New chief of CCRB named
A FORMER Queens assistant district attorney who helped create a specialized unit to prosecute police officers at administrative trials has been chosen to run the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the Daily News has learned.
Jonathan Darche was named the board’s executive director following a nationwide search, agency officials said.
He’s been serving as acting executive director since November — after Mina Malik stepped down after serving for 23 months.
“The CCRB has chosen a new executive director who brings experience, integrity and a commitment to justice to this vital role,” Mayor de Blasio said. “Jonathan Darche will be a key ally in this administration’s effort to promote police accountability and fair and judicious oversight, while binding up past wounds and building a relationship of trust and cooperation between the NYPD and communities.”
Darche, 44, joined the CCRB in 2013 and became the police watchdog group’s first deputy chief prosecutor of the agency’s administrative prosecution unit, where he brought administrative charges against cops accused of official misconduct and violating NYPD procedures.
As head of the administrative prosecution unit, Darche prosecuted the most serious cases, including abuse and illegal stopand-frisk encounters, officials said. Before joining the CCRB, he was an assistant district attorney for Queens DA Richard Brown.
As acting executive director, Darche has been working to upgrade the board’s information systems so it could integrate with the NYPD’s new body camera program and hammer out ways to obtain body camera footage after misconduct claims are made.
He also oversaw the agency when a junior staffer leaked the disciplinary records of Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who put Eric Garner in a deadly chokehold in 2014.
The leaker was identified and forced to resign shortly after the information was sent to the website thinkprogress.org. The breach prompted the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association to call for an investigation into the CCRB’s alleged failure to protect personnel records.
Darche said he is “humbled” to be named executive director. The position comes with an estimated $230,000 yearly salary.
“In my time at the agency, I’ve learned just how vital of a role it plays in the lives of New Yorkers, civilians and members of service alike,” Darche said of the CCRB. “I also have the fortune of continuing to serve New York City alongside a dedicated group of public servants — staff who, day in and day out, inspire me to work harder for the people we serve.”
Darche’s predecessor stepped down in November to take a teaching job at Harvard Law School.
A source told The News that Malik left after continually butting heads with City Hall over control of the CCRB. Several CCRB members also filed complaints against her for alienating employees and unnecessarily firing people.
Her time as executive director was largely overshadowed by her lawsuit against former board Chairman Richard Emery, who she claimed called her and a woman co-worker “p-----s.”
Emery stepped down from the chairman’s post a day after the suit was filed.