PHOTO: Queens District Attorney Richard Brown last week marked 25 years in office with a little help from some QDA alumni, including City Councilman Vincent Gentile (l. to r.), State Supreme Court Justice Steven Paynter, New York City Criminal Court Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant, Acting State Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley, State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Hollie, District Attorney Brown, State Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder, New York City Criminal Court Judge Rosemarie Montalbano, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, State Supreme Court Justice Anna Culley and Chief of Investigations, Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Charles Testagrossa. Courtesy of Queens DA’s Office
By Michael V. Cusenza
On the first day of June, 2016, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown marked the completion of his 25th year as the borough’s prosecutor, and celebrated the achievement with a luncheon in the third-floor conference room attended by executive and senior staff, bureau chiefs, and office alumni.
Brown first took office on June 1, 1991, when then-Gov. Mario Cuomo appointed him the interim Queens DA to succeed John Santucci. At the time, Brown was serving as an associate justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department – the State’s second-highest court. (To this day, the DA is affectionately referred to as “Judge Brown.”) He was elected to his first full four-year term as District Attorney at the general election held in November 1991 and was re-elected at the 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 general elections.
“Since 1991, I have had the honor and privilege of serving as the District Attorney for Queens County and look forward to continuing to work to improve the lives of its 2.2 million residents,” Brown said. “Through the years I have been able to help prevent crime and to build stronger and safer communities. Nothing has been quite as rewarding to me as knowing that I have been able to make a significant difference.”
In March 2010, Brown became the longest serving District Attorney in borough history when he surpassed the record set by Benjamin Downey more than a century ago. Last year, Brown became New York City’s senior DA, following the election of then-Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson to New York State Supreme Court Justice.
“I am extremely proud of the many talented and skilled men and women who have served the Queens District Attorney’s Office over the years, many of whom have chosen to dedicate their professional lives to public service and giving back to the community,” Brown said. “I firmly believe that their dedication, professionalism and devotion [are] what has helped make Queens one of the safest counties in the United States.”
Indeed, in 2015, Queens was once again among the City’s leaders in crime reduction while at the same time expeditiously handling more than 77,000 arrest cases.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office presently consists of 321 assistant district attorneys – 55 percent of whom are women and nearly 30 percent of whom are African American, Hispanic and Asian. More than 50 percent of the professional staff has been with the office for more than 10 years.
“Together with our secretaries, paralegals and other support staff, the office is truly representative of the extraordinary diversity of our county. At the same time, we are committed to achieving greater diversity and inclusion,” Brown added.
DA Brown is a past president of the New York State District Attorneys Association and a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Queens County Bar Association, among others. In addition, he serves as Chair of the Albany-based New York Prosecutors Training Institute.
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
