Favored Treatment

Arrest of a Bronx Prosecutor Is Said to Uncover Possible Favored Treatment in Past
The New York Times by Al Baker  -  April 28, 2011

An assistant district attorney in the Bronx who was arrested last summer on drunken driving charges may have received preferential treatment in a possible earlier case in which she was also suspected of drunken driving, according to a law enforcement official. The assistant district attorney, Jennifer Troiano, 34, faces drunken driving and related charges from her involvement in a crash with two other cars on the Major Deegan Expressway, near West 167th Street in the Bronx, one night last August, the police said. Because Ms. Troiano is a prosecutor in the Bronx district attorney’s office, her criminal case from August is being handled by a special prosecutor from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, officials said. Ms. Troiano made a court appearance in the case on Thursday. The revelation came as scores of police officers, supervisors and union officials are being investigated amid allegations of widespread fixing of traffic tickets in the Bronx. About two dozen officers in the Bronx could face criminal charges as a result of a lengthy inquiry into the practice, and hundreds could face disciplinary action by the department, a law enforcement official and several other people briefed on that case said.  It is unclear if the matters involving Ms. Troiano are part of the wider ticket-fixing inquiry, but the suggestion that someone from the Bronx district attorney’s office may have gotten a favor comes at an inopportune moment for the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, who has convened a grand jury to investigate police officers on similar allegations — making tickets for those they know disappear.  The suspicion that Ms. Troiano had earlier received preferential treatment arose sometime after her arrest last Aug. 27 in the 44th Precinct, according to the law enforcement official. The details of the possible earlier case, however, were not immediately clear. “At the time of her arrest, investigators had reason to believe that she had previously been pulled over in the Bronx for suspicion of D.W.I., but had not been formally charged because of her connection to the district attorney’s office,” said the law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity because the investigation is continuing. It was not clear whether someone from the Bronx prosecutor’s office or from the Police Department is suspected of directly aiding Ms. Troiano by calling in a favor, or “if she made her position in law enforcement clear to the officers,” said the official, who did not know if Ms. Troiano was carrying a shield at the time — a common practice. Asked about the events surrounding Ms. Troiano, Deputy Inspector Kim Royster said she would have to look into it. But neither she nor another police spokesman would say if the police Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating. It could not immediately be learned who was representing Ms. Troiano in court, and efforts to contact her Thursday night were unsuccessful. The people conducting the inquiry could seek to call those who arrested Ms. Troiano to find out what, if anything, was said about the earlier episode, said the official, and they could search for any police records potentially linked to it. They could also potentially call Ms. Troiano, the official said. Asked whether prosecutors in the Bronx were investigating if someone in the very office looking into allegations of special favors also benefited from such behavior, or if the circumstances surrounding Ms. Troiano were being looked at on a wider scale, Steven Reed, a spokesman for Mr. Johnson, said, “We have not commented on any investigation; I have not confirmed or denied an investigation.” Regarding Ms. Troiano, Mr. Reed said, “We are not aware of a previous arrest.” “At the time of her arrest in the pending case, it was mentioned that she had previously been detained and released,” he said, “We have not uncovered any specifics with respect to that.” He declined to say if there was a continuing investigation into whether that previous event occurred. Asked if the office took disciplinary action against Ms. Troiano over her arrest in August, he said, “We do not discipline employees based solely on an arrest.” He also said that official corruption is investigated by the rackets bureau, but that “this assistant has never worked in the rackets bureau.” He said she was assigned to the arson, auto and economic crime bureau. William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.