Bills would create permanent special prosecutor in cop cases
The Assembly's Democratic majority proposed on March 14, 2016, that a special prosecutor's office be created to handle cases in which people die in confrontations with police, making permanent an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, shown here on Feb. 5, 2015. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
ALBANY -- The Assembly’s Democratic majority on Monday proposed that a permanent special prosecutor’s office be created to handle cases in which people die in confrontations with police.
The Assembly measure inserted in its budget bills for negotiations of the 2016-17 budget would make permanent Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s executive order. That 2015 order makes the attorney general the special prosecutor in such cases.
The order that takes the sensitive cases away from local prosecutors who work closely with police has been supported by families of the mostly young, African-American men who have died in police confrontations.
Cuomo and the Assembly have sought a special prosecutor system to be made permanent in law. An executive order could be rescinded by Cuomo or his successor.
The issue now goes into negotiations for the budget due by April 1. The Senate’s Republican majority had opposed legislation to create a special prosecutor last year. The Senate Republicans didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday on the latest proposals.
Cuomo in his budget presentation in January called for an “independent special counsel to review matters involving the use of deadly physical force by a police officer.” Several Democratic Assembly members, however, called that weaker than Cuomo’s current executive order because it would eliminate the role of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The two Democrats have clashed in the past over several issues.
“Our point is that we need a special prosecutor that is independent in both perception and reality,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. He said, however, that Cuomo will continue the executive order if neither proposal is adopted.
“We believe that having the attorney general in this position is working and we intend for it to continue,” Azzopardi said.
The Assembly Democrats would create an Office of Special Investigations that could investigate and prosecute cases in which “the death of any person that resulted from or potentially resulted from injuries that occurred or may have occurred as a result of any encounter with police officer or peace officer.”
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
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