No wonder the Bronx is burning.
The borough’s woke District Attorney Darcel Clark has the worst conviction and dismissal rates in nearly every major crime category in New York City over the past half-decade.
Clark, 61, also turned down more attempted murder and sex-assault arrests over the last five years than every other prosecutor in the city combined, according to data from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
She declined to prosecute at least 101 attempted-murder arrests of varying degrees since 2018, while the other four district attorneys refused to take a total of 80 attempted homicide arrests among them.
Queens was second behind the Bronx, with 37, according to state data.
The Bronx prosecutor also rejected 172 rape and 51 sex-abuse arrests of varying degrees during that time period — more than the 166 alleged rapes and equal to the 51 abuse arrests declined in the four other boroughs combined.
Meanwhile, Clark has the ignominious distinction of being the prosecutor with the lowest conviction rate for first and second-degree murder arrests, as well as attempted murder, since 2018, according to state data on closed cases.
Clark’s office has secured guilty verdicts in just 60% of murder arrests by law enforcement, compared to 62% in Brooklyn, 66% in both Queens and Staten Island, and 76% in Manhattan, according to the data.
The Bronx District Attorney was only able to secure convictions in 39% of attempted murder arrests since 2018 that have so far been closed, compared to 54% in Brooklyn, 61% in Manhattan and Queens, and 65% in Staten Island, the data.
“I’ve had a number of cases dismissed in Bronx County based on a confluence of events, none of which involved the merits of the case,” criminal defense lawyer Todd Spodek told The Post. “They were dismissed based on prosecutors being unable to file certificates of compliance on time, based on prosecutors having uncooperative witnesses. It’s never one thing, it’s always a lot of things combined.”
Spodek added that the issue has been worsened by the fraught relationship between the community and police.
“The Bronx has a population inherently suspect of police, who know people firsthand who have been victimized by police, and that’s going to play a role,” he said.
Clark’s office considers its conviction rate much higher than state data indicates — 90% for first-degree murder and 73% for second-degree murder.
That’s because it uses a different definition of an arrest than the state, which considers it to be when someone is collared and fingerprinted by cops.
The Bronx District Attorney begins tracking cases once they are formally charged in court in an arraignment — not arrested by police.
“We dismiss cases or decline prosecutions in situations where there is not enough evidence to sustain charges, a critical witness refuses to participate in the process, or new evidence comes to light,” Patrice O’Shaughnessy, a spokesperson for Clark’s office said. “It is ultimately a case-by-case exercise of justice, fairness, and integrity.”
Late last month, Clark told the City Council that 2019 discovery reforms — which she backed at the time — were in part to blame for high dismissal rates in her office.
But data shows that she won convictions in less than a combined quarter of 2018 murder and attempted murder arrests by her office in that year before the new laws went into effect.
“That’s the problem with all progressive prosecutors … they are backing and advocating for all these social justice initiatives and they’re using them as a scapegoat to not do their jobs,” Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Rights NY, told The Post.
“What people don’t realize is there’s a correlation between conviction numbers, dismissal numbers, and the amount of cold-blooded killers walking amongst us,” Harrison said. “That’s why people don’t feel safe working in a bodega or walking down the streets in the Bronx.”
Rape and attempted rape arrests in the Bronx since 2018 led to convictions in only 26% of cases — less than half of the rate in Queens and Staten Island, where 60% resulted in guilty verdicts, according to state data.
The data does not include pending cases that have yet to be adjudicated.
“This issue is beyond party or ideology,” Tess Cohen, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor in New York’s Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor who is running to unseat Clark for Bronx DA, told The Post. “No matter who you are, New Yorkers believe that anyone committing murder, rape, and sexual assault must be held accountable. There are many reasons to disagree with DA Clark, on a number of issues and on her approach, but this is beyond unacceptable.”
The half-decade of prosecutorial shortcomings culminated in a mutiny within Clark’s office last year that was capped off with threats of a “GREAT RESIGNATION” by an anonymous group of rank-and-file assistant district attorneys.
Clark told the Council last month that she lost 79 attorneys since July 2022 and 152 attorneys in the previous fiscal year — which she called “another collateral impact of the expanded discovery obligation.”
Clark — who heralded the reforms as necessary in 2019 — reportedly joined other city district attorneys to push the state legislature to roll back the changes, which were enacted after Bronx teenager Kalief Browder killed himself in June 2015 after languishing on Rikers Island for three years without a trial for allegedly stealing a backpack in May 2010.
Clark, who presided over Browder’s case as a judge before becoming the Bronx’s top prosecutor, has since faced backlash for backpedaling on her push for progressive reforms in early 2019 in the lead-up to her reelection that November.
“Darcel Clark was the judge that made sure my brother, Kalief Browder, was locked on Rikers Island with unaffordable bail for three years without a trial and without seeing the evidence in his case,” said Akeem Browder, Kalief’s brother.
Other troubling cases on her resume include:
- The murder case against Steven Mendez, an alleged gang member who was 17 when he was accused of gunning down Saikou Koma, a 21-year-old college student, in Fordham Heights in October 2021. Mendez and other alleged gang members had reportedly been seeking payback for a beating one of their members suffered earlier that month. Mendez allegedly shot Koma in the head in what police sources believed at the time to be a case of mistaken identity. The murder case against Mendez was tossed on a “technicality” in April 2022 after Clark’s office presented “improper” and “problematic” testimony from a pair of detectives before a grand jury. “Technicality?! That is crazy!” Koma’s mother Haja Kaira told The Post after the ruling. “This just hurts us more.” The Bronx district attorney re-presented their case to a grand jury after the decision and charges were taken back up against him.
- The Bronx district attorney was unable to get a conviction in the high-profile murder of a teen gunned down at a Sweet 16 birthday party in December 2017. Kameron Wallace, 19, was arrested in January 2018 and charged with the murder of 16-year-old Sincear Williams outside Maestro’s Catering Hall. Wallace was accused of opening fire after crashing the party. “I literally watched my son die and there was nothing I could do about it,” mom Stephanie Garcia said after her dying son Facetimed her. The case dragged on for years and eventually, Wallace’s fate fell in the hands of a jury, who did not buy the case Clark’s office presented, and acquitted Wallace of all charges in October 2021.
- Clark’s office botched a 43-count rape and sexual abuse case against Rikers Island physician’s assistant Sidney Wilson, who was indicted in April 2017 for allegedly assaulting female inmates seeking medical attention. Clark touted the indictment in a press release, alleging Wilson offered fast food and gum in exchange for sexual acts from four inmates. The case dragged on for years and crumbled in June 2021, with all charges dismissed. In a statement following the dismissal, a spokesperson from Clark’s office said the case “could not be brought into compliance” with discovery reforms, which require prosecutors to hand over all evidence within 20 to 35 days.
