NOT ONLY THE BAIL REFORM, BUT ALSO THE SPEEDY TRIAL REFORM IS CRIMINAL-FRIENDLY AND CREATING HAVOC IN DA OFFICES

NY’s ‘speedy trial’ reforms are costing DAs cases and staffers 

 

By Tamar Lapin, Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

 

New York Post

March 22, 2022

 

 

The “speedy trial” component of the state’s controversial 2019 criminal-justice reforms requires prosecutors to submit all their evidence by a strict deadline. State prosecutors say the reform law is causing mass resignations and numerous tossed criminal cases

 

State prosecutors say scores of criminal cases are being tossed thanks to a stringent 2019 “reform” statute that sets tight deadlines on producing evidence — and frustrated staffers are quitting left and right.

“It’s really bogged down the system immensely,” an official at a Big Apple DA’s office told The Post of the restrictive reg.

“Cases are getting dismissed because of technicalities” caused by the unreasonable statute — which has turned assistant district attorneys into “basically paralegals,’’ he said.

“They don’t have time to think about the case,” the source said, accusing the law of “destroying the profession.

“They’re just chasing papers.”

At issue is a “speedy trial” component of the state’s controversial 2019 criminal-justice reforms, which requires prosecutors to submit all their evidence by a strict deadline.

The law sets deadlines for “discovery” — materials prosecutors are required to turn over to defense lawyers — of no longer than 20 days from the time a defendant is arraigned if they are in jail and 35 days if they are free pending the charges.

 

                             

The law sets the discovery period for prosecutors to turn evidence over to the defense at 20 days after the defendant is arraigned if they are in jail and 35 days if they are free

 

Prosecutors can argue for an additional 30 days if the evidence is voluminous.
For traffic offenses and municipal code violations, the deadline is 15 days.

But prosecutors say that means all the evidence, no matter how seemingly trivial or irrelevant to the case, has to be dug up.

In one domestic-violence case, a prosecutor did not submit a transcript of a second 911 call by the victim, thinking it wasn’t relevant to the case, sources said.

The deadline for evidence came and went, and the charges against the suspect were then dismissed over the left-out transcript.

In another domestic-violence case, this one involving a warrant, all of the evidence seized was submitted to the defense, but the transcript of the in-court conversation over obtaining the warrant was not.

That case was dismissed on the technicality, the source said.

“This new law has made DAs pick which fire to put out,” said defense lawyer Michael Discioarro, a former assistant district attorney in The Bronx.

In upstate Dutchess County, the district attorney’s office was so backed up it was forced to defer 30 percent of its cases “because of the new arduous discovery rules,” according to a state Senate report released earlier this year.

The additional grunge work over the statutory requirements has also cost district attorneys throughout the Empire State hundreds of staffers — including ADAs.

In testimony to the City Council last week, Bronx DA Darcel Clark griped that “the rise in felony cases, coupled with stringent discovery requirements, result in a workload that is leading to a marked increase in attrition.”

Clark said her office alone lost 96 lawyers and 51 professional staffers during the 2021 fiscal year — and up to 104 attorneys and 90 staffers by the end of February this year.

“Former staff have cited the responsibilities of discovery, managing the backlog of cases, and increased night and weekend shifts among their main reasons for leaving the office,” Clark told the council.

“People are in tears telling me that they love the work they do for the Bronx community,” she said. “But now the job is overwhelming.”

In one example of the Albany-induced new workload, Clark cited an assault against a borough store owner, which sent 28 cops responding to the scene.

Only eight officers actually entered the store, and eight others remained outside — with the remaining 12 sent back on patrol after the arrest.

Under the statute, Clark said, prosecutors had to collect bodycam footage and memo books from all 28 officers, regardless of whether they went in the store, remained at the scene or were in any way involved in the investigation.

“We must review, redact and share the footage with defense within 20 days because the defendant is incarcerated,” Clark said. “The inability to meet these expansive requirements has caused delays and even dismissals.”

A rep for Queens DA Melinda Katz said Tuesday that the top prosecutor supports “early and comprehensive discovery” — but believes it should be limited “to relevant and material information.”

Queens prosecutors dismissed 21.9 percent of felonies before trial in 2021, up from 8.9 percent in 2019.

While the COVID pandemic had a part in the increase, the state reforms “also played a consequential role,” Katz’s office said.

 

In addition to the no-bail law, New York Governor Kathy Hochul proposed rolling back some of the evidentiary reforms

 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a memo last week, proposed rolling back some of the 2019 reforms, including those related to the evidentiary requirements.

Among the proposals is a stipulation that allows prosecutors to be in “substantial compliance” with the discovery requirements rather than to have to produce all of the evidence in a case, no matter how loosely connected.

Hochul also wants to allow cases to proceed if district attorneys turn over only “locatable” material, and to exclude traffic violations from speedy trial requirements.

Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post on Tuesday.