8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 3, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Five big stories to watch in Queens this year
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
As the new year approaches, we’re looking
File photo/THE COURIER
The retrial of Chanel Lewis (left), who’s accused of murdering Howard Beach’s Karina Vetrano (right)
in 2016, will be one of the big stories to watch in Queens this year.
Queens DA race fi gures to dominate headlines in 2019
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown,
86, has yet to decide whether he’ll run for
re-election in 2019, but there are already
three candidates who have launched campaigns
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to replace him and take over the
offi ce he’s held since 1991.
Councilman Rory Lancman was
the fi rst to announce his candidacy in
September, followed by retired Queens
Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak in
October and Borough President Melinda
Katz in December. All three believe in
criminal justice reform and all three are
looking forward to the race that will be
watched closely in 2019.
“We’re getting incredible support for our
campaign to be Queens’ fi rst woman district
attorney,” Katz said. “From every corner
of our borough, people are eager for a
DA’s offi ce that is a true partner for justice
and will bring much-needed criminal justice
reform to our county. I will end cash
bail for misdemeanors, protect immigrants
and make sure no one’s immigration status
is threatened simply because they are
accused of a crime, and create a conviction
integrity unit to look back at previous
convictions.”
Th e Forest Hills native said she would
establish protections for the borough’s
most targeted citizens and communities
— including seniors, children, members of
the LGBTQ community, immigrants and
the mentally ill — from scams and abuse.
Lancman grew up in Kew Gardens
Hills and as chairman of the City
Council’s Committee on the Justice
System he oversees the Mayor’s Offi ce
of Criminal Justice, the district attorneys
in all fi ve boroughs, the city’s
special narcotics prosecutor, the public
defender organizations, the civil legal
services founded by the city and the
courts.
“I’m very excited about the upcoming
campaign. Th e public wants criminal
justice reform,” Lancman said. “It’s time
to end cash bail, promote speedier trials,
end the overcriminalization of petty crimes
which I call the new Jim Crow laws. My
record and my message will carry the day
and I’m very confi dent of that.”
Born and raised in Woodside before
moving to Richmond Hill to raise his
family, Lasak retired from the bench
aft er a conversation with Brown last
September aft er realizing he missed
working in the DA’s offi ce keeping the
people of Queens safe from violent criminals.
“It’s too serious of a job in Queens
County keeping 2.3 to 2.4 million people
safe,” Lasak said. “It’s too serious a job to
go to someone who will need on-the-job
training; from day one you need to know
what you are doing. I have a wealth of
experience at the highest levels with my
12 years and my 25 years as a Queens
assistant district attorney.”
Lasak began working in the Queens
DA’s offi ce aft er passing the bar exam
at age 24. He was trying murder cases
by the time he was 30. As Chief of the
Homicide Bureau, he oversaw the investigation
and prosecution of all murders
in the borough for nearly two decades.
He was in charge of the Major Crimes
beginning in the late ’90s, overseeing the
prosecutions of all sex crimes, domestic
violence felonies and career criminals.
at some of the big stories to watch in
Queens in 2019.
Th e city’s location of homeless shelters
around the borough continues to be a
sore spot for Queens residents, with particular
fl ashpoints in College Point and
Glendale.
Th e Department of Homeless Services
got an earful at a town hall meeting at
P.S. 29 on Dec. 18 from furious northeast
Queens residents over plans to bring
a single-men’s shelter to 127-03 20th Ave.
Residents are planning to sue the city over
the proposed shelter’s placement.
All eyes will also be watching for developments
in the long-running drama in
Glendale, where the city touched off protests
when plans for a shelter for 125 families
at 78-16 Cooper Ave. back in 2014.
Th e Karina Vetrano murder case will
be retried beginning Jan. 22 aft er Queens
Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise
stunned courtwatchers by declaring a
hung jury aft er just 13 hours of deliberation
in November. Chanel Lewis, the
22-year-old Brooklyn man stands accused
of killing the Howard Beach jogger during
a brutal assault in Spring Creek Park
in August 2016, not far from Vetrano’s
Howard Beach home.
Lewis’ Legal Aid Society defense attorneys
argued that his videotaped confession
was wrongly obtained and should
not have been admissible in the trial. If
convicted, Lewis faces life in prison.
Straphangers will be facing a transit
nightmare in April when the 15-month
shutdown of L train service begins for
repairs to the Hurricane Sandy-damaged
Canarsie Tunnel. Several subway lines in
western Queens will feel the brunt, especially
the beleaguered No. 7 subway line.
Queens Borough President Melinda
Katz will spend much of the year gearing
up for Census 2020 which she says
is crucial to the future of the borough.
Her former deputy borough president,
Melva Miller, stepped down earlier this
month to become the new executive vice
president of the Association for a Better
New York, a nonprofi t civic organization
that is working to make sure that as
many New Yorkers as possible are counted
during the census.
Of course, Amazon’s planned HQ2
campus in Long Island City will be a top
story in the year to come and many years
aft er that. Th e City Council held the fi rst
of three oversight hearings into the deal
that was struck by the state and city which
provides nearly $3 billion in tax cuts and
subsidies in return for the promise of
25,000 jobs over the next 10 years with the
potential to expand to 40,000 jobs over
the next 15 years.
File photos/Illustration by Robert Pozarycki
Clockwise, from top left: Queens District Attorney
Richard A. Brown, Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz, Councilman Rory Lancman and retired
Judge Gregory Lasak
2019 preview
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