Charles J. "Joe" Hynes is the current District Attorney of Kings County, New York. In his childhood, he attended St. Ann's Academy in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
(now
Archbishop Molloy High SchoolArchbishop Molloy High School is a co-educational Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City, thirty minutes east of Manhattan. Molloy currently has an endowment of about $6,000,000 . The school's current principal is Br...
in
Briarwood, QueensBriarwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located northwest of Jamaica and roughly bounded by Queens Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike, and Hillside Avenue. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 8. It is serviced by the IND Queens Boulevard...
). Hynes received his JD from
St. John's UniversitySt. John's University is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational university located in New York City, United States. Founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1870, the school was originally located in the borough of Brooklyn in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 1960, the school was relocated...
in
Jamaica, QueensJamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. It was settled under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland as Rustdorp. Under British rule, the Village of Jamaica became the center of the Town of Jamaica...
.
Now in his fifth term, Hynes was first elected to office in 1989. After working for the
Legal Aid SocietyThe Legal Aid Society in New York City is the United States' oldest and largest provider of legal services to the indigent. It operates both traditional civil and criminal law cases....
, he joined the Kings County District Attorney's office in 1969, where he served as an Assistant District Attorney.
Charles J. "Joe" Hynes is the current District Attorney of Kings County, New York. In his childhood, he attended St. Ann's Academy in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
(now
Archbishop Molloy High SchoolArchbishop Molloy High School is a co-educational Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City, thirty minutes east of Manhattan. Molloy currently has an endowment of about $6,000,000 . The school's current principal is Br...
in
Briarwood, QueensBriarwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located northwest of Jamaica and roughly bounded by Queens Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike, and Hillside Avenue. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 8. It is serviced by the IND Queens Boulevard...
). Hynes received his JD from
St. John's UniversitySt. John's University is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational university located in New York City, United States. Founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1870, the school was originally located in the borough of Brooklyn in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 1960, the school was relocated...
in
Jamaica, QueensJamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. It was settled under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland as Rustdorp. Under British rule, the Village of Jamaica became the center of the Town of Jamaica...
.
Now in his fifth term, Hynes was first elected to office in 1989. After working for the
Legal Aid SocietyThe Legal Aid Society in New York City is the United States' oldest and largest provider of legal services to the indigent. It operates both traditional civil and criminal law cases....
, he joined the Kings County District Attorney's office in 1969, where he served as an Assistant District Attorney. Two years later he was appointed as Chief of the Rackets Bureau, subsequent to which he was appointed as First Assistant District Attorney.
In 1975, then New York Governor
Hugh CareyHugh Leo Carey is an attorney and former governor of New York , and a former seven-term United States Representative .- Early life :...
and Attorney General
Louis LefkowitzLouis J. Lefkowitz was an American lawyer and politician.-Life:...
appointed Hynes as Special State Prosecutor to investigate nursing home fraud. 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. [NY Times 27 March 1982: A9] Hynes testified before Congress in 1976 in favor of legislation establishing state fraud control units and providing federal funding. The legislation became law in 1977, and the following year Hynes was elected the first president of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
http://www.namfcu.net/AboutUs/history.html Now, 48 states have Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Hynes was appointed the 24th Fire Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Edward I. Koch on November 5, 1980 upon the resignation of Fire Commissioner
Augustus A. BeekmanAugustus A. Beekman was appointed the 23rd Fire Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Edward I. Koch on January 17, 1978 and served in that position until his resignation on November 5, 1980. He was the second African American Fire Commissioner in the history of that position. Mr. Beekman...
, and served in that position until his resignation on October 22, 1982.
Returning to public service several years later, his first major achievement as a head prosecutor would occur in 1987 when he was tasked with investigating the death of Michael Griffith, an African-American teenager who was set upon by a mob of white teens in
Howard Beach, QueensHoward Beach is a suburban neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered in the north by the Belt Parkway and South Conduit Avenue, the south by Jamaica Bay, the east by 102nd-104th Streets and the west by 78th Street. Howard Beach borders the...
.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40713FD355A0C778DDDA80894DF484D81&showabstract=1
Hynes managed to secure three homicide convictions against the defendants, who would subsequently be sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths.
Controversy arose when Sandra Roper, who had previously run against Hynes in 2001, was brought up on felony theft charges by a special prosecutor. Hynes’ office had received a complaint that Roper stole about $9,000 from a client and then lied about it to the state grievance committee. Hynes immediately recused himself from the case, and Maranda Fritz was appointed as special prosecutor. After a mistrial in 2004 due to a hung jury, the case was eventually dismissed in 2005 after Roper repaid the former client about $9,000. Roper then sued Hynes for allegedly acting improperly with regard to the criminal case against her. However, in 2006, a federal judge threw out the suit and ruled that Roper’s allegation was unsubstantiated. [NY Times 1 March 2005:B3; NY Sun 29 Sept.2006:3]
In 2005 he defeated primary challenges from several other opponents, including State Senator
John L. SampsonJohn L. Sampson represents District 19 in the New York State Senate, which comprises Crown Heights, East Flatbush, as well as portions of Brownsville, Canarsie and Spring Creek Towers....
.
Hynes’ innovative programs have put him on the cutting edge of law-enforcement in America and made him the subject of numerous national and international media spotlights.
He is credited with establishing 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.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20612FC355A0C748EDDAE0894D1494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fD%2fDomestic%20Violence
In 2005, in partnership with New York City and the state court system, he opened the first Family Justice Center in New York State, an all-in-one facility where domestic violence victims can meet with prosecutors, counselors, civil attorneys and clergy members, and get help changing their locks, finding new housing, handling custody issues and a wide range of related problems, all in their native languages. [NY Daily News 21 July 2005:2]
In October, 1990, Hynes initiated the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program (DTAP) 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.
http://www.casacolumbia.org/Absolutenm/articlefiles/Crossing_the_bridge_March2003.pdf
One of the most high-profile cases pursued by DA Hynes to date has been his prosecution of former assemblyman and Kings County Democratic Party chief Clarence Norman Jr. After trial under four separate indictments, Norman was acquitted once and convicted three times on felony charges, including grand larceny and extortion. [Newsday 6 June 2007:A02]
In addition to Norman, DA Hynes has successfully prosecuted two judges of taking bribes. Former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron was sentenced to three to nine years in prison for soliciting a bribe, and former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for accepting gifts and money from an attorney, in exchange for favorable treatment in Garson’s courtroom. [NY Post 6 June 2007:11]
Hynes has maintained a summer residence in
Breezy Point, QueensBreezy Point is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula, between Rockaway Inlet and Jamaica Bay on the landward side, and the Atlantic Ocean. The neighborhood is governed by Queens Community Board 14...
.
Several high profile cases have raised questions of Hynes' competence or his political will in pursuing allegations of wrongdoing involving prominent institutions and individuals in Brooklyn’s politically powerful Orthodox Jewish community. The case of Shai Fhima, a 13-year-old Jewish boy whose non-Orthodox parents said he was kidnapped by an ultra-traditional Orthodox rabbi giving him bar mitzvah lessons, also brought scrutiny to Hynes as it dragged on through the 1990s. In another case, police in 1993 reported that Augustine Hazim, a Puerto Rican man, was beaten in Borough Park by a group of Orthodox Jews after his motorcycle came close to striking a child. It took seven months for the District Attorney’s office to conduct a lineup. In the 2008 case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with sexual molestation DA Hynes dropped the high profile molestation charges in exchange for a plea agreement. Under the agreement Rabbi Kolko pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to three years probation and counseling.
External links