Grasso says he’ll up victims’ services within Queens DA’s office if elected
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George Grasso, the former administrative judge and current candidate for Queens district attorney, slammed Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz over her office’s work with crime victims and said he’d expand victims’ services within the Queens DA’s office if elected. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
George Grasso, one of several Democrats challenging incumbent Melinda Katz in the upcoming primary election for Queens district attorney, said that if elected, he’d reform the way the top prosecutor’s office interacts with victims of crimes.
Speaking in front of City Hall on Friday, Grasso alleged that Katz’s office hasn’t done enough for crime victims, and that he’d establish a victims’ liaison unit to keep victims apprised of their cases – a program that already exists in some capacity within the DA’s office.
The unit, he said, would be charged with advising “everyone who is a victim of any crime in Queens County about what the status of the case is, who the assigned district attorney is and what's going on with the case.”
“Who is reaching out to the involved victims and giving them notice of what's going on, and giving them an opportunity to be heard before final decisions are made?” Grasso said on Friday. “I'll give you the answer – nobody.”
The Queens district attorney’s office currently has what it calls the Crime Victims Advocacy Program. The program provides “support to crime victims,” according to the DA’s website, and includes “crisis counseling by licensed trauma therapists, help with completing housing applications, assisting with funeral arrangements, informing victims of their rights in the criminal justice system and aiding them in preparing compensation claims to the New York State Office of Victim Services,” according to DA spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Katz’s reelection campaign accused Grasso, who has courted both Democratic and Republican supporters and donors, of appeasing right-wing supporters during his victims’ rights press conference on Friday and said that he should “take the time to better educate himself on the vast array of programs, units and bureaus DA Katz created and expanded since taking office.”
“District Attorney Katz’ stellar record of protecting Queens residents while making our criminal justice stronger and fairer speaks for itself,” Katz’s spokesperson said. “While her opponent bizarrely continues to surround himself with far-right extremists while claiming to seek Democratic support, DA Katz remains focused on keeping this borough safe, getting guns off our streets, and providing support to all victims of crime through her already-existing Crime Victims Advocacy Program.”
When asked by the Eagle how his bureau would differ from the program that currently exists within the DA’s office, Grasso said that he would “bring it up to another level.”
The former top judge in Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term said that rather than interacting with a program, crime victims would be assigned to a single case worker.
“When they have a crime pending, they've got one go-to person, and they can call that person in that unit and know exactly what the status of the case is,” he said.
Grasso also took a jab at the Conviction Integrity Unit, which Katz created shortly after taking office. The unit is responsible for reviewing old cases for wrongful convictions. But Grasso, who served as administrative judge of the court where the cases were heard for a little less than a year, said the unit often waits until the final moment before telling victims or their families that the cases are set to be overturned.
“If I'm considering seriously vacating a conviction, where we have homicides and we have victims in Florida, the victims must be notified,” Grasso said. “That's called fairness, that's called justice, we can't have one side of justice.”
Despite his issues with the ways the Conviction Integrity Unit interacts with crime victims, Grasso said he’d keep the unit in place – the Queens DA’s CIU has been among the most active among CIUs in DA’s offices throughout the city over the course of the past three years, overturning dozens of wrongful convictions.
“Absolutely, I’d keep the unit in place, but make sure victims are part of the equation as well,” Grasso said.
In addition to Grasso, Katz faces a Democratic challenge from Devian Daniels, who has run for Civil Court judge several times over the past couple of years, in the upcoming primary election. Election day is Tuesday, June 27.
