4 JULY 16, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Protesters demand Queens DA keep
promises made on campaign trail
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Three months to the day aft er 63-
year-old Ozone Park resident
Walter Ance died of COVID-19,
which he contracted while behind bars
on Rikers Island, dozens of protestors
rallied outside the Queens Criminal
Courthouse in Kew Gardens Monday
in order to publicly shame District Attorney
Melinda Katz for not fulfi lling
her campaign promises.
Ance had been held without bail
for more than a year for allegedly
stabbing his wife and The Legal Aid
Society argued for his release saying
he was at high risk due to diabetes
and prostate issues. Katz declined
his release at the height of the
COVID-19 crisis.
“Social distancing is impossible
inside Rikers Island, and saving human
beings’ lives should be our top
priority during a pandemic,” Policy
& Strategy Vice President Kandra
Clark said. “As a community that
believes in the power of personal
transformation, individuals and
community healing and using restorative
justice approaches to mitigate
conflict, Exodus Transitional Community
calls on Melinda Katz to keep
the promises she made, to move away
from mass incarceration, and to operate
with fairness. Our communities
and organizations like Exodus
have created other ways to deliver
true justice and safety for our communities,
but DAs like Melinda Katz
have kept choosing incarceration.
After decades we finally have a new
DA in Queens, but still too many of
our fellow New Yorkers are suffering
on Rikers Island.”
Protesters held signs citing
pledges the group feels she has not
fulfilled, along with a photo depicting
Katz as Pinocchio. They called on
the Queens DA to stop utilizing cash
bail to hold people in jail, to consent
to release as many people as possible
to help stop the spread of COVID-19
inside the walls of the Rikers Island
prison complex and to stop opposing
the release from prison of people
wrongly convicted by her predecessor,
the late Richard Brown.
“No one should die in jail or prison.
We need to focus on building communities
and stop using jail and bail
as an excuse for public safety,” Just
Leadership USA Member-Leader
Peggy Herrera said. “We can’t arrest
or incarcerate our way out of the
challenges that face our communities.
Mental health, homelessness
and poverty are not crimes! Neither
is a mother who calls for help for her
Protesters demanded that Queens DA Melinda Katz honor the promises she made on the campaign trail.
Photo by Dean Moses
son who suffers from mental health
issues. Low-level offenses do not
deserve to end in a death sentence,
and people should not have to sit in
jail because they can’t afford bail or
take a plea in order to be released.
Rikers Island only adds more trauma.
Melinda Katz, Queens needs to do
better.”
Katz countered saying when she
took office on Jan. 1, she made significant
policy changes to reduce the
population in city jails and that she
is committed to “ultimately ending
cash bail because a person’s financial
status should not be a factor”
in whether they are incarcerated
pre-trial.
“As a result, over 70 percent of
those charged with bail qualifying
offenses have been released either
on their own recognizance or with
supervision,” Katz said. “Since my
first day as district attorney, the
number of individuals in jail on a
Queens County case has been reduced
roughly in half.”
Katz added that since the COVID-19
pandemic hit the city she has worked
daily with the mayor’s office, the
courts, public defenders and defense
attorneys to “prioritize and expedite
the release of the most vulnerable,”
and that her office actively pursued
dispositions and modified sentences
to effectuate early releases.
As for Ance’s case, the DA explained
in April that he was facing
attempted murder charges for allegedly
stabbing his estranged wife.
“The stabbing for which he was
incarcerated was the culmination
of years of physical and mental
abuse that the defendant allegedly
inflicted upon the victim,” Katz said
in a statement. “Despite repeated
arrests and orders of protection
that were in pace, in March of last
year Ance walked into the victim’s
bedroom and stabbed her once in the
chest. Body-worn video footage from
police who responded to the scene
shows the victim holding her chest
and the couple’s son crying and telling
police what he witnessed saying
‘he just stabbed her.'”
The protesters said that Katz ran
on a platform of fairness and justice,
but she is failing to deliver on her
promises.
“We are here to remind Melinda
Katz of her campaign promises to
end cash bail,” Rise & Resist Member
Jody Kuh said. “No one should be
getting sick and dying behind bars,
but Melinda Katz’s broken promises
are exposing people to COVID-19,
including those who haven’t stood
trial and have only been accused of
a crime. We all have the obligation
to ensure that all are given the same
opportunity to protect themselves
against this virus.”
The protesters complained that
Katz continues to seek cash bail,
opposes the release of wrongly
convicted people and continues
to prosecute people for charges of
low-level crimes that she promised
to decline.
“Melinda Katz said that she would
end money bail, but on the very first
case I watched under her regime in
Queens, she asked for money bail,”
Court Watch NYC and VOCAL-NY
Member Jon McFarlane said. “She
lied.”
Katz said she will uphold justice
and ensure the rights and safety
of victims and defendants are
safeguarded.
“I will continue, each and every
day, to work toward a more equitable
system, to restore trust and to help
build a community that truly sees
each other, hears each other and
respects each other,” Katz said.
Additional reporting by Dean
Moses.
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