CARMEL – Sweeping reforms were enacted to New York’s criminal justice statutes during the 2019 state legislative session with several changes pertaining to discovery and bail.
During its organizational meeting Wednesday evening, the GOP-controlled Carmel Town Board charged current legislation approved by the Democratic majority in Albany was “overly broad and vague resulting in unintended consequences at the municipal level.”
By a unanimous vote, the board passed a resolution claiming that the “dramatically shortened time period in which prosecutors must disclose evidence to defendants and the broad expansion of the matters to which such discovery mandates apply has had significant cost, tax and justice implications for cities and villages with police departments, local justice courts and code/parking enforcement departments.”
Supervisor Michael Cazzari and Councilmen Frank Lombardi, Robert Kearns, Michael Lugo and Robert Schanil added that cities, towns and villages have not realized savings from the bail reform’s reduction of the burden on county jails while law abiding citizens of the Town of Carmel have been less safe in their own communities due to these bail reform measures.
The town board demanded that the state ensure that cities and villages are provided with additional financial and operational support to offset the cost of the mandated measures by allowing 60 days for prosecutors to disclose evidence to the defense for criminal charges while excluding from the accelerated discovery requirements any charge not involving a misdemeanor or felony.
The resolution also called on Albany to allow prosecutors to withhold sensitive information, such as victim contact information, without having to obtain a court order while affording judges the discretion to order pre-trial detention by amendment of the bail reform measures that the town council alleged have “put citizens of the State of New York at risk.”
Comments