Completely Legal

DiFiore says, among other things, that broader use of the state’s DNA database has been an important tool in both identifying perpetrators of crimes and exonerating innocent people. But the practice has raised concerns among some privacy advocates.

DNA is one of the most reliable forms of evidence in criminal investigations today. This year,New Yorkwill become the first state in the nation to expand its DNA databank to include samples from every defendant who is convicted of any felony or any Penal Law misdemeanor. As District Attorney and chief law enforcement officer in Westchester County, I want to share with you how this significant advance in criminal investigations will work to accomplish two equally important goals, convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent.

Under present law, we collect DNA samples from convicted defendants in only 48% of crimes. Effective August 1, 2012, the state will expand its DNA databank to include defendants convicted of all felony as well as all Penal Law misdemeanors. ADNAsample is easily collected by swabbing the inside of an individual’s cheek and is processed at a cost of $30. Maintained under strict confidentiality laws, the DNA profile yields limited information relating only to identity and is given a numeric coding when uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System or CODIS. The additional pool of evidence collected under our new law will be a reliable, cost effective way to solve crimes, prevent future crimes and exonerate the innocent.

 

In 2006, state law expanded DNA eligible crimes to include non-violent and low level crimes, and as a result, crime scene evidence collected in over 2,900 cases was matched toDNAsamples. The crimes solved were often much more serious and violent than the offense for which the DNA was collected. For example, the addition of petit larceny as a DNA qualifying offense has yielded 928 matches, including 48 homicides, 220 sexual assaults, 391 burglaries, and 110 robberies. These results confirmed the importance of collecting DNA, proving that many violent criminals commit a wide range of crimes including petty offenses and that public safety will be served best by collectingDNAsamples in an equally wide range of criminal convictions.

One of the most compelling illustrations of the value of expanding theDNAdatabank is my office’s recent prosecution and conviction of Francisco Acevedo, a serial killer who murdered three young women in Yonkers between 1989 and 1996. For two decades, these homicides remained unsolved and the killer was unaccounted for, despite the development of the sameDNAprofile obtained from the three crime scenes. Acevedo was convicted in 2009 in Suffolk County for the felony crime of Driving While Intoxicated and was sent to state prison. Under the law as it then existed, Acevedo was not required to provide a DNA sample. When he sought early parole, he was required to give a DNA sample which was uploaded to CODIS. It matched the profile developed from the forensic evidence recovered at each murder scene. Acevedo was indicted for these three previously unsolved murders, convicted and sentenced to 75 years to life in state prison. Under the new law, all defendants convicted of any felony must provide the DNA sample.

As important and powerful a tool as DNA is for convicting the guilty, it is equally important in exonerating the innocent. Countless innocent suspects have been ruled out in the early stages of criminal investigations. DNA has also been used to exonerate the innocent who were wrongfully convicted and, in two cases, identify the person who actually committed the crimes. The new law also provides access for defendants to obtain DNA testing under certain circumstances, both before trial and following a guilty plea or guilty verdict at trial. These provisions are intended to expand access to evidence to demonstrate a defendant’s innocence and to address the issue of wrongful convictions.

New York’s new law providing for the collection of DNA from a far broader range of convicted criminals will put us in a better position to solve crime, prevent victimization, and exonerate the innocent.

After four years of covering killers, thugs and crooks, I am leaving the courts beat to return to my roots as a government watchdog reporter, focusing on a cluster of communities in southern Westchester County.  This will be my last post on Completely Legal, a blog I created four years ago with former federal courts reporter Tim O’Connor, who has moved onto greater successes after spending nearly 10 years with The Journal News/LoHud.com.

State and federal courts in Westchester are now in the capable hands of staff writer Erik Shilling. He can be reached at eshilling@lohud.com.

Rockland County courts will remain the purview of reporter Steve Lieberman, while Putnam County courts will continue to be covered by reporter Terence Corcoran. Their emails, respectively, are slieberm@lohud.com and  tcorcora@lohud.com.

A former securities broker from Cortlandt accused of stealing $130,000 from her clients and spending the money on herself is due in town court today on felony larceny charges.

Tamalyn Crutchfield Stewart (left) has been held on $100,000 bail following her arraignment last week on charges of second- and third-degree grand larceny.

According to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, Stewart is accused of stealing $100,000 from one client and $30,000 from another over a seven-month span in 2010.

Prosecutors say she was supposed to invest the money but used it for personal expenses instead.

The District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation in June after the victims filed complaints.

Stewart, 57, faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted of the top larceny count.

Westchester County Judge Barry Warhit (left) was called up to Putnam County this week to make a ruling on a 15-year-old case in Carmel involving the rape and murder of a 12-year-old Carmel girl.

Warhit, a relatively new judge who has been praised by both prosecutors and defense lawyers in Westchester for his fair judgements and balanced rulings, denied the defense’s request to appoint a special prosecutor, give immunity to a Sing Sing inmate who may testify and have the court interview every potential witness to check for possible coersion in the upcoming retrial of accused killer Anthony DiPippo.

DiPippo and another man, Andrew Krivak, were convicted of killing Josette Wright, a seventh-grader who disappeared in October 1994. Her body was found in the Patterson woods the following year. DiPippo was granted a new trial last year after a state appeals court found that his lawyer had a conflict of interest in the case.

The Supreme Court this morning is hearing arguments this morning on President Obama’s landmark health care law. Richard Wolf of USA Today summed up the importance of this case: “Not since the court confirmed George W. Bush’s election in December 2000 — before 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq, Wall Street’s dive and Obama’s rise — has one case carried such sweeping implications for nearly every American.”

The first question is, considering that fines for not buying health insurance don’t kick in until 2015, should the justices wait until then to hear the case?

What do you think? Should the justices wait? Should they be hearing the case at all? Should they overturn the mandatory purchase provision? Should they leave the law as is? Feel free to post your comments here.

(Photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

Mary Grace Ferone, a managing attorney at the Legal Services of the Hudson Valley in White Plains, will be among the speakers this Thursday at a New York State Bar Association hearing about how New York’s Family Court system impacts children and families.

The hearings, held around the state, were convened to address the rising workloads in the family courts during the past decade, particularly child custody, visitation and child support cases.

“The growing burden placed on our Family Court system is having a direct impact on our most vulnerable population—our children,” said State Bar President Vincent E. Doyle III. “With these hearings, we are collecting information from a variety of experts that we hope will lead to improved conditions for children and the courts.”

The latest hearing will take place at the Nassau County Bar Association in Mineola. The task force previously held hearings in Albany and New York City. The final hearing is scheduled for March 29 in Buffalo.

Among those expected to testify on Thursday are family court judges and others affiliated with the courts, local bar associations, legal service groups and organizations that serve children, families and battered women.

The 35-member Task Force on Family Court, created in 2010, will issue a preliminary report in June and a final report in November. That report will be presented to the state chief administrative judge and others for consideration.

According to the state Office of Court Administration, family courts handled 720,850 court filings in 2010, compared to 683,390 in 2001. In New York City, the caseload was 246,266 in 2010, up from 226,544 in 2001. Despite rising caseloads—including a record 742,365 statewide in 2009—only four new Family Court judgeships have been created statewide since 1999 and none in New York City since 1991.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation requiring anyone convicted of a felony or penal law misdemeanor to give their DNA to New York state.

The law makes New York the first state in the country with what’s called an “all crimes” DNA database.

Before today, people convicted of a felony and one of 36 misdemeanors – about half the crimes in the state—had to give a sample of their DNA for the DNA Databank. While civil liberties groups have questioned the measure, law-enforcement groups from around the state have championed it.

“This is a great step forward for all New Yorkers,” Westchester County Janet DiFiore said in a statement today. “The all-crimes DNA Database will enhance public safety for every New Yorker across the State. By requiring virtually every person convicted of a felony and a penal law misdemeanor to provide a DNA sample upon conviction, we will use science to convict the guilty as well as exonerate the innocent.”

People convicted of drunken driving misdemeanors, which are covered by the state’s traffic law, would not have to give their DNA to the state. The legislation also includes an exception for marijuana possession, a Class B misdemeanor, as long as there were no prior convictions.

The compromise bill also expands defendants’ access to DNA testing and comparison before and after conviction in appropriate circumstances, and for post-conviction discovery to prove innocence.

New York launched its DNA Databank in 1996. It has been used for more than 2,900 convictions, according to the governor’s office. DNA samples have exonerated 27 people and helped clear many others early on in investigations.

The New York Civil Liberties Union denounced the legislation in a statement last week.

“It will have a negligible impact on enhancing public safety but increase significantly the likelihood for inefficiency, error and abuse in the collection and handling of forensic DNA,” said Robert Perry, NYCLU’s legislative director. “This unprecedented expansion once again does nothing to address the increasingly apparent inadequacies of the state’s regulatory oversight of police crime labs, nor does it establish rigorous statewide standards regarding collection, handling and analysis of DNA evidence to catch or prevent error and ensure the integrity of the databank.

The law takes effect Oct. 12.

Cara Matthews of Gannett’s Albany Bureau contributed to this post.

UPDATE: DANTE THATCHER, THE CONFESSED KILLER, WAS SENTENCED TO 22 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON.

The man who gunned down a 25-year-old deliveryman in a downtown Yonkers apartment building will be sentenced on Tuesday, and his sister, who became a Yonkers councilwoman after her brother’s slaying, is expected to give a victim’s impact statement in court.

The victim, Martin Antonio Perez (left), was working as for the now-closed Emerald Diner when he was called to make an $18 food delivery to 50 Hawthorne Ave. on Dec. 17, 2007. Police said he might have been lured to the 18th floor for a fake order before he was confronted by attackers who wanted to rob him.

Perez’s body was found in a 12th floor stairwell. His daughter, Kayla, was just 7 months old when he was killed.

The senseless slaying led to an outpouring of community outrage and numerous donations to Kayla Perez’s college fund. It also turned the victim’s sister, Virginia Perez (right), into an anti-violence activist. She was elected to the City Council in November.

Two days after the fatal shooting, police arrested 18-year-old Xavier Goodwine and charged him with murder. But police suspected that Goodwine wasn’t the lone attacker and placed billboards around the city offering a $12,000 reward for information leading to additional arrests.

Dante Thatcher of Yonkers was arrested last year as the gunman and was indicted on murder, attempted robbery and weapons charges. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, the top count of the indictment, on Jan. 30.

Goodwine pleaded guilty in October to first-degree attempted robbery. His sentencing date was set for April 19.

UPDATE: Shooting suspects Charles Parsley and Kasaun White have been convicted of all charges in the case.

Someone wanted Sandra Hackley-Cornielle dead, but no one is saying who, or why.

What Westchester County prosecutors did say today in their closing arguments was that Charles Parsley and Kasaun White worked together with a third man on a mission to kill the 36-year-old mother of two, and in the process shot her husband and their 12-year-old daughter two years ago.

Prosecutors suggested the men were acting on the behest of someone who put a hit on Hackley-Cornielle (left). They mentioned a suspicious visit she had weeks earlier when two men, posing as police, came to her home asking about her husband’s ex-wife. She did not let them in.

The encounter led to the repair of the apartment building’s security camera, which prosecutors said filmed White and Parsley entering the building and leaving in a hurry. White’s lawyer, Mayo Bartlett, said the man on the tape was not their clients, and Parsley’s lawyer said his client may have been in Yonkers that day but had nothing to do with the shootings.

Parsley and White, cousins from Long Island, are alleged to have staked out the family’s apartment at 1159 Yonkers Ave. on April 21, 2010, waiting for Hackley-Cornielle to come home from her marketing job in New Hyde Park, Long Island.

That evening, a man wearing what looked like a UPS uniform buzzed their apartment, saying he said he had a package that Sandra had to sign for. When Rafael Cornielle opened the door, he was ambushed. His wife was shot five times and died almost instantly. He was shot three times and lived. Their elder daughter was shot once in the leg, while their younger daughter was unharmed.

A motive for the slaying was never discussed during the trial; in fact, the defense for each man argued that the lack of a motive was one reason why their clients were innocent.

The jury will be charged and begin deliberations today. Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli told them they would have lunch brought to them and may have to stay as late as 6 p.m.

White (above, left) and Parsley (right) face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

A third defendant, English Thomas, who allegedly drove the two friends to and from the crime scene and provided the box that the shooter used as a prop, is due to be tried at a later date.

If you haven’t been reading Journal News reporter Hema Easley’s stories about a Rockland County family charged with keeping their son’s wife as a slave, check out her exclusive interview with the victim in the case that ran in Sunday’s editions. Two of the woman’s female relatives (pictured, left) were convicted of labor trafficking and her husband (pictured, left) was found guilty of third degree assault, but her father-in-law was acquitted of all charges that centered on her allegations that she was deceived by an arranged marriage and abused while being forced to serve her husband’s family for five years.

Some highlights of the trial coverage can be found here and here.