Bailing on discovery

Daily Point

Time to take some time?

The killing this week of a victim set to testify against alleged MS-13 members accused of stabbing and severely beating him in October 2018 sparked some lightning-fast political rhetoric on the bail reform and evidence disclosure controversy, and then some quick backtracking.

Wilmer Maldonado Rodriguez, 36, a transient day laborer who had recently been homeless, was found bludgeoned to death on Sunday in New Cassel. He was attacked in 2018 after stepping in to protect two youths threatened by alleged MS-13 members, at which point he was beaten with a bat in the head and stabbed multiple times. 

But the political controversy attached to his death has to do with the release of Rodriguez’s name to the attorneys for some of the nine men arrested in the attack. Some of the defendants already have pleaded guilty, and at least one case was transferred to Family Court. 

At a news conference Wednesday, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder seemed to tie the death of Rodriguez to criminal justice reforms instituted this year that require district attorneys to give information on witnesses and other evidence to defense attorneys within 15 days of a suspect being arraigned. That’s the less-often-highlighted segment of the law that also eliminated bail for misdemeanors and most non-violent felonies.

And County Executive Laura Curran, though on a trip to Israel, issued a statement reading:

“I want to send my deepest condolences to the family of Wilmer Maldonado. This is a tragedy. I am calling on Albany to take corrective action to fix criminal justice reform immediately. 

“These new discovery requirements pose a threat to both the victims and witnesses of crimes. Nassau County has worked hard to build trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve, and this law now undercuts that trust. Our communities will be scared to report crimes or talk to law enforcement. We cannot let another murder happen because a witness may have been disclosed. 

“Change this law now!”

But there is no such direct connection. Rodriguez’s name was actually being kept secret due to an order of protection, not the old law. Also, it’s not clear the men arrested in Rodriguez' attack didn’t know who he was before their attorneys were given his name. The judge had told the attorneys not to share the name with their clients.

Ryder issued a statement later Wednesday clarifying that there was no direct link, followed by one from Curran supporting Ryder. In the meantime, a full political firestorm had blown up over New York’s most contentious legal issue. The tough-on-crime crowd was asserting that criminal justice reform had killed Rodriguez and the reformers were furious at the implication that a flimsy connection was a direct cause.

It’s a particularly divisive issue in the Democratic Party, where many city legislators are all-in on the reforms and many suburban Democrats — like the six members of the Long Island State Senate delegation, Curran and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone — say the reforms need to be toughened up to keep more criminals in jail and give more leeway on disclosure.  

Thursday, Curran issued another statement to The Point that reads as both a repudiation of her original response and plea to pull back the politicking on the issue.

“Yesterday, we made a connection to Mr. Rodriquez’s [sic] death and criminal reform when there was no direct connection. I don’t want the tragic death of a witness to lead to a blame game. We need to take a deep breath and parse out necessary changes to criminal justice reform. I will continue to work with all of Nassau County’s law enforcement professionals to ensure that we undertake a measured analysis.” 

Publicly, the Democrats hope the waters have calmed, but inside the party, tempers seem as hot as ever over what happened.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

A break from the trail

Pete Buttigieg, who emerged from the Iowa caucuses as a leading contender, ducked off the snowy New Hampshire campaign trail on Wednesday to do some fundraising in New York. 

At an event in Manhattan’s Flatiron district Buttigieg spoke for about 15 minutes, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s former spokesman Eric Phillips, who was at the event. Buttigieg did another fundraiser Thursday morning and some network TV shows before returning to New Hampshire for an afternoon event.

Buttigieg didn’t speak about New York, though, and appears to have stuck to his stump speech, using lines about the day that Trump leaves office and the appropriateness of candidates being called “hopefuls.”

“He must have been dog tired after the last few days,” Phillips said in an email, but the former mayor still “energized the crowd.”

And the Iowa meltdown has set off a new round of questions about why the Hawkeye State and New Hampshire get to select presidential contenders first. The Boston Globe on Wednesday called for the end of the tradition, even though the paper benefits from being a regional powerbroker when candidates come to town.

Mark Chiusano is in New Hampshire, as the 2020 Democratic hopefuls change venues for the season’s first primary. Follow Mark on Instagram @mjchiusano or @NewsdayOpinion or go here for his latest dispatches.

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Frustration

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