14 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 16, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Protesters demand Queens DA keep
promises made on campaign trail
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th ree months to the day aft er 63-yearold
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 Th e
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 confl ict, 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. Aft er decades we fi nally
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 fulfi lled, along
with a photo depicting Katz as Pinocchio.
Th ey 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 son who suff ers from
mental health issues. Low-level off enses
do not deserve to end in a death sentence,
and people should not have to sit in
jail because they can’t aff ord 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
offi ce on Jan. 1, she made signifi cant policy
changes to reduce the population in
city jails and that she is committed to
“ultimately ending cash bail because a
person’s fi nancial 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 off enses have
been released either on their own recognizance
or with supervision,” Katz said.
“Since my fi rst 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 offi ce, the courts,
public defenders and defense attorneys
to “prioritize and expedite the release of
the most vulnerable,” and that her offi ce
actively pursued dispositions and modifi
ed sentences to eff ectuate 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.
“Th e stabbing for which he was incarcerated
was the culmination of years of
physical and mental abuse that the defendant
Photos by Dean Moses
allegedly infl icted upon the victim,”
Katz said in a statement. “Despite
repeated arrests and orders of protection
that were in place, 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.’”
Th e 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.”
Th e 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 fi rst 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.
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