4
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JANUARY 19, 2020
BAIL INDUSTRY
oppose the reforms, including one prominent
Brooklyn bondsman, who complained that
some patrons — whose bail was retroactively
eliminated as a result of the new laws — have
already cut ties.
“I have clients coming into my offi ce saying
‘I don’t have to check in with you anymore,’
and laughing,” said Ira Judelson, who has arranged
large bonds for disgraced movie mogul
Harvey Weinstein, mixed martial arts fi ghter
Conor McGregor, and the former director of
the International Monetary Fund Dominique
Strauss-Kahn.
Judelson — whose Atlantic Avenue offi ce
lies directly across from the recently-shuttered
House of Detention — often deals with clients
who have to post large amounts of bail for felony
charges, and roughly half of his customers
fall outside of the new laws.
Advocates pushing for reforms argued that
the state’s former bail system resulted in the
mass incarceration of poor New Yorkers who
had not been convicted of any crimes, while
their well-heeled counterparts could afford to
buy their way out of jail.
To illustrate the disparity, Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams compared the case of Weinstein
— a millionaire fi lm executive accused of
sexually assaulting two New York women —
to the tragic circumstances surrounding the
2015 suicide of Kalief Browder, who spent three
years on Rikers Island awaiting trial, because
he couldn’t afford $3,000 bail on charges related
to the theft of a backpack.
“I can think of no clearer example of why
these reforms were so critical than the fact that
just a block behind us Harvey Weinstein arrived
for his trial today under his own power,
while … Kalief Browder couldn’t afford to go
home,” Williams said in Manhattan Tuesday.
The Brooklyn bail industry in particular
has suffered under policy’s enacted by District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez prior to the state-wide
bail reform. The Kings County prosecutor —
who effectively decriminalized possession of
small amounts of marijuana in the borough —
requested bail in only seven percent of misdemeanor
cases in 2019, and several of Judelson’s
competitors in and around Downtown Brooklyn
had already closed shop in the years leading
up the new laws taking effect.
On the other hand, the closure of the
Brooklyn House of Detention as part of Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s borough-based jails plan has
not deeply impacted either bail bonds company,
according to Judelson, who said that
most of their business comes from the nearby
criminal and supreme courts in Downtown
Brooklyn.
But the state’s trend toward enacting progressive
criminal justice reforms may reduce
the state’s bail bonds industry of slightly more
than 200 licensed agents by half, according
to the head of the trade organization the New
York State Bondsman Association Michelle Esquenazi,
who said most bail-bonds businesses
are not large enough to weather a longterm recession.
“They’re family-owned business, they’re
not multimillion dollar enterprises,” said Esquenazi,
who also owns Empire Bail Bonds. “It
will affect everyone at a 50-percent ratio.”
Continued from page 1
City spending $2 million on
P’Park Pavilion renovation
The area under the grove had been fenced off for years. Prospect Park Alliance
BY BEN VERDE
The historic Concert Grove Pavilion
— which has been roped off since
2014 due to structural issues — will
be restored to its former luster courtesy
of $2 million in Council funding,
which will foot the bill for repairs to
years of water damage, reconstruct
missing historical details, and repaint
the shelter based on historical
images.
“This beautiful structure has been
a beloved community landmark for
generations,” said Sue Donoghue, president
of the Prospect Park Alliance.
“The Concert Grove Pavilion deserves
a thorough restoration to restore it to
its original grandeur.”
Located in the park’s southeast corner,
the 1874 Calvert Vaux designed pavilion
is supported by eight cast-iron
columns holding up a massive metal
and wood roof, which contains Egyptian,
Chinese, and Hindu motifs.
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