THE ELUSIVE JOE HYNES Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes had been booked as a guest on Brooklyn Community Access Television's "Reporters' Roundtable" a couple of weeks in advance when, four days before the taping, he asked who else would be on the panel. The show's producer shared the list of reporters, which included yours truly. One hour later, Hynes canceled, claiming he had a "scheduling conflict."

There are only three possible scenarios to explain this:

1. A scheduling conflict really did develop within 60 minutes of Hynes' seeing our name on the list.

2. The scheduling conflict existed beforehand, but Hynes didn't realize it until, coincidentally, he saw our name on the list.

3. Hynes saw our name on the list and promptly fabricated a scheduling conflict.

Our money's on Number 3. But if you chose Number 1 or Number 2, and would like to buy a century-old bridge on the cheap, please meet us at Tillary Street and Boerum Place at your earliest convenience. Why would Hynes duck a part-time political columnist from a little old community newspaper? Well, on several occasions this column has reported stories not very favorable to Hynes.

For example, we detailed how Hynes had pursued and obtained convictions and long prison sentences for innocent men. We printed that he'd fired dozens of young prosecutors without notice because of budget shortfalls partially of his own creation. We reported that the Daily News had taken Hynes to task for blowing lots of money on social programs and other expenses peripheral to crime-fighting, and for improperly spending money seized from drug dealers on operating expenses. (On that occasion, we actually defended Hynes.) And finally, we've made numerous mentions of Hynes's heavy-handed prosecution of a failed political candidate named John Kennedy O'Hara (more on that below). So Hynes perhaps doesn't like us. Is that any reason to cancel an appearance, leaving BCAT just one business day to find a replacement guest?

But the show's producer shouldn't have been surprised. The moment he told us Hynes was the scheduled guest for the April 7 taping, we predicted the district attorney would bag it once he saw we were on the panel. We even suggested the producer clear it with Hynes, and replace us with another reporter if necessary. But the producer is new to the show and new to Brooklyn. Chances are he didn't think a district attorney responsible for a metropolis of 2.5 million people could be so petty. Chances are he was wrong.

O'HARA'S EPITATH Erstwhile political candidate John Kennedy O'Hara, whose dogged prosecution by Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes brought O'Hara more good publicity than he ever received running for office, may have lost the appeal of his conviction, but you haven't heard the last of him. O'Hara's sordid story is being written up by Harper's Magazine, which has given the assignment to Park Slope writer Christopher Ketcham (son of downtown Brooklyn traffic expert Brian Ketcham).

The latest and perhaps final twist to the tale is that O'Hara lost his habeas corpus appeal when federal Judge John Gleeson reviewed the case and found the 61st Street resident guilty as charged. So O'Hara's felony convictions for illegal voting and illegal registration stand, his law license will not be restored, and he will not get his $20,000 fine back.

The case was a classic Pyrrhic victory for Hynes, who was ridiculed in the press for spending seven years and probably millions of dollars prosecuting a man who posed no threat to anyone. Was it selective prosecution? Consider that of the thousands of New York voters registered at addresses where they no longer reside, only O'Hara has been charged.

So why did O'Hara lose? Because he was guilty. Hynes's investigators showed rather convincingly that the 47th Street address where O'Hara claimed to live was uninhabitable, and that O'Hara did little besides redirect a little mail there and occasionally collect it. O'Hara's miscalculation was probably sticking to his claim that he'd moved to 47th Street. He should have simply admitted he was only trying to do the minimum necessary to register there under the state's vague voting law. Such an admission would have enhanced O'Hara's credibility and turn the focus to his other arguments, which were stronger.

O'Hara met the Harper's writer for drinks on, appropriately enough, April Fool's Day. We can only hope O'Hara imbibed enough to give an entirely forthright account of what happened. Ketcham is also trying to solve the mystery of why Hynes went to such lengths to nail O'Hara. It's widely suspected that the D.A. took the case on the request of Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who grew to dislike O'Hara during the early to mid 1990s.

But Hynes and Brennan are not political allies, so we can only guess that Hynes handled the case as a professional courtesy to his fellow elected official. We imagine that Hynes's Irish pride then took over and he became more and more determined not to lose a cat fight to O'Hara. That seems a more plausible explanation than a vendetta by Brennan. At the time O'Hara's case went to trial, Brennan was less threatened by O'Hara than he was amused by his embarrassing political failings. O'Hara began the 1990s as an outside shot to win a seat, but his vote totals declined with each election. By mid-decade, he couldn't even recruit enough signature collectors to get him on a ballot, though we recall him trying in 1994 (from his "new" address).

Yet somehow he made Hynes's "most wanted" list. We hope to some day figure out why.

WHOA, NELLIE Former State Senator Nellie Santiago, one of the few incumbent Brooklyn legislators to lose a reelection bid in the last quarter century, will try to avenge her defeat by Marty Malave Dilan by ousting his son, City Councilman Erik Dilan, in the September 9 Democratic primary. Santiago, who'd been rumored to be interested in the race, announced her plans at a City Hill press conference. And here's a shock: neither this columnist nor political gadfly Maurice Gumbs was invited. Gumbs may have cost Santiago her race last year by distributing in her district 20,000 copies of his homespun newsletter "Footnotes," which included an article about Gumbs's unannounced visit to Santiago's registered voting address in Bushwick, where he found no evidence of the senator.

The election proved extremely close. If Gumbs's reporting (which was recounted in this space) swung even 150 voters, then it made the difference in giving the election to Dilan. Santiago's loss was cheered by Assemblyman Vito Lopez and Rep. Ed Towns, who figure to work feverishly behind the scenes this summer to make sure history repeats itself. Crain's political columnist Philip Lentz continues to report that Rep. Nydia Velazquez is behind Santiago, but the last time we asked her about that, Santiago's spokeswoman delivered an answer bereft of Santiago's name. Santiago will need stronger backing than that if she hopes to return to the winner's circle.

YASSKY FLASHES HUMOR: City Councilman David Yassky is not particularly known for his humor, but he was briefly Letterman-esque during a recent hearing with Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty. Yassky was grilling Doherty and finding him unpersuasive that canceling the metal-and-glass recycling program had saved anywhere near the predicted $50 million, when a class of children led by schools Chancellor Joel Klein entered the chamber.

Pausing to welcome the children, Yassky added, "I do have to caution them that they should not take their lessons in math from the Department of Sanitation."

QUESTIONS SURFACE ABOUT REPAVING The mystery of the week in Park Slope was why the city felt compelled to resurface 8th Avenue, which local observers agreed was in fairly good condition and certainly smoother than many other streets. Yet there were the Department of Transportation's contractors, ripping the pavement from a long stretch of the avenue so new asphalt could be laid. You'd never know there was a fiscal crisis.

The project was accompanied by the usual traffic, towing, noise, and other inconveniences, causing us to speculate that the city could pay for resurfacing work simply by handing out honking summonses to the frustrated, thoughtless drivers that get delayed by it. Alas, Park Slope isn't one of the noise-crackdown zones designated by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, though he might reconsider the omission upon walking through the neighborhood at rush hour.

VITO LOATHED BY NY PRESS In a write-up more vicious than humorous, the New York Press included Rep. Vito Fossella as one of its 50th most loathsome New Yorkers. Fossella was ranked 45th. Only one other politician, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver of Manhattan, made the list.

Fossella's office took his inclusion on the Loathsome List in good humor. "Quite frankly, I was surprised he didn't rank higher," said Fossella's spokesman, Craig Donner. "His wife was kind of upset because she had him ranked seventh and his parents had him number three." Donner added, "The big question we're asking is will he need to wear a tuxedo to the awards ceremony."

The congressman, who represents Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend as well as Staten Island, was summed up by the publication thusly: "Vito Fossella: Proving, thankfully, that Staten Island is as close as George Bush gets to having a foothold in New York City. The first prominent area politician to back W's bid for the presidency has the kind of face that you last saw trying to sell you a '97 Altima. When he's not busy at his day job of being a chirping yes-man for the administration, he tackles such important issues as stoplight timing and parking-ticket immunity for U.N. diplomats. His ingenious political innovation for 2004: petitioning to have the Yankees and Mets play a regular-season subway series in honor of the Republican convention, to be held here in the summer of 2004."

We've been known to criticize Fossella's right-wing politics, but saying he looks like a used-car salesman strikes even us as tasteless. The "yes-man for the administration" criticism is fair, though. The Republican Fossella perhaps thinks party-line voting is how to get ahead in Congress, but we'd like to see him cut his own path.

BARRON'S BOYCOTT City Councilman Charles Barron doesn't like the idea of young, black Americans being killed in Iraq, which is a fine reason to call for a protest by people of color, who are over-represented in the American military.

"When we have heard that a black woman is a military prisoner and a young brother comes home to Brooklyn in a body bag because of this senseless war, it is time to speak out," Barron said, according to Newsday. "There is nothing patriotic about telling our troops to continue dying and killing. The patriotic thing is to stop the war and bring all of our troops home, black and white." But Barron asked blacks and other minorities to boycott school and work for a day.

There must be better ways to send an anti-war message than by playing hooky or calling in sick, especially since education and jobs are the best ways to keep young people from joining the military. Furthermore, Barron and friends called for the April 4 boycott just two days in advance, ensuring that compliance would be minimal. That's good, we suppose, because Barron's focus should be on keeping his Canarsie and East New York constituents in school or at their jobs, not the opposite.

DAY CARE SLOTS PAID FOR, BUT UNUSED The city pays $17.3 million annually for empty day care slots, even though thousands of children are waiting for them, Bedford-Stuyvesant's Billy Thompson, the city comptroller, has found. Brooklyn has a longer waiting list (about 6,700 kids) and more vacant slots (830) than any other boroughs, Thompson's auditors found.

Why? In part because the city doesn't let its day care centers review the eligibility of children on its waiting list until a slot opens up. So the slot remains open until the review can be completed. Also, understaffing at centers and at the city's Agency for Child Development delays these eligibility reviews.

Hence, at any time thousands of slots are unfilled. Yet the city pays for them anyway, because the day care centers are paid based on their capacity, not their enrollment.

Borough Politics Archive

2002
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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