Queens Defenders, the World’s Borough’s largest public defender organization, is facing an uncertain future after the city said that it no longer trusted the firm to carry out the promise of a $32 million contract to provide criminal defense to low-income New Yorkers in Queens.
Read MoreParalegals, legal assistants and other support staffers at Queens Defenders have begun to unionize, an effort that began almost immediately after the organization’s longtime, controversial leader was booted from her post earlier this year.
Read MoreSeveral days after the Queens Defenders’ founder and executive director was forced to go on leave by the organization’s board of directors, the public defense group has a new interim leader.
Read MoreLori Zeno, the controversial executive director of the Queens Defenders, was forced to go on immediate leave by the group’s board of directors this week.
Read MoreAs lawmakers and district attorneys appear to flirt with the idea of rolling back the state’s discovery reforms, a coalition of public defense groups have joined up in an effort to protect the changes made to New York’s discovery statute half a decade ago.
Read MoreGovernor Kathy Hochul may have reversed her plans to strip $100 million from a fund meant to pay for civil legal services in New York, but a similar proposal to take funds from an indigent defense attorney fund remains on the table as legislators and the governor head into the final week of negotiations over the state’s budget.
Read MoreThe New York State attorney general, a top bar association, scores of public defense organizations, several former New York City officials and a criminal justice nonprofit all called on a federal judge to strip control over Rikers Island away from the city and hand it over to a court-appointed receiver.
Read MoreMost officials agree – in order for the legal cannabis market to thrive, the unlicensed market must be tampered down. But enforcement of the unlicensed market has ruffled feathers on both sides of the issue – some have pushed for greater enforcement, while others say the current tactics mirror the enforcement of the failed war on drugs that marijuana legalization in New York State was aimed at rectifying.
Read More“The Board of Correction calls on the City of New York to move with urgency to create a safer environment for persons in custody and staff.”
The three officers from the 105th Precinct got cash payments for tipping off a towing company to car crashes, feds say. In an unrelated incident, one of the officers also trafficked heroin.
Read MoreLife may be very different once the pandemic is over, but it will be better thanks to the energy, commitment, compassion, and creative innovation that the borough’s response to the virus has spurred.
Read More“The releasing of immigrants, halting of ICE enforcement, and closing of all immigration courts is a matter of urgent public safety.”
Read More“I had to beg for a trial.”
Read MoreEvery experience you have opens new insights and new paths.
Read More“This is not the first incongruity we’ve seen for the new bail and discovery statutes that aren't lined up with the practice as it stands.”
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