Charles J. Hynes
Charles Joseph Hynes, also known as Joe Hynes, was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from New York who served as Kings County District Attorney from 1990 to 2013.
Early life and education
Hynes was born and raised, largely by his mother, Regina Katherine Hynes, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He was estranged from his father, Harold Hynes, who was an abusive alcoholic. He was baptized Charles Aiken Hynes, but "since I was not fond of either of my given names, I chose Joe as my confirmation name when I was twelve."As he was widely known as "Joe", he legally changed his middle name to Joseph upon running for political office. He attended St. Ann's Academy in Queens before receiving his undergraduate and J.D. degrees from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens.
Career before 1989
In 1963, Hynes began working for the Legal Aid Society as an associate attorney. He joined the Kings County District Attorney's Office in 1969, as an Assistant District Attorney. In 1971, Hynes was appointed as Chief of the Rackets Bureau, and was named First Assistant District Attorney in 1973.In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey and Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz appointed Hynes as special state prosecutor for Nursing Homes, Health and Social Services, in response to a massive scandal in the state's nursing home industry. Hynes' office launched a comprehensive attack on Medicaid fraud, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit eventually became a national model, cited in a report of the House Select Committee on Aging as the best in the country. Hynes testified before the United States Congress in 1976, in favor of legislation establishing state fraud control units and providing federal funding. The legislation became law in 1977. Now, 48 states have Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Hynes was appointed the 24th New York City Fire Commissioner by Mayor Edward I. Koch on November 5, 1980, upon the resignation of Augustus A. Beekman. Hynes served in that position until his resignation on October 22, 1982. He served as a Commissioner for the New York State Commission of Investigation between 1983 and 1985, by appointment of New York State Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink. In 1985, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed District Attorney Hynes as Special State Prosecutor for the New York City Criminal Justice System.
In 1987 Hynes investigated the death of Michael Griffith, an African-American man. Hynes secured three homicide convictions against the defendants and published a book about the case.
District Attorney
Accomplishments
In October 1990, Hynes initiated the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program on the premise that drug-addicted defendants would return to society in a better position to resist drugs and crime after treatment than if they had spent a comparable time in prison at nearly twice the cost. DTAP is available for nonviolent predicate felons with a history of drug addiction and has been held up as a model for similar prosecution based drug treatment programs across the country.In 1999 Hynes created "the ComALERT public safety program which supports individuals on probation or parole as they re-enter their Brooklyn communities. The program was validated by a Harvard University study which found it reduced recidivism by more than half."
Hynes is credited with having established one of the most comprehensive-and first-countywide programs designed specifically to address domestic abuse as a criminal issue, and with the collaboration of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani implemented a citywide program to monitor convicted domestic violence offenders.
Election campaigns and challengers
In 1998 he sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of New York but was defeated in the primary by Peter Vallone Sr.In 2005, Hynes narrowly beat a primary challenge from State Senator John L. Sampson who won 37 percent of the vote to Hynes' 41 percent. Mark G. Peters, a former senior official in the state attorney general's office, got 15 percent of the votes and Arnold Kriss, a former assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and a former deputy police commissioner, received 7 percent. The race had attracted considerable attention because Mr. Hynes, a fixture in Brooklyn politics, was seen as vulnerable after four terms in office.
In 2009, Hynes was unopposed.
The New York Times reported that the three-way Democratic primary race in 2013 posed a threat to Mr. Hynes. In the Democratic primary in 2005, when Mr. Hynes had four opponents, he won with 41 percent of the vote, 4 percent more than John L. Sampson, a state senator from Brooklyn. In the previous primary, an obscure candidate, Sandra E. Roper, mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge against Mr. Hynes. The Times writes that while Mr. Hynes has been in office more than 20 years, he has recently come under fire for failing to investigate sexual abuse claims in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities and for his office's mishandling of cases that sent innocent people to prison.
In the 2013 Democratic primary, and then again in the general election on the Republican and Conservative lines, Hynes lost to Kenneth P. Thompson.
Controversies
Prosecution of politicians, elected judges and political opponents
In 1997, Hynes successfully prosecuted lawyer John O'Hara for voting in the wrong election district. As a result, O'Hara, who admits that he had voted in his girlfriend's district, was disbarred, paid a $20,000 fine, and served 1,500 hours of community service. He is the only person besides suffragette Susan B. Anthony to be convicted in New York for voting in the wrong district. O'Hara has claimed he was prosecuted because he had run for office against Hynes' allies and had supported challengers against Hynes. In 2009, the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division unanimously approved a report by a state judicial committee that found that O'Hara's prosecution was unjustified; the report said, "Mr. O'Hara, accurately it appears, claims that machine went gunning for him and pounced on his change of residency calling it election fraud." O'Hara was reinstated to the bar, although his conviction was upheld.In 2001, civil court judge John Phillips announced his intent to oppose Hynes in that year's race for district attorney. Shortly afterward, Hynes' office began an investigation that resulted in claims that Phillips was the victim of a real estate scheme, and that the 70-year-old judge was incompetent to handle his own affairs. Hynes' former chief of staff was named as temporary guardian of Phillips' real estate holdings.
In 2003, Hynes' office filed felony theft charges against Sandra Roper, a lawyer who had challenged Hynes in the 2001 primary race. Prosecutors said that Roper had stolen about $9,000 from a client, whom she allegedly told she was representing for free. Ms. Roper's defense argued that the funds were legal fees that the client had agreed to. Hynes recused himself from the case. Following a 2004 mistrial due to a hung jury, the charges were dismissed in 2005 after Roper repaid the funds to the client. Roper subsequently sued Hynes, alleging that he had acted improperly; the lawsuit was thrown out in 2006, as the court found that Roper had not proven that Hynes was personally involved in her prosecution.
Between 2003 and 2007, Hynes prosecuted former assemblyman and Kings County Democratic Party chief Clarence Norman Jr., four times on four separate political corruption indictments. Norman was acquitted once and convicted three times on felony charges, including grand larceny and extortion. Hynes has also successfully prosecuted two former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justices, Victor Barron and Gerald Garson, for taking bribes.
Kidnapping and sex abuse cases in ultra-Orthodox communities
In 1998, after being kidnapped, blindfolded, bloodied, and stun-gunned by hooded assailants of the New York divorce coercion gang over the issuance of a get, Abraham Rubin took his case to the New York City Police Department, but it was dropped by Hynes' office because the victim could not identify any of his assailants.> Newsday interviewed an additional dozen residents in the neighborhoods of Borough Park and Midwood, Brooklyn, all of whom claimed that they were harassed, threatened, or assaulted by men working for their estranged wives. Hynes agreed to look into the charges but, despite pressure from the victims, declined to prosecute. The gang remained in operation until they were apprehended in a sting operation and convicted in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.Hynes was also criticized for alleged reluctance in prosecuting cases of sexual abuse against children in ultra-Orthodox communities, which make up a significant segment of Brooklyn. A 2008 editorial in The Jewish Week accused Hynes of treating such cases "with a stance ranging from passive to weak-willed." The editorial focused in particular on the case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with sexually molesting several students. In a plea bargain, Hynes allowed Kolko to plead guilty only to two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment; he was sentenced to three years' probation.
Following the Kolko case, Hynes' office started a program in 2009 called Kol Tzedek to focus on and provide support for ultra-Orthodox sexual abuse victims. Hynes said in 2012 that the program had led to 95 arrests involving more than 120 victims. The New York Times wrote that their own investigation found that the program had little to do with many of the 95 arrests cited by Hynes. His office declined to publicize the names of defendants arrested or convicted in these cases, a policy Hynes attributed to concern that in the "very tight-knit and insular" ultra-Orthodox community, disclosure of defendants' names would place the victims at risk. Victims' rights groups alleged that this and other decisions represent Hynes bowing to pressure from ultra-Orthodox leaders.
In January 2013, shortly before the sentencing of Satmar Hasidic counselor Nechemya Weberman for repeatedly abusing a young girl, Hynes published an editorial in the Daily News in which he wrote, "I hope the verdict and sentence sends a very clear and unmistakable message to people in certain parts of the Orthodox community — it is time to start protecting victims rather than defendants." Weberman was sentenced to 103 years in prison. Two weeks later, Jewish religious school principal Emanuel Yegutkin was sentenced to 55 years for abusing three boys. Hynes touted both convictions as victories for his office.