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Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg directed ADAs to not seek prison sentences for many criminals and to downgrade some felonies to misdemeanors in a “Day One” memo. The number of prosecutors fleeing the city’s district attorneys offices has spiraled in the wake of criminal justice reforms that have created what one ex-top prosecutor called “insanity.”
Sixty five assistant district attorneys, or about 12 percent of the staff, have resigned so far this year from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office, up from about 44 through the end of March. During all of 2021, 97 ADAs quit.
The situation is nearly the same in the office of Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez, where 67 of some 500 prosecutors, or about 13 percent, have also called it quits as of June 17. Another three resigned on Thursday, according to a source. That is compared to 84 who left in all of 2020 and 94 last year.
In the Bronx, 59 prosecutors have walked from January through May. Reps from the Queens and Staten Island DA offices did not respond to requests for data.
When Bragg took the helm of the Manhattan office in January, at least nine lawyers quit in the first two weeks, The Post revealed.
Some were spurred to leave, sources said, by Bragg’s soft-on-crime approach which he outlined in a “Day One” memo directing ADAs to not seek prison sentences for many criminals and to downgrade some felonies to misdemeanors.
But sources said state criminal justice reforms are now playing a greater role in pushing out staffers. Joan Illuzzi-Orbon is now a fellow with the Manhattan Institute. New discovery requirements adopted by the state in 2019 are forcing lawyers to turn over reams of material to the defense and to do so under time constraints.
“It’s crippling. It’s crippling our lawyers,” said Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, a former veteran […]
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