Katz will replace Queens DA executive staff with justice reform ‘true believers’
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Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said she will replace nearly the entire executive staff of the DA’s office when she takes over the office on Jan. 1. AP Photo/Seth Wenig.
By David Brand
New Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz will replace nearly the entire executive staff of the DA’s office when she begins her term Jan. 1, she said Monday during an appearance on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show.
In their place, Katz said she will hire “true believers” who will embrace the criminal justice reforms she plans to implement, like eliminating the Queens DA’s controversial policy of pressuring defendants to waive their right to a grand jury in five days or lose the chance to negotiate a plea deal.
“We have replaced most of the executive staff. There may be one person who is staying as an executive who is part of my belief and part of my policy,” Katz told Lehrer. “There will be new policies in place and executives who believe in the policies.”
She declined to name the person who may remain in the executive staff when contacted by the Eagle.
“I’m making no announcement on my staff,” she said by phone.
Katz told Lehrer that she will also replace bureau chiefs and deputy bureau chiefs “in some cases” in order to ensure her reform policies permeate the office. “There are 700 people that work in that office,” she said. “I can’t be standing next to each one every day.”
“Within 100 days there will be another shake up,” she added.
Most of the top prosecutors in the Queens’ DA’s Office have served for decades: Senior Executive Assistant DA James Quinn has worked in the DA’s Office for 42 years and Robert Masters, executive assistant district attorney for the Office’s Legal Affairs Division, began his tenure in 1990. Acting Queens DA John Ryan, who in October said he planned to step down when Katz takes over, has worked as a prosecutor in Queens on two occasions. His current tenure began in 1991. The Queens DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s a new day in Queens County for defendants,” Katz said, adding that she will establish a Conviction Integrity Unit to review wrongful conviction claims.
The unit, she said, would consider the case of Chanel Lewis, who was convicted in April of murdering Howard Beach resident Karina Vetrano while she jogged near her home in 2016. An anonymous person claiming to be an NYPD officer familiar with the initial investigation into Vetrano’s murder sent a detailed letter to defense attorneys and press stating that prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to Lewis, including the existence of other suspects.
Katz also said she supports releasing the names of police officers contained in an internal office database of cops with credibility issues. The DA’s office has so far released two lists — one of officers whose honesty has been questioned by judges in court, and another of cops who have been named in civil lawsuits. The DA’s Office maintains another list of officers who have been the subject of substantiated misconduct allegations, but has not released the information, citing a section of state law that shields police disciplinary records from public view.
Lehrer questioned a previous statement Katz made to the Eagle in April in which she said she would not release the list of untrustworthy cops.
“Without clear and consistent standards for what qualifies an officer to make the list in question or ways to keep details of ongoing investigations confidential, it shouldn't be made public,” Katz said in April.
She told Lehrer she would implement the “clear and convincing standards of how people get on that list” when she takes over the office.
“Now that I’m actually going to be in the seat I have to rely on those officers that are making the arrests,” she said. “To find out later that there was a problem of veracity is always going to be a problem.”
Legal Aid Society Queens Trial Office chief Tim Rountree commended Katz’s “robust plan to finally bring equal justice to the people of the borough.”
“Katz seems to be signaling that she is ready to implement much-needed change to the Queens DA office,” he said.
