Brooklyn's D.A. Is Dangerous And Needs To Be Replaced, Village Voice Says
Citing many incidents of prosecutorial misconduct by Charles Hynes' office and a DA close friends and associates claim is "detached," the Voice says the 77-year-old Hynes has to go.
The Brooklyn D.A. Charles J. Hynes
The Village Voice has a long and damning profile of Brooklyn's District Attorney Charles Hynes, known mostly to us for his apparent favoritism in handling haredi child sexual abuse cases.
Here's an excerpt from the Voice's piece that will show you how dangerous Hynes' office really is:
…No one personifies the loyal Hynes lieutenant better than Michael Vecchione, a longtime member of the Brooklyn D.A.'s office and now chief of the Rackets Division.…
Jabbar Collins, who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, says he was railroaded by Hynes’s office.
Attorney Mark Bederow relentlessly pursued justice for Ronald Bozeman in the face of constant gamesmanship by Hynes’s office.
Yet keep happening they do. Vecchione was lead prosecutor in the murder trial of Jabbar Collins, who was convicted by the testimony of three witnesses in the 1994 slaying of Rabbi Abraham Pollack:
Angel Santos claimed he saw Collins running from the scene. He later said under oath that Vecchione threatened to hit him with a coffee table and make him stay in jail unless he testified.
A second witness, Edwin Oliva, had claimed he was present when Collins plotted the murder. But a retired detective later said Oliva recanted the story in police interviews—information Vecchione never turned over to Collins's defense lawyer, as he is required to do. According to claims in Collins's lawsuit, Vecchione also got Oliva's work release from prison revoked and threatened to keep him in prison until he testified against Collins. This alleged extortion also was not disclosed to the defense.
The third witness, Edwin Diaz, said he got a deal in which he would testify against Collins if the prosecutors helped him in clearing a probation violation. This, too, was withheld from the defense.
Collins served 16 years for a murder he did not commit. When no one would listen to his pleas of innocence, he taught himself legal procedure and eventually found his way to freedom with the help of lawyer Joel Rudin, who says the evidence shows a "pervasive pattern of continuous misconduct by every assistant district attorney who touched this case over 16 years."
Of course, remarks like that might be expected from a plaintiff's lawyer, but a little more than a month ago, during a hearing on Collins's wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city, U.S. District Judge Frederic Block made a similar statement from the bench. After bemoaning the fact that, under the rules, Vecchione will "regrettably" get "total immunity" from being personally sued, Block sharply criticized Hynes's support of Vecchione: "Hynes praises Vecchione as one of his wonderful prosecutors. He's said he's done nothing wrong at all. . . . There are serious things that Vecchione did here."
"I'm disturbed by Hynes's behavior," he added. "This is horrific behavior on the part of Vecchione."
Block then questioned why Vecchione didn't testify in an earlier proceeding on his role in the case. The city attorney explained it was the D.A.'s decision. "All of this is going to be uncovered," Block replied. "I kid you not. . . . I'm just puzzled why the district attorney did not take any action against Vecchione," he said. "To the contrary. He seems to ignore everything that happened. And an innocent man has been in jail for 16 years."
In his complaint in the case, Rudin cited 56 cases of prosecutorial misconduct in Brooklyn stretching from the mid 1980s to last year. These cases demonstrate, he wrote, "Mr. Hynes's continuous, deliberate indifference to similar misconduct in other cases," and show "direct evidence of unlawful office-wide policy and practice."
Hynes has repeatedly promoted Vecchione over the years, including after the problems with the Collins prosecution came to light.…
Wow! If the VV says it, it must be tantamount to Torah from Sinai.
The Village Voice? Are you freaking kidding me? ROTFLMAO!
Posted by: cheers | January 02, 2013 at 06:28 PM
Wow! If the VV says it, it must be tantamount to Torah from Sinai.
The Village Voice? Are you freaking kidding me? ROTFLMAO!
Posted by: cheers | January 02, 2013 at 06:28 PM
Doesn't the Judaism you claim to follow tell you to accept truth from wherever it comes from?
Doesn't it specifically condemn what you're doing – ad hominem attacks and character assassination?
The Village Voice article is thorough, well researched and very well documented, and it only has a fraction of the bad cases Hynes office has been involved in. The article could easily have been 10,000 or more words longer.
The first response of so many haredim and their apologists is to attack the messenger because the truth is that you have no other defense much of the time.
The really sad thing is that you're so used to talking to your friends in shul that you don't realize how truly sick you look to people who are not part of your communities.
Posted by: Shmarya | January 02, 2013 at 06:41 PM
I think that weberman and all the other satmar perverts are behind this article.
Posted by: put a square into a hole | January 03, 2013 at 08:24 AM
charles j hynes and henna white will go down in history as the most corrupt public officals in new york state
Posted by: meir | January 03, 2013 at 10:40 AM
YES MEIR
When Henna White runs for DA (and she will) lets all rember your comments
Posted by: put a square into a hole | January 03, 2013 at 11:36 AM
Doesn't it specifically condemn what you're doing – ad hominem attacks and character assassination?
Posted by: Shmarya | January 02, 2013 at 06:41 PM
Shmarya, obviously I'm a little late to this post, but I'm afraid I can't help but comment on the irony that suddenly the notion of "ad hominem attacks and character assassination" seems to offend your sensibilities when barely one week ago you called me:
"ignorant and ... arrogant", "a disingenuous, pompous piece of crap", a "moron", "a puffed up self-important piece of crap", an "asshole", "a liar, a fool, and and an asshole" (again), a "stinking piece of shit", "disingenuous, lying, [and] passive-aggressive", "a disgusting person", "a pompous, ignorant asshole" (again), and "a passive aggressive lump of lying shit" (all in the same comments thread!).
(See "comments" section of "Jewish Mother Who Kidnapped Her Kids From Her Non-Jewish Husband Can Keep Them, Israeli Court Rules", posted on 12/26.)
Posted by: Just Curious | January 04, 2013 at 02:45 PM