A reversal of fortunes
DURING THE recent hearing that led to an order for a new trial in a murder case, I kept hearing about big troubles at the Queens district attorney’s office. Starting with DA Richard Brown ailing and turning over much of the work in an operation that handles 70,000 cases a year to his chief of trials, James Quinn.
And that was the reason Quinn, in an attempt to stop the setbacks at his office, had decided to personally try the hearing where Tejpal Singh successfully fought his murder conviction.
Daily News reporter Greg Smith did an exposé last year citing a half-dozen shaky Queens convictions being challenged.
Last year, Kareem Bellamy was freed after doing 14 years for murder when Queens Acting Supreme Court Justice Joel Blumenfeld overturned his conviction, citing new evidence. Bellamy filed suit last month for prosecutorial misconduct.
The State Court of Appeals recently ruled 5-0 to uphold another Blumenfeld ruling, that Queens prosecutors’ practice of grilling suspects before arraignment without attorneys was unethical.
Now courthouse sources were telling me that Brown, 79, had Parkinson’s disease.
The medical whispers were personally troubling because my mother died from Parkinson’s and I can tell you that it was an insidious, agonizing experience.
Richie Brown was appointed Queens District Attorney in 1991 by Gov. Mario Cuomo after a sterling career as a judge and has been a highly visible DA since, often showing up at crime scenes.
“Brown surrounded himself with top shelf people,” the source says. “But as he got older, they’ve all moved on. Since Quinn took control, they’re not attracting the same quality of talent. That’s why Quinn had to personally try the Tejpal Singh case. He couldn’t allow yet another reversal and he didn’t trust anyone else."
Quinn did not return a call for comments. But Brown sees it differently.
“It’s all BS,” he told me. “I was here at 6:30 this morning. The guys who drive me will tell you that I work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. I still go to a lot of crime scenes. I’m still very much involved in the day-to-day operations of the office.” Is he suffering from Parkinson’s? “Yes, but the medication keeps that very much under control.”
Does the disease interfere with his ability to run the office?
“No, much to the contrary. We still have meetings every morning at 8:30. I’m still very much on top of everything. Everybody who knows me knows I put in a very long day. My basic problem is sleep apnea. I’m just not getting enough sleep. I wake up a half-dozen times during the night. But I’m in charge and in good shape.”
Meanwhile, the legal troubles at the office continue.
At the Singh hearing, defense attorney Stephen Murphy demolished the two star prosecution witnesses from the original murder trial in which Singh was convicted of killing a rival Sikh in a 1996 drive-by shooting.
With blistering cross-examination and Perry Mason moments using secretly recorded audiotapes, Murphy caught both prosecution witnesses in a spellbinding web of perjury about soliciting $500,000 to recant their original trial testimony.
“If Mike Aloise didn’t reverse that verdict, the case would’ve blazed down the BQE to the appellate court so fast it would’ve made you dizzy,” another prominent courthouse source said.
“We were disappointed but not shocked that the verdict was reversed given what happened at the hearing,” says Jack Ryan, chief assistant district attorney. “The judge said this was the only hearing he’d ever presided over where every witness for both sides had lied. So we will appeal or retry the case.”
Murphy says he already told Quinn he isn’t interested in any plea offers for the new trial in June.
“Either Quinn drops the charges against Tejpal Singh or we go to trial,” he says. “This case is why I became a lawyer.”
Might be time for the Queens DA’S office to cut its losses.