Queens Borough President Melinda Katz is set to begin her tenure as Queens District Attorney. Photo by Mark Hallum
Incoming Queens DA Katz seeks to
fulfi ll vows of ‘sweeping changes’
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JAN. 3-JAN. 9, 2020 3
BY MARK HALLUM
As we head into the new
year, Melinda Katz is getting
ready to trade jobs in Queens
— moving from her borough
president’s office to the district
attorney’s office.
Katz will be the first new
Queens DA in 28 years; the late
Richard Brown held the office
from 1991 until his death in
May of this year. Since Brown’s
demise, John Ryan has served
as the borough’s acting chief
prosecutor.
But what policy changes
is Katz planning for her new
role?
A conviction integrity
unit was one policy she said
she would still implement on
a recent episode of the Brian
Lehrer Show on WNYC – an
apparatus she plans to wield in
big cases where public doubt
around decisions has been
made clear.
“There is such a thing as
justice for defendants and justice
for victims. I think during
the campaign it became such
a misnomer; people thought
it was one or the other,” Katz
said. “But it’s also the attitude
of the assistant district attorneys
and district attorney who
heads the office.”
Lehrer asked if the proposed
conviction integrity
unit would consider the case of
Chanel Lewis, who was found
guilty in the spring of murdering
Howard Beach jogger Karina
Vetrano in August 2016.
Exculpatory evidence revealed
in the late stages of Lewis’
trial claimed DNA swabs
and other evidence suggested
to some that Lewis did not fit
the description of the perp.
Deputy Chief Michael Kemper
said at several meetings
that the perps initially sought
for the Vetrano murder were
two “jacked up” white men
from Howard Beach, and another
police official repeatedly
called for the DNA swabbing of
all white men in the area, according
to an anonymous letter
from an NYPD source.
But Lewis, whose DNA was
linked nearly six months after
the murder to evidence found
at the crime scene, was convicted,
and is now serving a
sentence of life without parole.
“I believe we’re going to
look at this and see how the
conviction integrity unit feels
about this case as well, but it is
ongoing,” Katz said.
Amid rumors, reported
by Lehrer, that many of Katz’
new chief assistants have been
sourced from Brown’s old staff,
the incoming DA brushed off
suspicion that Brown’s lessthan
progressive approach to
criminal justice would live on.
“At the end of the day, it’s
ultimately my policies or no
policy – or the highway,” Katz
said.With new discovery laws
going into effect in 2020, DA’s
will no longer be able to withhold
evidence from the defense
while building a case. This
was a reform pushed by many
of the candidates in the seven
person field in the Democratic
primary, including Tiffany
Cabán who nearly upset Katz’
presumptive victory as the
county party choice.
Katz announced that she
will implement a policy in the
Queens DA’s office that only
gave defendants five days to
waive their right to a grand
jury, taking the opportunity
to plea bargain out of the equation
after that period.
“Defendants won’t have to
waive their 180.80 rights. The
constitutional rights to make
sure that you have speedy
grand jury to make sure you
are indicted in a timely fashion,”
Katz said. “When you
get arrested for a felony and
you couldn’t get the grand
jury within five days and you
waived your right to have that,
it really tied the hands of the
attorneys to be able to plea, to
be able to negotiate and to be
able to talk about how we end
up in a fair and just way.”
Bail reform also takes effect
on Jan. 1 and Katz said the office
is already prepared for the
change which will no longer
require defendants to pay up.
Pre-charge diversion and
other jail alternatives will be
offered, Katz said, eliminating
the need detentions and bail.
/QNS.COM
