Building his case
Liang prosecutor plans B’klyn DA run
A former top prosecutor in Brooklyn plans to run for district attorney next year, The Post has learned.
Retired Civil Rights Bureau chief Marc Fliedner, who along with ADA Joseph Alexis successfully prosecuted Police Officer Peter Liang in the fatal shooting of Akai Gurley in a housing-project stairwell, will be announcing his candidacy shortly after the new year, political insiders said.
Fliedner and Alexis gained a manslaughter conviction in the 2014 shooting death of Gurley. Liang was fired from the NYPD but spared a prison sentence when then-DA Ken Thompson — who died of cancer in October — recommended a no-jail sentence.
Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun downgraded the sentence to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced Liang — who had faced up to 15 years behind bars on the original conviction — to five years’ probation and 800 hours of community service.
Fliedner, who worked in various bureaus at the DA’s office since 2006, retired shortly after, saying he intended to enter private practice and denying his exit had anything to do with the Liang case.
But Fliedner made headlines again when he criticized Thompson’s handling of the office and accused him of inserting politics into every aspect of its operations, including high-level negotiations.
In 2010, one of Fliedner’s convictions was tossed following allegations by the DA’s office that he’d withheld evidence from a defense attorney in a 2005 double homicide that left Wayne Martin of Brooklyn behind bars for eight years.
Fliedner, 53, maintains that he did no such thing and that the investigation into his work on the Martin case was just “political retaliation” for speaking out against Thompson.
That investigation is still ongoing.
Patricia Gatling and former Fox News legal analyst Arthur Aidala have also announced their intention to run. Other names being floated are Bay Ridge Councilman Vincent Gentile and Public Advocate Letitia James, as well as prosecutor Anne Swern.
Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who was appointed by Thompson days before his death, has yet to formally announce his candidacy.
Thompson’s widow, LuShawn Benbow-Thompson, has been vocal in her support for Gonzalez.
“I’ll be watching the development of the race very closely, and I’ll be letting the public know,” Fliedner told The Post.