Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Selective Sex Abuse Justice

The selective justice of Charles Hynes 
The New York Daily News by Arnold Kriss  -  OPINION  -  June 6, 2012 
His only duty should be to the victims 

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ justification for not disclosing the names of sex abuse defendants in the Orthodox Jewish community as a way to protect victims and witnesses — a revelation of which much has been made lately in the press — is unpersuasive.  “I haven’t seen this kind of intimidation in organized crime cases or police corruption,” Hynes told the Daily News last week. “Nobody gives a damn about victims (in the Orthodox community). All they care about is protecting the abusers.”  Prosecuting sex abuse cases is always tough — and the closed-off world of Orthodox Judaism does pose its own challenges. But that is no excuse for the kind of lax (some might even say nonexistent) prosecution that Hynes oversaw for some two decades — at least until becoming more aggressive in recent years.  And then there is Hynes’ nondisclosure policy, which remains unchanged despite calls for openness. Hynes has been steadfast in his position that disclosing the names of arrested sexual predators from this insular community will discourage future victims from coming forward.  What makes Hynes’ position indefensible is that, while he has long protected Orthodox Jews accused of sex crimes, he has no hesitation releasing defendants’ names in similar cases when it comes to other groups.

For instance, on Jan. 26, 2011, Hynes announced the indictment of two men (neither an Orthodox Jew) who forced teenage girls into prostitution. One of the victims filed a report that resulted in the arrest of two named defendants.  A year later, in another press release, Hynes’ office announced the indictments of 43 gang members, disclosing the names of the gang leaders charged and describing the crimes perpetrated against the unnamed victims.  Any of the violent gang-affiliated defendants who were charged could have easily figured out the identity of the victims and witnesses by simply reading that press release.  These in-the-open prosecutions demonstrate the imbalance of Hynes’ practice of disclosing only the identities of certain charged defendants who live in certain communities — while keeping the public in the dark about other defendants, perhaps those who come from powerful voting blocs whose support Hynes needs.  After all, gang members and pimps do not simply “shun” a victim who reports a crime, as is supposedly done by the Orthodox. Instead, they often intimidate, threaten, coerce and, in some cases, kill, witnesses and victims.  Even without publicly disclosing an Orthodox defendant’s name to protect a victim, the extremely personal nature of a sex abuse allegation usually means that the victim’s and witness’ identity is discernible to an alleged sex abuse defendant and his lawyer.  All they have to do is to read the factual portion of a criminal complaint and review other material furnished by the prosecutor.  And while the criminal case is pending for months, nothing stops a criminal defendant from disclosing that an informant lives among them, thus opening the floodgates of intimidation.  In other words, Hynes’ “discretion” does nothing for the very victim he purports to serve. It just garners him favor from a group that does not like attention drawn to itself.  But that’s not how our criminal justice system should work; the rule of law requires equal treatment for all individuals. A district attorney who represents the people of Brooklyn compromises the mission of his office by serving one community’s self-interest for secrecy. This unequal treatment is unacceptable no matter how you justify it.  Kriss, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney who challenged Hynes in 2005, has also served as a Police Department deputy commissioner for trials. He is currently in private practice in Manhattan. 

6 comments:

  1. This is very upsetting. Just because you're a Jew or Catholic and have connections within prosecutors offices doesn't mean you can get away with crimes. So if you are connected you get away with crimes. This is disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a joke the Orthodox are. Claiming piety with their rituals and living in debauchery. Remember Eric Holder arranging a Clinton pardon in 2001. "people wondered whether the pardons occurred as a kind of favor because the Village of New Square had voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton for her first senate term (1359 out of 1369 votes) or if the pardons occurred as part of a quid pro quo swap for votes. Hillary Clinton said that she was not involved in the pardons and that her husband pardoned the men out of clemency."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Square,_New_York
    God or debauchery? The Brooklyn DA, like President Clinton, is acting out of the goodness of his heart for the pious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John Walter the CEo of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been getting away with this sort of conduct for years.

    Follow the money.

    leukemiascandal.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Everyone in BKLYN knows Charley Hynes is a political whore who would screw him mother for votes

    ReplyDelete
  5. With the Rajat Gupta Insider Trading case conviction I hope all of you realize and accept that we Jews are in complete and total control of this country and this planet. We are the Landowners and you are the Peasants. Nothing has changed since the days of open slavery. When we want to throw you in jail we get our House Niggers at Child Protective Services or the Police Department to arrest you, detain you, or accuse you of something. If we want you dead we use our Upper House Niggers who are Court Administrators or Judges at Courts or our more Educated House Niggers at the Taxing Authorities to bankrupt you. We do all this when our Chief Rabbi says we can do this after we appeal to him for his help. Give it up - all your women, sisters, mothers and daughters are our cockslut slaves and all of you men are our slaves working to make us even more money. Ron Paul, the only man that could have saved you from bondage, is never going to get elected - face it - slavery is already here and you are living in an illusion if you really think you are free. But that illusion will also be coming down soon, believe me.

    Rabbi Dore Weiss, Brooklyn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Try to vote out the corrupt politicians so we can get some honest Judges doing their jobs.

    ReplyDelete