Scotto: Why you Should Vote for Me in Democratic NCDA Primary

Patched asked Nassau County District Attorney Democratic candidate Michael Scotto to submit a Letter to the Editor to explain why residents should vote him to the position.

With Primary Elections taking place on Thursday, any candidate running for an elected position is invited to submit a Letter to the Editor to Patch.

You can read Nassau County District Attorney Democratic candidate Madeline Singas’ letter here.

See Scotto’s letter below:

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To the Editor:

I am running for Nassau County District Attorney because, quite frankly, Nassau County deserves better. I grew up and live in Port Washington with my wife and three children. I know that Nassau isn’t the same safe community that I grew up in and there is no reason it should not be.

I worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for twenty-two years. I started in 1989 at the height of the crack wars and left in 2012 after serving as Chief of the Rackets Bureau. I’ve handled every type of case a prosecutor can bring, including street crime, domestic violence, white collar crime, political corruption, organized crime, tax evasion and even terrorism charges. I’ve lead teams of prosecutors and investigators in long term investigations that took down mafia bosses and corrupt politicians.

In my view the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office is very reactive—from their slow reaction to the heroin epidemic to their late arrival into investigating public corruption in Nassau County after Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn launched their own probes. The only time the DA’s Office has done something is when they’ve read it on the front page of a newspaper or on local cable news. Even then, the DA’s office doesn’t employ the investigative techniques necessary to bring successful, hard hitting cases--you don’t get gun traffickers, you don’t get drug dealers, you don’t get corrupt public officials unless you do wiretaps. The Nassau DA’s Office has done only a handful of wiretaps in the past several years. And when we’ve seen Nassau launch a sting operation it has involved the use of significant resources on insignificant cases—the Flush the John’s prostitution sting and the recent sting involving the arrest of 16 people with selling alcohol to an underage, undercover officer at a nightclub in Atlantic Beach. The job of a District Attorney is to chase and catch criminals, not headlines. As a result, the DA’s office’s efforts fighting violent crime are poor. According to the State Department of Criminal Justice Services, nearly 30 percent of sentences for violent felonies in 2014 resulted in no jail time and the office’s conviction rate has shown a steady decline since 2010. During this time my primary opponent Madeline Singas has either been the Chief Assistant District Attorney or Acting District Attorney—a title she assumed when DA Rice left for Congress.

Although reported crime is down in the areas patrolled by the Nassau County Police Department—large sections of the county not patrolled by the County Police have seen crime rates that rival the worst precincts in New York City. Hempstead’s murder rate last year would have been among the worst in New York State. Last year we lost 174 young people from fatal drug overdoses in Nassau County—a third of what would have been lost if not for the availability of Narcan an overdose antidote. Those 174 deaths were the worst in ten years. A Third of that number involved heroin which is now finding its way into all corners of our county. Drugs and Guns—two items that we do not manufacture in Nassau account for the vast majority of our deaths every year.

As DA my office would focus its efforts on prosecuting violent crime, drug and political corruption cases through to conviction and sentencing. I would work with the 20 different police agencies in Nassau to proactively attack the people who are bringing the drugs in and the people distributing the drugs. We’ve seen too many “mission accomplished” press conferences where street level drug dealers are rounded up and victory is declared.

As DA my assistant D.A.’s would work long term investigations with the police to get at those importing and distributing drugs in the County. We would use these same techniques to attack the plague of political corruption that has permeated every level of government in the County. Nassau County cannot truly be safe until every part of the County is safe. And Nassau County will not be the place I grew up in unless it is safe and the residents know that their public officials are honest and their government transparent. The District Attorney can and must play a primary role in assuring that this is accomplished and in a manner that is fair and evenhanded. Justice must be blind to race, creed, color, economic status, and political affiliation—my District Attorney’s Office will be fair and transparent and above politics. Although I am a registered democrat running in a democratic primary, there is no partisan way to fight crime. There is a smart way and a fair way to fight crime and to run a DA’s Office and I intend to bring my experience working in the best prosecutor’s office in the Country to Nassau County—an office which many of my fellow Nassau County residents feel has not been governed by these principles.

Thank you. I’m happy to expand on any of these areas. Please email or call.

Michael Scotto