My little crony for DA

Bx. law boss ignores scandals, promotes faves

As the Bronx District Attorney’s Office grapples with a notorious case backlog and the highest crime rate in the city, its Democratic-crony chief is enraging critics — by giving a plum promotion to a prosecutor accused of spearheading a horribly bungled case.

New DA Darcel Clark also recently rehired an old pal who resigned under her predecessor for breaking a man’s nose in an alleged road-rage incident.

And a third prosecutor recently promoted by Clark was abruptly asked to resign Tuesday — after The Post uncovered that she was living in New Jersey, a violation of state rules.

In the first case, Assistant DA Peter Kennedy was promoted to head the office’s Computer Forensics Laboratory and given a $40,000 raise, raising his annual pay to $130,000, records show.

Kennedy was the ADA who headed the prosecution of Kalief Browder, a then-16-year-old who spent three years languishing on Rikers Island over a supposed stolen backpack and killed himself last year, said a lawyer for the victim’s family.

“I don’t know what he’s done since the Kalief Browder case, but I know what he didn’t do in the Kalief Browder case,” lawyer Paul Prestia said.

“[Kennedy] didn’t uphold the law,’’ Prestia said. “He should have adhered to the speedy trials and not asked for multiple unrealistic adjournments when clearly he wasn’t ready to go forward.”

Clark also just rehired Ricardo Rodriguez, who had resigned under then-DA Robert Johnson in 2004 after pleading down to disorderly conduct for the alleged road rage.

Clark officiated at Rodriguez’s 2002 wedding.

The DA also recently promoted ADA Cristina Park to supervise the office’s Immigrant Affairs Unit. But The Post discovered that Park was living in Closter, NJ, a violation of rules that require DA employees to live in New York.

Park did not get a waiver to live out of state, the DA’s Office said Monday in response to Post inquiries.

Clark said in an awkwardly worded statement late Tuesday, “I have given her the opportunity to resign.” A DA spokeswoman said the pair spoke on Tuesday but that Park had not yet resigned.

Clark’s office said it had no comment on Kennedy or Rodriguez. Neither of the three ADAs immediately returned phone calls.

Last year, Clark was handpicked by the borough’s Democratic Party to replace Johnson after he stayed in office just long enough to be reelected and then stepped down for a judgeship.