Darcel Clark

Darcel D. Clark
Bronx County District Attorney
Assumed office
January 1, 2016
Preceded by Robert T. Johnson
Personal details
Born 1962
New York City, New York
Political party Democratic Party
Spouse(s) Detective Ray Davis
Residence The Bronx, New York
Alma mater Boston College (B.A.)
Howard University (J.D.)

Darcel Denise Clark (born 1962) is a New York attorney and prosecutor who currently serves as the Bronx County District Attorney, serving since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office, and the first female of color to serve as a district attorney in the history of the State of New York.[1]

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

Clark is a native of the Bronx. In her early life, she lived in the Soundview Houses in the South Bronx. Her parents, Daniel and Viola, were both community-oriented people. Her father, a grounds supervisor, worked hard to provide for the family. Her mother, a nurse, was a member of the tenant patrol, which was formed in 1975, to keep neighbors and their children safe.[2] She 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.[2]

She attended Boston College, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor's of Arts. She then attended law school at Howard University, graduating in 1986.[2]

Clark is married to First Grade Detective Eaton "Ray" Davis, a 32-year veteran of the New York City Police Department and graduate of John Jay College of the City University of New York.

Early career and member of the judiciary

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5] Regardless, Clark easily defeated her Republican opponent, Robert Siano, in the November 2015 general election, garnering 86.64% of the vote.[6][7]

As district attorney, Clark has vowed to implement reforms to address wrongful conviction, administrative backlogs, and problems surrounding Rikers Island,[8] among others.[9]

In March 2016, Clark faced criticism over an initial decision to bring felony charges against a woman, Candie Hailie, for breaking a chair while jailed and awaiting trial at Rikers Island, the main jail for New York City. Hailie had spent three years at Rikers, and two of those were in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is considered a form of torture by the United Nations, and the U.N. has called for banning it in most cases.[10] Hailie was acquitted of the original charges that brought her to Rikers Island and was released in the spring of 2015. Near the end of March 2016, Judge William Mogulescu brokered a deal where, Hailey, 32, agreed to plead guilty to four counts of disorderly conduct, a non-criminal violation, in exchange for prosecutors dismissing a felony and three misdemeanors related to Hailie's tumultuous time behind bars.[11] The case was reported by multiple news agencies, and it was claimed that Clark's decisions in this case were at odds with campaign promises she made when running for district attorney.[12]

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 form the District Attorney's Office years prior after falsely 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.[13] 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.[14][15] Another federal lawsuit claimed that Clark demanded the resignation of a disabled prosecutor after she requested handicap access to accommodate her wheelchair.[16] Court filings in the conviction integrity investigation surrounding the murder conviction of Calvin Buari revealed that investigators acting on behalf of the Bronx District Attorney's Office sought to bribe and threaten a witness who exculpated the wrongly accused and imprisoned defendant, ultimately silencing this witness.[17] The Jay-Z produced documentary TIME: The Kalief Browder Story ran on Spike TV in the spring of 2017, detailing the prominent role Clark played as the judge overseeing Kalief Browder's case, immediately prior to her assuming the Office of the District Attorney, keeping this indigent juvenile incarcerated for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack and in solitary confinement long after the Bronx District Attorney's Office lost their only witness and even after Kalief Browder was beaten by prison guards and attempted suicide.

References

  1. ↑ "Darcel Clark makes history as first African-American woman elected DA in New York State". Amsterdam News. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  2. 1 2 3 "Giving Up the Bench in Hopes of Bringing Justice to the Bronx". New York Times. 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  3. ↑ "'Daughter of the Bronx' Sketches Priorities for DA's Office". New York Law Journal. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  4. ↑ "Darcel Clark Becomes First Female DA in History of Bronx". NY1. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  5. ↑ Pastor, Kate (2015-10-02). "Bronx District Attorney Candidate Defends Her Nomination by Democratic Leaders". New York Times. p. A24. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  6. ↑ "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.
  7. ↑ "Darcel Clark declared winner in Bronx DA race". News 12 The Bronx. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  8. ↑ Hu, Winnie (March 5, 2016). "Rikers Island Cases Are Focus for New Bronx District Attorney". New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "D.A. Hopeful Darcel Clark Vows to Speed Up Office With CompStat-Style System". DNAinfo. 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  10. ↑ "Solitary confinement should be banned in most cases, U.N. expert says". United Nations News Centre. United Nations. October 18, 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  11. ↑ Pearson, Jake; Lynch, Alex. "Freed after years in solitary, woman faces jailhouse charges". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Cush, Andy. "Woman Could Go to Jail for Something She Did While in Jail for Something She Didn't Do". Gawker. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Gonen, Yoav; Fenton, Reuven; Sheehy, Kate (2016-05-11). "Bronx DA ignores scandals, gives pals plum promotions". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  14. ↑ Whitehouse, Kaja (2017-05-01). "Bronx DA retaliating against cop for writing ticket to council pol: suit". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  15. ↑ "http://www.thesandersfirmpc.com/nypd-cop-bronx-da-retaliating-against-me-for-exposing-corruption/". www.thesandersfirmpc.com. Retrieved 2017-05-20. External link in |title= (help)
  16. ↑ "Lawyer in Wheelchair Sues Bronx DA's Office for Discrimination". DNAinfo New York. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  17. ↑ "A Man Is Being Freed From Prison After A BuzzFeed News Story Convinced Witnesses To Come Forward". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Robert T. Johnson		 Bronx County District Attorney
2016–present 		Incumbent
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