First Woman Of Color Plans Queens DA Bid, Sources Say

Mina Malik. Photo by Jacquie Hemmerdinger

By Christina Carrega

With just over a year to go before Queens residents head to the polls to elect the next district attorney, a third likely candidate has emerged, two sources told the Eagle Monday.

Mina Malik, a former assistant district attorney in Queens, will likely announce her candidacy, the sources familiar with Malik said.

Malik, who is of Hispanic and South Asian descent, would become the first woman of color to run for Queens DA. She is the daughter of immigrants.

When contacted by the Eagle, Malik did not confirm or deny whether she is running.

Malik, a veteran attorney, is expected to present a “brief on the District Attorney’s Office” at the Elmer H. Blackburne Regular Democratic Club Inc. meeting on Thursday, according to a document obtained by the Eagle.

Malik is familiar with the Kew Gardens office. She served as an assistant district attorney for 15 years, including several in the Sex Crimes Bureau under her possible opponent Brown. In 2014, she became special counsel to the late Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

Malik is the current deputy attorney general at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. Malik previously served as the executive director of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an agency that investigates police misconduct allegations.

Thompson, who was the first African-American district attorney in Brooklyn, brought Malik and Harvard Law Professor Ronald Sullivan onto his team to revamp the Conviction Review Unit, which has become the national model for exonerations.

In the past month, Council Member Rory Lancman and retired Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak both announced their bids for the position. It remains unclear whether the current DA Richard A. Brown, who has served as Queens DA since 1991, will seek reelection or retire when his term expires in 2019.

In September, a spokesperson for Brown told the Eagle that Brown had not yet decided whether he would seek reelection.