Babylon body parts case: Gov. Hochul, DA Tierney spar over charging decision, bail
The sparring between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Suffolk County law enforcement Thursday over the Babylon body parts case is calling attention not only to New York’s bail laws but also to how charging decisions can have courtroom and political impacts.
Four people have been charged with concealing a human corpse, along with other charges, after the discovery of body parts found strewed around parks on Long Island. Authorities say the victims were a 53-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman but otherwise have yet to identify them.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney charged the suspects with three Class E felonies — concealing a human corpse, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the first degree.
None of those charges are considered “bail eligible” — in which a prosecutor can ask a judge to hold a suspect on bail — under a state law that was overhauled in 2019 and twice amended. So the suspects were arraigned and released, though forced to wear GPS monitoring bracelets.
WHAT TO KNOW
The suspects in the Babylon body parts case were charged with three felonies and released awaiting their next court appearance without putting up bail.
Suffolk DA Ray Tierney and Gov. Kathy Hochul sparred over the charges lodged and the law that led to the release.
The back-and-forth is calling attention not only to New York’s bail laws but also to how charging decisions can have courtroom and political impacts.
Experts said under the law, it is police and prosecutors who make charging decisions, and that determines whether bail will even be an issue.
Further, they said it is “extremely rare” for prosecutors to bring a case with “concealment of a human corpse” as arguably the top-level charge without an accompanying higher felony that could be bail eligible. Corpse concealment as the top charge happens less than four times a year statewide, according to Office of Court Administration data.
Tierney, who ran on the Republican and Conservative party lines, issued a statement blaming the state’s bail law for the release of the suspects, saying it handcuffed his prosecutors.
But that triggered backlash from Hochul and others, and then a backlash upon the backlash.
Hochul, a Democrat, said instead of blaming the law, perhaps prosecutors should have investigated more thoroughly before leveling charges, giving them a chance to bring higher charges that could have triggered bail. After all, prosecutors did say at the arraignment they had significant evidence against the four, including human remains, meat cleavers and blood.
“Maybe the DA should have done a more thorough investigation and brought murder charges, or conspiracy to commit murder, or even assault charges because all of [those] are bail eligible. Maybe they brought [the case] a little early,” Hochul said.
Continuing, the governor said: “I encourage the DA’s office to go back and build your case. Because if you bring all of those charges, which I think would be appropriate, that’s absolutely bail eligible. These people would not be out on the street.”
Tierney and Suffolk police have fired back.
“Gov. Hochul is either completely clueless or being deceitful about how the criminal justice system works,” Tierney said Thursday morning. “Prosecutors have a duty to bring only charges that are supported by evidence. Anything else would be unethical. When law enforcement had enough evidence to arrest these defendants for serious felonies, they did the right thing and made those arrests.”
In a later news conference, Tierney said: “In laymen’s terms, they are not charged with anything more because you don’t have the evidence yet to prove it.”
Asked if police should have waited to make the arrests until higher charges could be leveled, Tierney didn’t directly respond but said: “Because of a number of circumstances that came into play, and again, I’m not going to talk about the facts of the case until we conclude the investigation.”
He said the investigation was continuing.
Suffolk police union president Louis Civitello said, “Instead of using this opportunity to fix New York's reckless bail reform law, the governor decided to attack law enforcement.”
The bail law has sparked endless debates and political campaigning since enacted under then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a Democratic-led State Legislature. It made nonviolent felonies and most misdemeanors off limits to bail, with some exceptions.
Subsequent amendments returned some crimes to bail eligible status. Hochul last year pushed fellow Democrats to amend the law again to give judges more discretion in some instances, including repeat offenders.
A central claim of the law's opponents is that it allows the release of suspects who will go on to commit more crimes before having to return to court. A study in 2023 found the bail law actually reduced recidivism in the overwhelming bulk of cases, but it also found recidivism rates did increase for individuals with persistent criminal histories.
Michael Rempel, a John Jay College expert who helped conduct the 2023 study, said it’s up to law enforcement to take the first step of deciding what charges to file, which determines whether bail will even be an issue.
He said it’s accurate that “prosecutors can’t engineer a bail decision by overcharging a case.” But, he added, “concealment of a human corpse” charges without an additional higher felony is “extremely rare.”
The head of the New York State Defenders’ Association agreed.
“There’s not many circumstances where someone charged with this is not also charged with something that is bail eligible,” Susan Bryant said. She said there are still many unknowns about the case, including whether police may have brought charges to pressure defendants.
Bryant pointed out police have called the crime an “isolated” incident that posed no threat to the public, which raised other questions.
“If they didn’t feel like they needed to act in an emergency manner to protect the public, then why didn’t they build up the case more before bringing any charges?” Bryant said. “It’s convenient to have very odd circumstances turn into this [bail] conversation.”
Among the political statements Thursday, Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood) and Assemb. Steve Stern (D-Huntington) said they will formally propose legislation to add “concealing a human corpse” to the list of bail-eligible crimes.
Bryant, while not debating the concept, said such an addition would have low impact, given the few instances where the crime is the top charge in a case.
With Michael O’Keeffe
