Eight months into her first campaign for public office, Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said she is only just now starting to get comfortable with the process.
“The whole thing is unusual,” the Democratic district attorney candidate said in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media Thursday. “It’s a whole different ball game, running for office.”
Singas, of Manhasset, is the former chief assistant to her predecessor, U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), and assumed the district attorney role in January after her former boss was sworn into Congress and Gov. Andrew Cuomo declined to appoint a successor.
Though her sights are set on an Election Day showdown in November with Republican Kate Murray, the Town of Hempstead supervisor, Singas will first have to defeat Port Washington resident Michael A. Scotto in a Sept. 10 primary for the Democratic nomination.
“This is a job that I want, that I feel I’ve worked my entire career towards, and I intend to be doing it past November,” Singas said.
According to 11-day pre-primary campaign finance records filed Wednesday, Singas has a war chest of $807,027.35, with Scotto reporting $12,759.89. Murray had $538,188.19 on hand as of her most recent filing in July.
Born to Greek parents and raised in Astoria, Singas began her career in the Queens District Attorney’s office in 1991 and was eventually promoted to a leadership position in its Domestic Violence bureau.
Rice hired Singas shortly after her election in 2006 to head the DA’s office’s new Special Victims bureau, and Singas in February told Blank Slate Media that cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse have been among the most significant for her throughout her career.
“Kathleen Rice created a legacy I’m proud of, for being tough, aggressive and progressive,” Singas said Thursday.
“People think you can’t be aggressive and progressive, but I think Kathleen showed us that’s not the case,” she added, saying Rice was aggressive on prosecuting violent crime, illegal guns, “career criminals” and gang activity and progressive in collaborating with law enforcement and implementing youth programs.
According to statistics released last week by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s office, major crime — which consists of murder, rape, burglary and robbery — is down 4.8 percent throughout the county in the last year and 30 percent over the last five years.
In his interview with Blank Slate Media in late August, Scotto accused Rice and Singas of running a “reactive” district attorney’s office that would “chase headlines,” saying: “Nothing happens until it’s on the front page of Newsday first.”
Scotto cited figures from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services that said nearly 30 percent of sentences for violent felonies in 2014 resulted in little to no jail time and show a steady decline in its felony conviction rate since 2010.
But Singas said those figures are misleading, adding her office measures success beyond crime statistics that she said can be manipulated to fit any agenda.
“If we get a 16-year-old dismissed and they don’t recidivate, that’s a success for us,” she said.
Curtailing drug trafficking and investigating public corruption would be among the highest priorities for Singas’ district attorney office, she said, having already called for an overhaul of Nassau’s contracting process amid a federal indictment against state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and his son Adam alleging the former Senate majority leader used his political power to attain no-show jobs, county projects, salaries and benefits for his son.
“I’m beholden to no one,” Singas said. “If there’s a crime being committed in the county, I’m going to prosecute it.”
Singas said she is uncertain Murray, also a former assistant attorney general and state assemblywoman, would follow the same standard, considering her standing as a longtime Republican town supervisor and relationships with Mangano and the GOP-controlled county Legislature.
She also said Murray lacks the experience as a prosecutor necessary to leading the district attorney’s office, dismissing Scotto’s theory that Murray would hire a top assistant DA — similar to Rice and Singas’ relationship — who would analyze major decisions but let Murray make the final call.
“You can’t turn to someone underneath you to say should I sign my name to this,” Singas said. “That’s the person who should be running for DA, not you.”
Murray in a statement said she would “investigate all allegations of wrongdoing on the part of public officials,” adding “the only considerations in my office’s investigations will be the facts in each case.”
Singas and Murray were each endorsed by their respective party’s Nassau committees in May and have continued to gain key support in recent weeks.
Murray has been backed by the county’s three police unions, the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, the Suffolk County Superior Officers Association and Suffolk County Detectives Association as well as the mayors of Mineola, Valley Stream and Lynbrook.
Singas, who said she has the backing of several “rank-and-file” law enforcement officers, has been endorsed by North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, state Assemblyman Charles Lavine and Nassau Legislator Judy Jacobs, all major local Democratic figures.
In a general election against Murray, Singas said she’d “appeal to people’s intuitive sense that the person most qualified to do the job should do the job,” adding she’d campaign on the grounds that Murray has never been a prosecutor and has not practiced law in 17 years.
“People have a real statement to make about what kind of district attorney they want to have in Nassau County,” Singas said.
Murray cited her record as Hempstead town supervisor and time as a state assemblywoman, in which she served on the codes committee and supported Megan’s Law and the assault weapons ban, assistant state attorney general and advocate for domestic violence victims with the Suffolk University Battered Women’s Advocacy Project.
“Nassau County needs a proven leader as district attorney, not a lawyer who has never led,” she said.
Nassau County’s Covering-up the truth about Darryl Woody’s (supposed) Suicide. This a “Major Scandal!” Darryl Woody’s death on January 3, 2011, while on 1to1 Suicide Supervision, was caught on Video Surveillance Cameras at NUMC and at the NCCC. This is a homicide that’s being covered-up as a suicide by hanging by hanging. Nassau County’s corrupt Executive Administration, along with key legislators and law-enforcement agencies, including NUMC, is perpetrating a fraud against an innocent mentally-ill [pre-trial] detainee that was begging for his medications when he was brutally attacked by correctional guards that extracted him from his cell for being disruptive. Darryl was denied his medications, abused, neglected, and torture for [seventeen] hours before being transported to NUMC where he was [again] placed on 1to1 Suicide Supervision at NUMC’s Secure Prison Wing for NCCC. Days later, Darryl Woody would be “Found” dead of a (supposed) suicide. His death was caught on Video Surveillance Cameras that was ordered installed by federal mandate, and the DA’s office, to protect the safety and security of correctional-staff and inmates at the jail. These Government Protected Files have been denied to Darryl Woody’s family and legal representatives litigating his wrongful death lawsuit against NUCM and NCCC. This is a “Major Scandal” and Nassau County’s corrupt (federally indicted) Top Executive ‘Boss’ Ed- sticky-fingers -Mangano and his crony appointed cohorts at NUMC and NCCC is in contempt! “What does NCCC/NUMC, and Nassau County’s Executive Administration “have to hide?” “We Can Handle The Truth!” Release The Video(s)! Darryl Woody, like Thomas Pizzuto (1999), was begging for his medications that were being denied to him at NCCC. Thomas Pizzuto’s death in [1999] forced Nassau County’s (then) Top Executive Thomas Gullota to implement and install Video Surveillance Cameras at the jail to aid in investigations; however, Darryl Woody’s [highly] suspicious death, while still on 1to1 Suicide Supervision, won’t get the benefit of this federal mandated reform tool (Cameras Surveillance) to aid in the investigation into his death!. How did Nassau County’s Finest {homicide Squad}, and the [mandatory] federal probe investigators, fail to review, copy, then preserve these government protected (electronic) files that depicts Darryl Woody’s psychiatric care and treatment that caused Darryl’s death on January 3, 2011? The Federal Government is complicit in this cover-up scheme that violates Darryl Woody’s Human and Civil Rights under the Constitution. This is obstruction of justice and Malicious (criminal) tampering/ destruction of government protected (electronic) files_a Felony in New York that carries up to (7) seven years! Where are the federal authorities in this Matter oO Darryl Woody(?) The Feds are in bed with NCCC/NUMC. How did the feds over-look the cameras that the feds ordered (former ) County Executive Thomas Gullota to install for this very purpose_an investigative tool that protects the integrity of an investigation.This is contemptible and criminal! Darryl’s case is talked about frequently by Human and Civil Rights watch groups, but Darryl’s lawsuit does include Civil Rights Violations. This was engineered ‘by design’ by Nassau County’s clandestine regime operating out of Nassau County’s Sheriff’s Department; facilitated by the legislative committees that over-sees the jail. How did the local legislature and the jail Advisory Board over-look the Video Surveillance Cameras Files that the legislature had to vote approval on? The list goes on… This is a “Major Scandal!” Nassau County is violating Darryl Woody’s due process and the Federal Government and Nassau County’s corrupt Supreme Courts are in collusion to protect NCCC from Federal take over for failing to comply with consent decrees. Yes! The Federal Government is allowing Nassau County’s (Shadow) government operatives to skirt the implemented policies that protects the lives of prisoners; most whom are still waiting trial. Government fraud, waste and abuse! “Who’s Fooling Who(?)” Darryl Woody’s death is a homicide caught on [Video Surveillance] and not even the media, that reported on the Video monitors installation, has failed to hold Nassau County accountable for transparency in this matter. The media is aiding and abetting these perpetrators for failing to ask; ‘What About Darryl Woody!” _Why(?) Corporate Media(!)_sell-outs. When is the media going to wake-up to this injustice then “Call Them Out!” “We Can Handle The Truth!” Darryl Woody’s death is not even a federal case.This was engineered by the establishment to keep Darryl Woody’s case out of Federal Courts where he would be given a fair representation of all the evidence. Lying to the feds is a felony. Which leads one to believe that if the feds simply ask jail and hospital officials about the omitted Surveillance Camera files _the Video(s), Complicit public officials would be lining up to clear themselves and point fingers. “Release The Video(s)!” “Now!” ” Ed- sticky-fingers -Mangano’s “Not Going Down Alone!”