Darcel Clark

From The Right Wiki
(Redirected from Darcel D. Clark)
Jump to navigationJump to search
Darcel Clark
File:Darcel Clark.png
District Attorney of Bronx County
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 1, 2016
Preceded byRobert Johnson
Personal details
Born
Darcel Denise Clark

(1962-04-02) April 2, 1962 (age 62)
New York City, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationBoston College (BA)
Howard University (JD)

Darcel Denise Clark (born April 2, 1962)[1] is an American attorney and prosecutor who has served as the Bronx County District Attorney since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office, and the first woman of color to serve as a district attorney in the history of the State of New York.[2] Prior to being elected district attorney, Clark served as a judge on New York City Criminal Court and subsequently on the New York Supreme Court in the Bronx and in that court's Appellate Division.

Early life and education

Clark is a native of the Bronx. She was raised in the Soundview Houses in the South Bronx. Her father, Daniel, was a grounds supervisor and her mother, Viola, was a nurse and a member of the tenant patrol, which was formed in 1975 to keep neighbors and children safe.[3] Clark attended New York City public schools and graduated from Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx. Clark became the first member of her family to attend college.[3] She attended Boston College, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor's of Arts degree. She then attended law school at Howard University, graduating in 1986.[3]

Career

Following law school, Clark returned to the Bronx, where she was hired as an assistant district attorney for Mario Merola, the Bronx County District Attorney at the time, and stayed under her immediate predecessor, Robert Johnson. Clark served as supervisor of the Narcotics Bureau from 1993 to 1997 and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Court bureau from 1997 to 1999.[4] In 1999, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed Clark as a Judge for the Criminal Court for the City of New York, where she served for seven years. In 2006, Clark was elected to the Supreme Court in Bronx County, where she served until Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed her to serve as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division of the First Department of the New York Supreme Court in November 2012.[5]

Bronx County District Attorney

Clark decided to step down from the bench to seek election as the Bronx County District Attorney, following Johnson's decision to step down to seek a judgeship one week after his win in the primary election in September 2015. This sparked controversy, as much of the press perceived Johnson's decision as orchestrated by the Bronx Democratic Party to avoid selecting the next district attorney in the primary.[6] Regardless, Clark easily defeated her Republican opponent, Robert Siano, in the November 2015 general election, garnering 86.64% of the vote.[7][8] She is both the first woman and first African American to hold this position.[9] As district attorney, Clark has vowed to implement reforms to address wrongful conviction, administrative backlogs, and problems surrounding Rikers Island,[10] among others.[11]

Controversy and Criticism

Clark's tenure as District Attorney has been marred by reports of cronyism and misconduct. In May 2016, newspaper accounts revealed Clark to have rehired a friend who had been forced to resign from the District Attorney's Office years prior after impersonating a police officer, breaking a man's nose, and fleeing the scene of a crime in a fit of road rage. Reporting further revealed that Clark gave a prominent promotion and raise to the assistant district attorney responsible for the bungled prosecution of Kalief Browder.[12] A federal civil rights lawsuit alleged that Clark and high-ranking members of her newly formed Public Integrity Bureau sought to harass and intimidate a police officer for issuing a traffic ticket to fellow Democratic party member Vanessa Gibson.[13][14] Clark received further criticism when she reduced the charges against Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old felon and convicted sex offender.  Phu was on lifetime parole for after serving 6 years for attempted robbery in 1991 and raping a 17-year-old girl at gunpoint in 1994.  Phu was designated a Level 3 sex offender, the most dangerous designation under New York State Law. On August 12, 2022, Phu allegedly put on work gloves and, without provocation, brutally assaulted 52 year-old Jesus Cortez with a roundhouse sucker punch to Mr. Cortez' face from behind, so that Mr. Cortez could not see Phu as he initiated the assault. The unprovoked assault, the entirety of which was captured on surveillance video, left Cortez with a skull fracture, broken cheek, and brain bleeding. Cortez required brain surgery and was put in a medically induced coma. Police charged Phu with attempted murder in the second degree, a B-level violent felony offense. Clark subsequently office reduced the charges against Bui to assault and harassment, a misdemeanor and a violation.  While the charges the police filed against Phu, or an assault in the first degree or attempted assault in the first degree charge, would have allowed a court to set bail, the charges Clark filed against Phu are not bail eligible. Accordingly, the judge who oversaw the arraignment of Phu was required to release Phu on his own recognizance.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Appellate Division - First Judicial Department". Archived from the original on 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  2. ↑ "Darcel Clark makes history as first African-American woman elected DA in New York State". Amsterdam News. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Giving Up the Bench in Hopes of Bringing Justice to the Bronx". The New York Times. 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  4. ↑ "'Daughter of the Bronx' Sketches Priorities for DA's Office". New York Law Journal. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  5. ↑ "Darcel Clark Becomes First Female DA in History of Bronx". NY1. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  6. ↑ Pastor, Kate (2015-10-02). "Bronx District Attorney Candidate Defends Her Nomination by Democratic Leaders". The New York Times. p. A24. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  7. ↑ "Statement and Return Report for Certification - General Election 2015 - 11/03/2015 - Bronx County - All Parties and Independent Bodies - District Attorney - Bronx" (PDF). vote.nyc.ny.us/. Board of Elections in the City of New York. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "Darcel Clark declared winner in Bronx DA race". News 12 The Bronx. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  9. ↑ "District Attorney's Biography". Office of the Bronx District Attorney. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  10. ↑ Hu, Winnie (March 5, 2016). "Rikers Island Cases Are Focus for New Bronx District Attorney". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "D.A. Hopeful Darcel Clark Vows to Speed Up Office With CompStat-Style System". DNAinfo. 2015-10-05. Archived from the original on 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  12. ↑ Gonen, Yoav; Fenton, Reuven; Sheehy, Kate (2016-05-11). "Bronx DA ignores scandals, gives pals plum promotions". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  13. ↑ Whitehouse, Kaja (2017-05-01). "Bronx DA retaliating against cop for writing ticket to council pol: suit". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  14. ↑ "NYPD Cop: Bronx DA Retaliating Against Me For Exposing Corruption". www.thesandersfirmpc.com. The Sanders Firm. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  15. ↑ "NYC sucker punch suspect arrested in brutal caught-on-video knockout is a convicted sex offender: Report". Fox News. 18 August 2022.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by District Attorney of Bronx County
2016–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from "https://rightwiki.org/index.php?title=Darcel_Clark&oldid=21331771"