New discovery laws yielding delay in prosecutions, NYPD says

The new criminal discovery laws have contributed to increased numbers of cases in which police and prosecutors delay bringing charges, sometimes leading to decisions to decline to prosecute, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Thursday.

During a briefing on the latest New York City crime statistics, Shea said serious felonies showed an overall increase of more than 21% in 2020. The new discovery requirements, which kicked in Jan. 1 with the state's criminal justice reform, are forcing law enforcement officials to defer prosecuting some arrests, he said.

Those decisions are being made, Shea explained, as a way to simplify the prosecution of some defendants who face multiple arrests, often for the same crime.

“All those deferred arrests we see growing significantly,” Shea said.

 NYPD Chief Michael LiPetri, in charge of crime control strategies, said so far in 2020 there had been 803 declined or deferred prosecutions, compared with 511 last year.

Last month in a statement to Newsday the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said he was considering deferring cases and dismissing others because of the discovery rules. The new rules require prosecutors and police to turn over evidence within 15 days of arraignment, with possible 30-day extensions.

In practical terms, while a deferred prosecution means that district attorneys will delay going forward with a case, the reality is that a deferral can mean that ultimately prosecutors may decline to prosecute the matter, according to Shea.

To explain the way the discovery rules could affect prosecutions, LiPetri gave an example of a suspect arrested Wednesday night for 25 burglaries, all of which no longer require bail. All the offenses were considered part of a burglary pattern, which meant that under the new discovery rules prosecutors and police had to turn over voluminous evidence and other materials to the defense, LiPetri said, which was “basically impossible to do.”

So, working with prosecutors, 18 of the cases were deferred and six charged, with the defendant walking out of the courthouse without bail, LiPetri said.

Prosecutors seemed to take a wait-and-see approach to the impact of the discovery rules.

“We have seen only a slight rise [in deferrals],” said a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, adding, “discovery obligations could play a role in deferring prosecutions.”

 A spokeswoman for Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said the office didn’t defer or dismiss prosecution because of discovery rules but would defer to allow police to get more evidence. A spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez declined to comment.

 Addressing the bail reform law, which did away with the need for bail in a large number of nonviolent offenses, LiPetri indicated it caused recidivism. He said 482 people arrested since Jan. 1 for serious felonies who were released without bail went on to get rearrested for 299 serious felonies, including 99 robberies, 65 grand larcenies and one homicide. That compared with 109 in 2019, he said.

 “Recidivism only grows with time, so can you imagine what it will be six months from now?,” LiPetri said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.