8 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 4, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
De Blasio, Koslowitz defend Kew Gardens jail at closed-door meeting
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Mayor Bill de Blasio was in Kew
Gardens on the aft ernoon of Wednesday,
March 27, for an invitation-only meeting
on the jail proposal recently certifi ed by
the City Planning Commission just days
prior and to address community concerns.
De Blasio may have closed the event
to the press, but QNS obtained a recording
of the meeting from an attendee.
On the audio fi le, Councilwoman Karen
Koslowitz voiced support the plan to
install a borough-based jail and criticized
community leaders for heated accusations
against the de Blasio administration of
taking an underhanded approach without
notifi cation or input at previous meetings.
“I want to remind everybody that there
had been a jail here for 40 years without
incident and I’m supporting this because
I feel that I can work with the administration
and make this facility viable to
all of us,” Koslowitz said, referring to
the now-shuttered Queens Detention
Complex that would be razed to make
way for the community-based jail. “As far
as safety is concerned, the criminals are
inside; they are not outside. And you will
have more security here because corrections
offi cers around the area.”
Koslowitz believes the jail could bring
an economic revival to Queens Boulevard
which has seen about eight prominent
businesses shuttered recently. Traffi c
could also be improved, she said, with the
800-car garage being built for visitors at
the proposed facility with could house less
than 1,400 detainees in a 27-story complex.
Th e facility at 126-02 82nd Ave. would
detain the majority of incarcerated women
in the city and include a maternity ward.
Initial plans for the facility to have an infi rmary
serving all four borough-based jails
has been scrapped.
“At the front end of the process, we’ve
been reducing the prison population very,
very substantially while keeping the city
safe,” de Blasio said on the recording provided
to QNS. “It’s because we’ve seen
changes in policing and criminal justice
that we’re able to fi nally get to the day
where we can be off Rikers Island … Our
goal here of course, when someone enters
the criminal justice system and comes
out, we don’t want them to ever be in the
criminal justice system again and cause a
problem for their community. We cannot
do that eff ectively with the facilities
on Rikers.”
Meeting over the course of the last several
months have been explosive with residents
having angry engagements with
city offi cials and representatives of elected
offi cials for supposed lack of transparency.
Further distrust was sewn between the
city and residents as members of the press,
invited by members of the Neighborhood
Advisory Committee, were barred from
meetings by the Mayor’s Offi ce of Criminal
Justice.
De Blasio defended himself against the
claim that he was “dictatorial” by stating
that as mayor he was given certain authorities,
but the fact that he was in the community
at the time of the meeting was proof of
the opposite. Th ere have been a total of fi ve
meetings with the administration.
“Th ere are people at this meeting who
are trying to work with everybody, but
mostly the meetings are screaming,”
Koslowitz said. “And when you scream,
nothing gets done because nobody hears
what you’re really saying and that’s all
they want to do is get out of the room. So
when you say there’s been no input, there
has been input from the administration.
I don’t defend the administration all the
time, but the administration has been here
in this room trying to lay out the plan.”
Th e question of the ability of Rikers
Island to rehabilitate detainees was at the
forefront of recommendations compiled
but the Lippman Commission, convened
by the city to streamline criminal justice.
Th e primary issue seen with Rikers is
the isolation.
Lippman Commission Executive
Director Tyler Nims told QNS in early
March that when detainees have greater
access to family visitation and meetings
with legal representation, they more
smoothly re-integrate back into society.
Th e borough-based jails, located near
courthouses, would reduce the amount of
time and resources spent by the city transporting
detainees to appearances before
a judge.
“Our goal here, of course, when someone
enters the criminal justice system and
comes out, we don’t want them to ever be
in the criminal justice system again and
cause a problem for their community,” de
Blasio said. “We cannot do that eff ectively
with the facilities on Rikers.”
Photo: NYC Mayor’s Offi ce/Flickr
Brooklyn man convicted at second trial of murdering Howard Beach’s Karina Vetrano
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
Just hours aft er closing arguments were
completed, a jury has reached a verdict
in the second trial of the Brooklyn man
accused of murdering Howard Beach’s
Karina Vetrano, it was reported.
Chanel Lewis, 22, was found guilty of
committing the Aug. 2, 2016, murder
and sexual assault of Vetrano, who was
brutally beaten and choked aft er going
out for a run blocks from her 84th Street
home. Lewis was arrested for the crime
six months aft er it occurred, tied to the
homicide through DNA evidence recovered
at the scene.
NY1 reported that applause broke out
in the courtroom aft er the guilty verdict
was announced on April 1. Chief
Assistant District Attorney John Ryan
hoped that the outcome would “give the
Vetrano family some closure and comfort
knowing her killer will likely spend
the rest of his life behind bars.”
“A vibrant, young woman’s life came
to an abrupt and violent end at the
hands of a then-20-year-old Brooklyn
man,” Ryan said on Monday night. “Ms.
Vetrano’s death was brutal. She was
pulled from a park pathway, sexually
assaulted and, in her last moments of
life, she gasped for air as the defendant’s
hands tightened around her neck.”
Monday’s verdict marked the end of
Lewis’ second trial, and came nearly fi ve
months aft er a mistrial was declared in
the fi rst case just before Th anksgiving
2018 due to a deadlocked jury.
Th e quick verdict also came about
aft er Lewis’ defense team fi led a motion
against the DNA evidence, submitting
an anonymous letter which claimed that
the case was “racially-biased” and that
detectives had collected DNA samples
from more than 300 black men. Th e
motion was ultimately dismissed.
Vetrano’s body was found among the
tall reeds of Spring Creek Park hours
aft er her father reported her missing on
Aug. 2, 2016. A six-month search for her
killer turned up nothing, even though
forensic detectives recovered enough
genetic evidence from the crime scene
to create a DNA profi le of her killer.
Th e profi le did not match anyone in the
state’s DNA databank up to that point.
Police caught a break in the case in
February 2017 when an NYPD lieutenant
recalled seeing Lewis weeks earlier
near the park where Vetrano was
killed on an unrelated matter. Detectives
questioned Lewis and obtained from
him a DNA sample which was said to
match the DNA profi le of Vetrano’s
killer.
According to trial testimony, Lewis
entered the park on the night of the
murder, apparently angered by a neighbor
playing loud music. He encountered
Vetrano while she ran through the park
and, without saying a word, went on the
attack, repeatedly punching her in the
face and tearing her clothes off .
Aft er sexually assaulting her, prosecutors
said, Lewis choked Vetrano to
death, even as she fought back. Crime
scene investigators later recovered her
killer’s DNA from under her fi ngernails.
An autopsy later revealed that
Vetrano suff ered tears to her genitalia
that indicated that she had been sexually
assaulted.
Th e investigation further revealed that
Lewis’ cellphone data indicated that it
pinged from phone towers near Spring
Creek Park at around the time the murder
took place. Detectives also learned
that, even before he was considered to
be a suspect in the Vetrano murder, he
had searched the internet on his cellphone
for information about Vetrano
and criminal proceedings, including
double jeopardy, Miranda rights and the
death penalty. (Th e death penalty is no
longer carried out in New York state on
capital murder charges).
Lewis faces up life without parole
when he is sentenced on April 17.
Check QNS.com for additional details as
they become available.
File photos/QNS
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