Keynote: USA – Domestic Violence Bureau – The Brooklyn Experience – District Attorney Hynes and Ms Wanda Lucibello

In 1990, when Charles J. Hynes became District Attorney (DA) of Brooklyn, New York, the prevailing view among the police, the public in general -- and even some prosecutors -- was that victims of domestic violence were undeserving of sympathy and help, a view that stemmed from a wide-spread belief that such victims were themselves blameworthy for the abuse they suffered. DA Hynes, himself a child victim of domestic violence, immediately vowed to change that callous attitude. In the ensuing eighteen years, he has dramatically altered the public perception of domestic violence, has strengthened the mechanisms for prosecuting its perpetrators, and has opened many avenues for supporting and protecting its victims.

The presentation will cover: the establishment of a DA Hynes’s Domestic Violence Bureau for the prosecution of such cases, one of the first of its kind in the United States to be created in a large urban district attorney’s office; the setting up in 1995 of specialized courts in Brooklyn to deal exclusively with domestic violence prosecutions; the close co-operation of the DA’s Office with law enforcement to ensure that these cases were prosecuted as aggressively as possible, even when victims were afraid or reluctant to face their abusers in court.

However, DA Hynes recognized that criminal justice initiatives were only a partial answer to the plight of victims of domestic violence who usually faced a panoply of other problems related to child custody, immigration, and the like. That awareness spawned collaborations with many community-based organizations throughout the five boroughs of New York City. He has championed the effort to obtain a grant from the United States Department of Justice resulting in the establishment of the Brooklyn Family Justice Center to which victims of domestic violence have come to meet with prosecutors, counselors, and many other professionals, knowing that their needs will be addressed globally, rather than in a piecemeal fashion. Nevertheless, going forward, much important work remains to be done.

Downloads
Powerpoint Presentation

VIDEO

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Charles Joseph Hynes
On November 7, 2005, Charles J. Hynes was re-elected to his fifth term as the District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn), New York; he was sworn into office on January 10, 2006. The District Attorney began his career in public service in 1963 as an associate attorney for the Legal Aid Society. In 1969, he joined the Kings County District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney. In 1971, he was named Chief of the Rackets Bureau and in 1973 he was promoted to First Assistant District Attorney. There followed appointments as Special State Prosecutor to investigate nursing home fraud and Fire Commissioner of New York City; after two years in that post he left public service for private practice. He returned to public service in 1985, appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo as a Special State Prosecutor for the New York City Criminal Justice System. DA. Hynes is now spearheading a groundbreaking alternative-to-prison program for mothers and their children through a not-for-profit foundation named in honor of his mother, Regina Drew.

Wanda Lucibello
Wanda Lucibello is the Chief of the Special Victimes Division in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. She has conducted training programs for police, prosecutors and service providers in the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence cases in conjunction with the National College of District Attorneys and the New York Prosecutors Training Institute. Wanda spent several weeks in 1998 and 2000 in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa; and in 2008 in the Caribbean, and Central America where she worked with prosecutors and women's groups on new legislative initiatives in family violence. Wanda helped to develop a training curriculum for the National Institute on the Prosecution of Domestic Violence in conjunction with the Office on Violence Against Women and the American Prosecutors Research Institute.