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In Bell case's wake, calling for special prosecutor

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | anthony.destefano@newsday.com

8:16 PM EDT, April 28, 2008

It was in 1990 that then-Gov. Mario Cuomo closed the office of the special state prosecutor, which for 17 years ferreted out corruption and wrongdoing in the criminal justice system.

Cuomo said the unit had outlived its usefulness and that money could be better spent fighting drugs.

But in the wake of the acquittals of three detectives in the Sean Bell case, the cry has gone up for the resurrection of the statewide office to prosecute cops for excessive force.

On Monday, Gov. David A. Paterson, who has indicated he might consider such a prosecutorial office, said he was surprised by the Bell verdict. He asked people to be patient and wait for the results of ongoing federal and police department investigations.

Meanwhile Monday, the Bell family, two friends shot by police with Bell and the Rev. Al Sharpton met with a contingent of elected representatives that included eight members of Congress, city Comptroller William Thompson, and the borough presidents of Queens and the Bronx.

The meeting took place at the office of Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), just a few blocks from Liverpool Street, where Bell was killed.

Meeks said he also spoke by phone to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer. "Friday's decision just did not make sense ... when you think of 50 shots and no one convicted," Meeks said.

"There must be a federal role to protect young people" from police violence, said Rep. Jerold Nadler (D- Manhattan).

Sharpton noted that federal civil rights trials resulted in convictions in the Anthony Baez and Rodney King cases. "We have beat the odds before with less," he said.

People in the legal community said Monday that while a special prosecutor's office might make some critics feel better about the criminal justice system, the practical result wouldn't be much different.

"It is sad to say, but many police officers have been tried and convicted in cases brought by borough prosecutors in local courthouses, and that clearly demonstrates that there is no need for a special prosecutor for police," said Patrick Lynch, head of the New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

The special prosecutor's office had a budget of about $3.7 million when Cuomo shut it down, a pittance by today's standards.

"You can establish such an office and create a perception of more vigor, but if you don't fund it appropriately, you won't have the vigor" to prosecute, said Dennis Hawkins, a former member of the old state agency.

Advocates have said local prosecutors are too close to police to do a credible job.

Helman Brook, the last state special prosecutor, said yesterday that such an office would give the state a ready-made unit that could quickly spring into action. But Hawkins said any specialized unit would have built-in disadvantages.

"What I found was that we were a small office and had limited contacts with police departments and as result I don't think we always had access to the kinds of information district attorneys had," he said. "There is no reason why district attorneys' offices can't do a good job on not only corruption but police brutality."

A spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said that between 2002 and 2007, his integrity bureau handled 31 cases against cops ranging from assault to drunken driving. It won convictions 58 percent of the times, the spokesman said.

In Brooklyn 14 cops were arrested in the last two years for corruption or excessive force, with seven indictments so far that have lead to three convictions, said a spokesman for District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Michael Palladino, head of the city's Detectives Endowment Association, said there is no need for a special prosecutor.

"In Bell, it is not the prosecutor who was the problem, but the witnesses and the facts," said Palladino. "The real facts do not spell out a crime, no matter who prosecutes the case."

Staff writer Carl MacGowan contributed to this story, which was supplemented with an Associated Press report.