The low-key DA
Johnson vows ‘long term’ criminal justice changes
Sitting in his office Wednesday morning, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said, “The system is — I guess you could say — in distress.” Across 161st St. the line was still a block long to get into the Bronx Hall of Justice, which lately has been targeted by the state’s highest judge as well as newspaper writers as a symbol of the borough’s crippled criminal justice system.
A lot of the blame has been laid on Johnson.
Judges and defense lawyers and even the screwed-up building itself have also contributed to long years of waiting for cases to come to trial, as defendants sit in Rikers Island, innocent until proven guilty, and victims and their families wait torturously for resolution.
But Johnson has always been a lightning rod for criticism, such as when he indicts cops, or does not indict cops, in controversial shootings.
He has been in office for 24 years, and still maintains a low profile, even when the Bronx — and the entire state — was stunned a couple weeks ago by the news that Assemblyman Nelson Castro had been an informant for Johnson since 2009, before Castro was elected.
Castro wore a wire and nailed his fellow Bronx legislator, Eric Stevenson. Johnson gave Castro and evidence to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney. Stevenson was hit with federal corruption charges.
He likes to keep things low key. He shrugs off the blame for the enormous backlog of felony cases and won’t blame anyone else.
“The reasons are long term,” he said. “The major crime categories went down, but arrests went up dramatically, arrests for small things are a method to keep crime down.” There are 90,000 arrests a year in the Bronx.
He said he is trying to reduce the backlog, “but we can’t lose sight of the new cases coming in the door.”
He said the Bronx has 4,400 pending felony cases.
He says he’s asked the city to increase funding, citing that the Bronx has 30% of the crime but gets 19% of funding.
The judicial “SWAT” team sent to the courthouse early this year is making inroads, taking pleas to speed things along.
“We try to take pleas, without disservice to public safety,” he said. “We have a lot of interest in getting things done... when a case gets to 3-4 years old, that shouldn’t be, but if it gets that old because of the DA, a motion to dismiss would have been granted.
“We’re not losing a lot of cases because of (violating) the speedy trial law.”
He said he’s talked to some people who have waited years for justice.
“Generally they’re pretty understanding; they’re grateful for the effort we make,” he said.
While there is plenty of street crime to deal with, the Bronx also is a wellspring for political corruption. But even by Bronx standards, having Castro as a mole in the Legisla
ture, and building a case that Stevenson allegedly wrote legislation to help a businessman who gave him a payoff was incredible.
“Certainly there was something that there are enough allegations, enough indictments have come down to know that this is an area where we seldom get inside, Castro was a great opportunity.
He said not announcing Castro’s 2009 indictment for perjury, allowing him to run and win election to the assembly, was “not an easy decision... but it was a rare opportunity.”
He said while past corruption cases of Bronx officials — such as Larry Seabrook and Pedro Espada — have their shocking elements, the Stevenson case “had double in that he allowed businesspeople to draft the legislation, and he was counseling people about the perils of engaging in illegal conduct,” Johnson said.
But getting back to the backlog of felony cases, he said he would tell Bronxites, “We certainly sympathize with what you’re going through... we’re here to talk to you. If you are the parent of a murder victim, you know we are here.” And he will not point fingers. “I don’t want to speak in public just to speak,” he said. “I want to speak to the people who can get things done... we’re always working behind the scenes.
“The real significant changes are going to have to be long term but, yeah, we should get this done.”