FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 26, 2019 • YEAR IN REVIEW • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
year in review
The top stories
from May 2019
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
QUEENS DISTRICT ATTORNEY
RICHARD A. BROWN, WHO
SERVED BOROUGH FOR NEARLY
28 YEARS, DEAD AT 86
Richard A. Brown, who served as the Queens District
Attorney for close to 28 years, died the morning of May
4. He was 86.
Th e cause of death was complications of Parkinson’s
disease, according to his son Todd Brown
His offi ce announced in March that he was taking a
leave of absence until June 1, when he planned to formally
resign from offi ce. He handed over his duties in an
interim capacity to Chief Assistant District Attorney John
Ryan, his top deputy, who announced Brown’s death.
Aft er winning the general election in November, Melinda
Katz will take over the position from Ryan on Jan. 1.
Before being appointed DA, Brown had been in the
judiciary for nearly 20 years. Gov. Mario Cuomo tapped
Brown to serve as Queens DA in 1991 following the
retirement of John Santucci. Brown’s era saw crime across
the borough drop from record highs in the early 1990s to
record lows toward the end of his tenure.
From the beginning, Ryan said, Brown’s goal “was to elevate
the standard of professionalism by hiring on merit, not political
connections” and “made it a priority to have the most talented,
capable and dedicated professionals imaginable.”
CITY SHUTS DOWN QUEENS
SCHOOL FOR FAILING TO COMPLY
WITH MEASLES OUTBREAK
PROTECTION ORDER
Th e New York City Health Department shut Th e
Yeshiva of Central Queens for its non-compliance with a
citywide order aimed at curbing the measles outbreak in
the spring, which Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public
health emergency.
On May 9, the Health Department issued an order to
school that mandated the administration exclude any
unvaccinated student for 21 days following a known
exposure to measles at the school.
Aft er investigating, the agency found that the staff had not
abided by the order and ordered it closed until the Health
Department found that the school had followed its instructions.
By the aft ernoon of May 13, the school’s attorney
Jonathan Farrell told QNS that it had fully cooperated
with a Department of Health audit of its records.
“We are not aware of any yeshiva student being exposed
to the measles virus,” the school’s statement noted. It
added that the audit was instead triggered by an outside
vendor who had been on the premises aft er being
exposed to the virus.
LITTLE NECK HOME INVADERS RAPE
WOMAN TWICE WHILE STEALING
THOUSANDS IN CASH: NYPD
At about 9:30 p.m. May 4, two men burst into a Little
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown at his desk in this 2016 photo.
Neck home, robbed and raped a 34-year-old resident at
gun-point while they held her family captive.
As the 34-year-old woman was leaving her residence, the
two men forced her back in her home and robbed her and
her 54-year-old mother. Th e robbers took $9,800 from the
women, and sexually assaulted the younger woman.
According to law enforcement sources, the 34-year-old
woman was leaving the residence, according to police
sources.
STING OPERATION HELPS COPS
INTERCEPT $650,000 MARIJUANA
SHIPMENT IN FLUSHING, TWO
CALIFORNIA MEN CUFFED
Members of the Suff olk County Police Department and
the 109th Precinct worked together to run a sting operation
that intercepted a 144-pound shipment of marijuana
in early May, according to prosecutors.
Two California men — Doobie Kim, 40, and Yeong
Woo Choi, 35 — faced a Queens Criminal Court judge
on Th ursday night for arraignment on charges of operating
as a major traffi cker, second- and fi ft h-degree conspiracy,
criminal possession of marijuana and criminal
possession of a controlled substance.
Th e sting involved an undercover offi cer posing as
a delivery worker bringing the pot to the two suspects
to bust the shipment of $650,000 in marijuana
in Flushing.
“Traffi cking in marijuana is still illegal in New York,”
acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan said. While
New York advocates were pushing for a legalization bill
this year, what they got was a reduced the penalty for the
possession of small amounts of the drug. California legalized
the recreational use of cannabis last year.
Police offi cers with stacks of vacuum-sealed bags containing $650,000 worth of pot seized in Flushing on May 8.
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