Republican Kate Murray’s lack of criminal law experience was pushed further to the forefront in the Nassau County district attorney’s race this week
In an editorial published Monday, the New York Daily News said she is “clueless” on many important criminal procedure issues and “utterly unprepared” for the DA position.
Democrat Madeline Singas has similarly cast Murray as inexperienced and unprepared, but the Hempstead town supervisor said she and the acting DA just have a “fundamentally different view” of the office’s role.
“The district attorney is the leader, is the visionary for the department,” Murray said in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media. “He or she sets the priorities, sets where the resources are going to go, what the prosecutions are going to focus on.”
Murray has a law degree from Suffolk University in Boston and tried civil cases as an assistant state attorney general, but admits she is not a prosecutor.
While Murray was reluctant to respond to the Daily News’ specific points, she said she would be an effective leader in the DA’s office — something she thinks Singas has failed to do.
“I am (qualified) with a good staff around me,” said Murray, who touted her time crafting statutes on the state Assembly’s codes committee as relevant experience.
Murray’s top priority as DA, she said, would be tackling heroin in the county, where fatalities related to the drug jumped from 18 to 36 in the past year.
At the root of the issue, Murray said, are drug dealers who often avoid punishment in diversion courts meant to help addicts get treatment rather than jail time.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are supposed to give input when judges decide whether to send drug defendants into the diversion court, Murray said.
But Singas has not let her prosecutors weigh in, she said, allowing many dealers to go back out on the street with “slaps on the wrist.”
“Silence says a lot to a court,” Murray said. “It says they (prosecutors) don’t have any kind of overwhelming opinion.”
As DA, Murray would be more stringent when accused dealers try to get into the diversion program, she said.
She would also continue supporting the Nassau County Police Department’s newly created heroin task force, which she called for last month.
The initiative moves eight detectives into the department’s narcotics unit in an effort to more aggressively target dealers.
While the county has had a Heroin Prevention Task Force since 2011 — which Singas and County Executive Edward Mangano co-chair — Murray said its size and broad focus can make it “nebulous.”
The police task force, on the other hand, represents concrete and much-needed steps by law enforcement to tackle heroin, Murray said.
“Should more resources, more detectives, more police officers put on this issue earlier? Absolutely, that could have helped,” she said. “I’m glad they have now started their task force, because the bottom line is, they need it.”
Murray has endorsements from every Long Island police union, but she said that will not prevent her from investigating and prosecuting cops’ “suspicious activity.”
At the same time, she said, the DA’s office needs to have a good working relationship with police officers.
Murray said she doubts Singas would be able to foster one, given her prioritization of prosecuting bad cops in campaign literature
“If the police and the district attorney’s office are not working well, I don’t know how you can have effective prosecutions,” she said.
While heroin is Murray’s top issue, a Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll released Oct. 4 said voters ranked it second to political corruption.
Murray’s Republican party has faced several corruption allegations this year, with state Sen. Dean Skelos’ (R-Rockville Centre) indictment on federal corruption charges and reports of Mangano and his family accepting vacations from restaurateur Harendra Singh.
But Murray said the Nassau DA’s office has been “strangely silent” on public corruption, which she thinks raises questions about Singas’ willingness to investigate and prosecute it.
She said Singas’ failure to take action after the DA’s office “stonewalled” Oyster Bay constable Chris Briggs, who brought investigators documents proving Mangano’s entanglement with Singh, shows she cannot be relied on to investigate corrupt officials.
Murray touted her actions to get Mark Bonilla, Hempstead’s former town clerk, removed office following allegations of sexual harassment.
“You can’t just take the kudos of leadership,” she said. “You have to take the burdens of leadership as well.”
A Newsday article about Briggs’ whistleblowing says he spoke with three investigators in the DA’s office in 2013, but did not say Singas was directly connected with the incident.
The DA’s office has no record of complaints about gifts Mangano allegedly received, spokesman Brendan Brosh said.
