4 JANUARY 9, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Melinda Katz outlines priorities, responds
to critics at District Attorney inauguration
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The inauguration of Melinda Katz,
the fi rst female district attorney
of Queens, gathered city and
state offi cials, religious fi gures and a
crowd of hundreds at her alma mater,
St. John’s University on Monday.
Katz joined a constellation of offi
cials including Rep. Greg Meeks, Lt.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General
Tish James and Mayor Bill de Blasio,
who gave remarks heralding Katz’s
stewardship as a pivotal moment for
criminal justice reform.
“I was elected, I like to think, because
of the trust that I will bring
a steady hand in these times of
uncertainty–a steady hand, a common
sense hand,” Katz said in her
inauguration speech.
The electeds praised Katz on her
creation of the borough’s fi rst conviction
integrity unit, and her promise
to challenge ICE’s presence at courthouses
and crack down on hate crimes.
Several also commented on how they
thought her history of public service
Melinda Katz addresses the crowd after being sworn into the offi ce of Queens District Attorney.
Courtesy of the Queens DA’s offi ce
as Borough President, a City Council
member and an assemblymember
prepared her for the offi ce.
“Melinda Katz will still be Melinda
Katz no matter what the title is, no
matter where she goes. No matter
the situation,” said Meeks, who campaigned
with Katz in his capacity as
chair of the Queens County Democratic
Party.
Though Katz’s political supporters
fi lled the bleachers, outside Carnesecca
Arena the signs of her turbulent
primary battle with Tiff any Cabán
persisted. Around a dozen activists
from Court Watch NYC and Our Pregressive
Future showed up to protest
Katz’s failure to follow through with
her promise to end cash bail completely
on her fi rst day in offi ce.
Sharon Lee, who will act as borough
president until the office is
fi lled, introduced Katz’s nine-member
executive team led by Chief Assistant
Jennifer L. Naiburg, a 26-year-veteran
of the Queens DA’s Offi ce. Four of
the incoming members of team are
holdovers from former Queens DA
Richard Brown’s offi ce, but the team
also includes some notable fresh
faces like Bryce Benjet, the director of
the newly created District Attorney’s
Conviction Integrity Unit.
Benjet, a Senior Staff Attorney
with the Innocence Project for the
past seven years, has spent most of
his career fi ghting against wrongful
convictions. That Conviction Integrity
Unit will examine cases to make
recommendations for exoneration if
someone is found to be wrongfully
convicted.
It’s one of four progressive policy
changes that Katz put into eff ect on
day one of her tenure. Others include
the abandonment of the 180.80 waiver
policy–allowing defendants to enter a
plea bargain fi ve days aft er an indictment
without waiving their right to
a grand jury.
Katz also eliminated “top count only”
plea policy aft er indictment. The
goal of this policy stops defendants
from making a choice between going
to trial or taking a plea deal based on
the top count of their indictment.
She has renamed the Special
Prosecutions unit to the Community
Partnerships Division to signal its
goal of working “with the community
to foster communication.”
Katz ended by addressing cash
bail. She admitted that though her
offi ce did not do away completely
with the practice on the fi rst day, she
was “committed to ending cash bail in
all forms. Period.” She said that this
was something that was not achievable
without the infrastructure on
supervised release yet in place.
“There’s a lot of naysayers and critics.
There are those who say we’re not
going far enough, there are those who
are going too far,” said Katz in closing.
“I look forward to that challenge with
the trust to do the right thing even
though we know we can’t achieve it
all in that single day.”
Middle M
MEDIA ADVISORY
M
V illage
IA A
A
IS S
S
P reparatory
Charter Y
r Y
S chool
will
c onduct
t i t s
g m onthly
yd o f
y B oard
f T rustees
M eeting
on Thursday January 9 thh , 2019
Details are as follows:
WHO: Middle Village Preparatory Charter School
WHAT: Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
WHEN: Thursday January 9 th , 2019
TIME: 6:00 PM
WHERE: Multi-Purpose Room at Middle Village Prep
Door # 10
68-02 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
All meetings of the Trustees and all committees and subcommittees
are conducted with the New York Open Meetings Law
( N.Y. Public Officers Law §§ 1 00-111).
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