Investigation or Case. 

Their investigation led to the takedown of a dangerous organized crime team that was involved in all kinds of illegal activities including murders, arson, assaults and gambling.  Ms. McNeill and Mr. Ring demonstrated their intelligence and attention to detail, and deserve every bit of praise that they received.

“Operation Corporate Raider” targeted the upper-echelon of the Cuban Mafia, one of the nation’s largest organized crime syndicates knows as “The Corporation.”  Since the 1960’s, The Corporation has run a large-scale policy gambling operation that conducted business from Miami, Fl., New York, and New Jersey.  The group was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering that extended all the way to Lima, Peru where they set up a casino called The Crillon, to launder their ill-gotten money.  The Corporation netted millions of dollars a year.

The gang sanctioned arsons and homicides to eliminate competition, settle internal disputes and to maintain loyalty within the group.  Four of the arsons resulted in the deaths of eight people, including a three-year-old child and her 18-year-old babysitter.  The group was also responsible for the shooting murders of multiple people in Florida and New York.  The group’s common method of eliminating competition was to fire-bomb their rivals’ policy gambling locations.

The Corporation was under investigation in New York for over 20 years.  Most recently, my office, along with the NYPD, conducted a year-long investigation that resulted in the execution of 40 search warrants and the arrest of 50 people for gambling-related activity linked to The Corporation.  The work done by Ms. McNeill and Mr. Ring was exemplary, especially because of the complexities of the investigation.  Witnesses were scattered around the world, these was a large volume of evidence to go through, and some of the crimes took place more than 30 years ago.  

Ms. McNeill and Mr. Ring both won the United States Attorney’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team in October 2007 on this same case.

Patricia McNeill has worked at the DA’s Office since November 1994 when she started in the Organized Crime Unit, which eventually became the Rackets Division.  She has investigated and prosecuted many organized crimes cases, some in collaboration with Federal authorities.  One high-profile case that she investigated and prosecuted was the murder of Mark Fisher which led to life sentences for two defendants.  After this case, in 2005, Ms. McNeill was promoted to her current title as Bureau Chief.  Ms. McNeill also prosecuted the multi-million dollar tissue harvesting case where tissues were harvested from people who never consented before they died, to be donors. Those tissues were then sold to medical companies for use in surgical transplants, such as bone and skin grafts.  The mastermind in the case, Michael Mastromarino, was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison.

Dennis Ring has worked in the DA’s Office since September 2000, mostly in the Rackets Division, starting out as an Assistant District Attorney.  He was promoted to Senior Investigative Attorney, then Counsel in the Rackets Division, and he was promoted in May 2009 to his current role as Deputy Bureau Chief.  He has investigated and prosecuted many fraud cases including a currently open case of real estate fraud in which two Brooklyn men developed an elaborate scheme which included the theft of a Park Slope townhouse, social security benefits, and social service payments, and involved one of the men, Thomas Parkin, dressing up as his deceased, 77-year-old mother to further the scam.

VETERANS PROJECT 

On July 7, I was joined by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, Queens DA Richard Brown and Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice in announcing a new Veterans Project aimed at helping war veterans who committed non-violent crimes and veterans who were crime victims in Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County.  It is designed to help non-violent veteran offenders and victims receive the services and treatment that they need, and possibly provide an alternative to incarceration. 

The Veterans Project provides outreach, services, treatment and peer support to those who qualify for the program.  The defendants plead guilty to non-violent crimes, and receive treatment for the problems they face, whether it’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, trauma, or other combat-related physical and mental injuries.  Staff for the program will help these veterans cope with problems such as disorders, homelessness, substance abuse and violence, and help them adjust to society.  When their treatment is complete, the offenders’ charges would be dismissed or reduced, or their sentence would be reduced.  Veteran victims are also eligible to receive the same treatment through this program.

I want to make a special note of thanks to Chief Judge Lippman and former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler for coming up with the idea of the Veterans Project and bringing myself, DA Brown and DA Rice together in this successful collaboration.

Our veterans have done so much for our country, risking their lives to keep us safe by fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere, it is only fitting that we can give them something back.  It is important that we are there for them, as they were there for us. 

The Project would not have been possible without the support of the Law and Psychiatry Institute of the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, the Department of Veteran Affairs New York Harbor Health Care System, and the Touro Law Center who provided their support and services to make this Project a success.  The Law and Psychiatry Institute provided funds and grants and the Touro Law Center provided grants in order to finance this important program.

The Washington Post 
 Major Cities’ Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying

Killings in the District, Pr. George’s Have Fallen

Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.

The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades. Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides.

“Experts did not see this coming at all,” said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and professor of sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

In the District and Prince George’s County, homicides are down about 17 percent this year.

Criminologists have different theories about why crime is down so much, although many agree that the common belief that crime is connected to the economy is false.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071902154.html?hpid=topnews 

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
Getting DNA Tests May Turn Easy For Inmates

Pennsylvania lawmakers might be asked to allow prisoners better access to genetic tests that could prove their innocence.

The Senate-commissioned Committee on Wrongful Convictions is due to release a report by summer's end that could recommend changes in state law, possibly making it easier for convicts to get DNA testing. Some prosecutors oppose such a change, fearing it would flood the system with frivolous requests.

"It's hard to get DNA testing in Pennsylvania. Nobody wants to admit they're wrong," said Drew Whitley, 53, formerly of West Mifflin, who served 17 years in prison for murder before a DNA test cleared him. "Even afterwards (the government) still has something to say. They never want to admit they're wrong.

www.brooklynda.org

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