In the Bronx, Victims Get 24 Hours to Talk – Or the DA Lets the Accused Walk
A months-long WNYC investigation has revealed that those
accused of crimes in the Bronx have a greater chance of walking away without
any charges than anywhere else in the city.
The Bronx County District Attorney’s Office declines to
prosecute thousands more cases than do the four other District Attorney offices
– and one of the main reasons is an internal policy that cops say allows
criminals to go free.
In the Bronx, if a victim isn’t interviewed by
prosecutors within 24 hours after an arrest, the DA will almost always decline
to prosecute the case — an internal policy followed by no other DA's office in
the city.
Internal city records obtained by WNYC suggest this
internal guideline is a big reason why Bronx prosecutors declined almost one
quarter of all their cases last year.
That’s nearly four times the rate in Manhattan and Brooklyn, according
to data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Manhattan and Brooklyn each see thousands more arrests than the Bronx.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson declined to be
interviewed for this article. But his chief assistant, Odalys Alonso, told WNYC
that the longstanding requirement that victims come forward within 24 hours is
both reasonable and just.
“When we decide to do a decline-to-prosecute, I’m very
confident that we have real reasons not to bring the charges against that
defendant,” said Alonso, who sat down for almost three hours of interviews over
the last 10 months with WNYC. “Before we decline, we take great pains to ensure
that it is the right decision.” She
added, “Our office has had for a very long time this policy -- if you want to
call it that — that our victims have to come forward early.”
In any District Attorney’s office, the decision to
decline to prosecute a case is a decision that usually takes place within the
first 24 hours after an arrest.
Internal city records obtained by WNYC show the most
common reasons other prosecutors in the city make that choice is because there
is insufficient evidence to support an arrest or the arrest paperwork is
incomplete. The Bronx is the only borough in the city where prosecutors' most
common reason is that a victim refused to cooperate, records show.
Bronx prosecutors have had the highest
decline-to-prosecute rate in the city for 13 of the last 16 years, and state
data shows that rate began climbing after Johnson took office as District
Attorney in 1989.
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