Decisions in two criminal cases were announced within hours of each other last Thursday that should make us all stop and think about the fairness of our criminal justice system.
The first was the announcement that former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his participation in a bribery and kickback scheme that was part of what prosecutors called a “culture of corruption” at the heart of Long Island’s political machine.
Mangano’s wife, Linda, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for her role.
Prosecutors at the trial showed that from 2010 to 2015 Mangano accepted bribes and kickbacks from a Long Island restaurant owner, Harendra Singh, in exchange for favorable official actions, including steering contracts to Singh and helping him secure about $20 million in loans.
Among the things Singh gave the county executive were a $454,000 “no-show” job for Linda Mangano, free meals and vacations at posh hotels, two luxury chairs, hardwood flooring for the master bedroom in the couple’s Bethpage home and a $7,300 wristwatch for one of their sons.
The 12 years Mangano got was not a light sentence, although prosecutors had recommended 17 years.
“Democracy is a precious thing and crimes such as yours strike at the heart,” U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack said while sentencing the former Republican county executive.
“From the onset of your administration, you defiled your office and the oath you had taken to serve the people of Nassau County,” she told Mangano.
Azrack added: “You have shown no remorse for your actions in the slightest.”
Mangano and his wife, who were arrested in October 2016, were found guilty in March 2019 and sentenced in April 2022.
During that time, he and his wife lived at home and at least during part of that time he worked at Oheka Castle, a high-end hotel and restaurant located in a Gold Coast mansion “resting majestically on the highest point of Long Island” that “emanates the elegant refinement of a chateau in France,” according to its website.
Now compare this with the treatment of Malcolm Griffin, a Roosevelt man arrested in 2019 and charged with the February 2016 shooting of a cab driver who lost an eye in the attack.
Within hours of Mangano’s sentencing, Nassau County prosecutors dropped attempted murder charges against Griffin following “an extensive and thorough review” in conjunction with Nassau County police.
But not before Griffin, who had never been found guilty of any crime, spent two years in jail.
Griffin had been held on $400,000 bond, $250,00 cash bail since a grand jury indictment led to his arrest in December 2019.
Griffin didn’t have the money, personal assets or friends to pay his bail while he awaited trial.
In other words, a person with access to money remained free after he had been convicted of a serious crime and showed no remorse. And a poor person who was innocent in the eyes of the law sat in jail for two years because he didn’t have the money to pay for his freedom.
Griffin’s attorney, Joseph Lo Piccolo of Garden City, raised another serious question about bail laws. He said his client did not have access to the prosecution’s case for the two years following his arrest due to discovery laws.
When he did he get the information as the case was approaching trial, it led to two key witnesses in the case recanting their testimony, Lo Piccolo said.
“Prosecutors did not have to share discovery with the defense or defendant until nearly two years later and he stayed in jail the whole time,” Lo Piccolo said. “Within two weeks, the case was already falling apart.”
Lo Piccolo said an informant gave police false information that claimed he was the lookout for the taxi driver’s robbery by three people, including Griffin. The informant’s girlfriend also corroborated the story, but Lo Piccolo said Griffin was not at the scene of the shooting.
The informant’s account contradicted the cab driver’s story, which said there were only two people involved in the robbery, Lo Piccolo said.
Two other defendants in the case were convicted of attempted murder charges and sentenced to life in prison.
County prosecutors said “upon further investigation, the NCDA determined that a person who allegedly witnessed the incident was deemed to not be truthful. The NCDA immediately brought this to the attention of defense counsel, and the court, and sought to have Mr. Griffin released from jail.”
The investigation into the 2016 shooting, they added, “is ongoing.”
Lo Piccolo said Griffin planned to move to Georgia to live near his mother.
“It’s a tragedy he sat in jail for more than two years and had his lawyer had this information, it could have led to his release,” Lo Piccolo said. “He can finally leave the state to try to rebuild his life.”
The Griffin and Mangano cases are reminiscent of two cases that began the push in 2019 for New York to reform its bail laws.
In one case, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was held for three years in Rikers Island awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a backpack because his family couldn’t afford the $3,000 bail.
The charges were baseless and eventually dropped. But the incarceration – including two years in solitary confinement – left the youth emotionally scarred; two years after his release, he died by suicide.
The other case involved millionaire movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who was arrested on charges of rape and sexual abuse.
Weinstein was freed after posting $1 million bail, and even when the bail was doubled because he mishandled his ankle monitor, Weinstein had the resources to remain free until his conviction.
Those two cases, and the cases of Griffin and Mangano, are yet another reminder of the disparity in the American legal system’s treatment of wealthy and disproportionately minority poor people.
Now, two years after enacting landmark legislation that ended the assessment of cash bail in most cases involving misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, state lawmakers this past week, at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul, approved changes that criminal justice advocates fear might undermine reform but are not enough for those who want bail reform repealed.
Critics blame bail reform for an increase in violent crime.
But no evidence exists to support the claim that New York’s bail reform is responsible for increases in violent crime, which have occurred nationwide, including in jurisdictions without bail reform, during the pandemic.
A recent analysis by the Albany Times Union suggested that relatively few people released under the new law went on to be rearrested for serious offenses.
Reviewing state data on pretrial releases between July 2020 and June 2021, the newspaper found that just 2 percent of 100,000 cases in which someone was released pretrial led to an arrest for a violent felony.
In New York, that is defined as murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, felony gun possession, burglary, kidnapping and most sexual assaults.
There clearly is a large difference between burglary and murder. So it would have been nice to have a breakdown of that 2 percent of cases that resulted in violent felony charges for someone released before trial.
We also should consider what 2 percent means. It means 98 percent of those released did not then commit a violent felony once released.
Bail reforms had released 200,000 people. That would mean 4,000 people committed crimes after release and 196,000 did not.
How many among them were like Malcolm Griffin, who lost two years of his life to prison for something he apparently did not do?
And how many among them were like Mangano and got to spend his time in the lap of luxury after he was convicted of violating the public trust?