Brown Discusses Crime At Queens Chamber Luncheon
BY THOMAS COGAN

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown spoke at the annual installation luncheon of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, held at Antun's in Queens Village April 17, and also swore in the group's slate of officers and board members. He reviewed the law enforcement year just past and a notorious trial in the process of conclusion, coming up with a mixture of sad and glad news. Borough President Helen Marshall followed, saying she was happy to see that the district attorney is among the very few elected officials in the city who are not subject to term limits. Other officials, term-limited ones, present at the luncheon included Assemblymembers Audrey Pheffer and Mark Weprin and state Senator Frank Padavan.

The district attorney reviewed the past year. He began with the dominant event, about which he has spoken extensively: the Sean Bell case, which his office prosecuted after defeating attempts by the defense to bring in a special prosecutor or change the venue, removing it from Queens. The trial of the three policemen accused of firing some 50 bullets into a car containing Bell and friends in November 2006, believing that the car's occupants were about to shoot at them, was an event with "no winners, only losers", Brown said. He could not comment on any possible verdict, which is to be delivered not by a jury but by State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Cooperman. He did say, though, that the incident and trial represent a "rupture" between the police and the community. It came at a time when the level of violence in Queens had been declining, and Brown said it continued to decline in 2007. The borough is doing "extraordinarily well" in that respect, he said, noting that the 72 homicides recorded in the borough this past year compare favorably to the 361 homicides recorded in 1991, the year he became district attorney. He praised the work of the police in lowering the level of all types of violent crime.

There were 75,000 arrests in Queens in 2007, he said, once again touting his office's arrest-toarraignment time of 74 hours on average as the best by far in the city. He said his office leads the city in convictions and leads all counties in the state in the number of wiretaps with no contravention by the courts. He said that women are 54 percent of the roster of assistant district attorneys (ADAs), a situation that leaves him amazed, he further said, when he recalls his law school graduation in 1956 and the overwhelming ratio of men to women at the time. He called the Child Advocacy Center on Queens Boulevard progressive, having developed a system for sparing children the ordeal of multiple testimonies in certain court cases; where once a case might require as many as seven, now it requires only one. He complained that the mayor's 5 percent cost-cutting measure as applied to his office is "penny wise and pound foolish". He concluded his remarks by going back to the beginning and saying that we must "heal this breach" created by the Sean Bell case.

Marshall followed with a few comments, including one in praise of the district attorney's mental health court, which requires certain convicted persons to follow a medication regimen that allows them to stay out of jail. She also spoke well of the system allowing convicted drug offenders to get into detoxification programs and report to their respective judges, bypassing jail time if they adhere to their obligations. Other than that, she said she was thrilled the day before to attend a special opening of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field, the Mets new ballpark under construction at Willets Point, which will open for the 2009 baseball season.

QCC President Albert F. Pennisi said his first year in office was enjoyable. He was glad to see it come to an end with the defeat of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which he considered only an additional tax. He was also happy to see that a new convention center seems likely to be built at Willets Point. He and the rest of the nominees to the executive committee were elected unanimously.