Brooklyn Lawmaker Sounds the Alarm on New Bail Reform

Brooklyn – A Brooklyn councilman is warning that a new bail reform law going into effect next week will bring more crime and lead to thousands of criminals out in the streets.

Councilman Chaim Deutsch, a Democrat from Midwood, is urging residents to join a letter he drafted to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, expressing concern over what the future will bring.

The new law, passed in the state budget this past April and signed by Cuomo, has two parts. One component eliminates judges’ discretion to demand that those charged post bail before being released. The other allows every defendant access to all information related to his case, regardless of the threat it poses to the victim.

In the case of bail reform, the list of crimes for which judges can no longer order bail and must release the suspect is lengthy. These include assaulting someone as a hate crime, stalking, criminally negligent homicide and even bail jumping. The law specifically demands that the judge must release the defendant without bail, “regardless of criminal record, ties to the community or previous bench warrants on other cases.”

The second part of the law deals with what is known as discovery. Currently, a defense attorney who represents a felon is permitted to request all documents and information in the possession of the prosecutor relevant to the case. This includes witness and victim statements, grand jury minutes, and other evidence (e.g. DNA tests). This information is in order to aid the accused in mounting a defense. Discovery is usually turned over once a trial date is set, which only occurs in about 3 percent of all cases.

The new law will now require the prosecution to automatically turn over discovery within 15 days of arraignment. This means that even in cases where there is no trial, the defendant will have access to witness information and statements, and other documents that would otherwise not be released. He will even be able to force the victim to allow him access to their house if that’s where the crime was committed.
“This is the new world we live in here in New York City,” Deutsch said, “and it’s frightening.”

He noted the case of Peter Weyand, a 33-year-old who was released from custody without bail after menacing a roommate with a knife two weeks ago. Early Friday morning he entered Yeshva University’s girls’ dormitory building and set a series of fires in the rooms as students slept. He was charged and immediately released, again without bail. He was arrested hours later after he broke into someone’s house in Staten Island. He was booked and, again, released without bail.

“Rising hate crimes, prolific drug usage, and frequent news of violent attacks, such as the murder of young Tessa Majors just this month,” Deutsch writes in his letter to Cuomo, “leave us wondering why you have chosen to implement vast changes in the way our state approaches suspects in criminal activity.”

“With these changes, along with the rise in crime and bias incidents and the closing of Rikers Island,” he added, “we are deeply worried for the future of this great city. We don’t want to see our streets turn back in time, to the dangerous days of the 1980s.”