By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Tamara and I arrived at the Queens Boulevard Courthouse for our lunch date with the Queens DA, Judge Brown — as he is called by just about everyone who knows him — and were shown to his office by a sergeant from his NYPD team. It had been about a year since I last visited, but the Judge’s inner office looked much the same. A photo collection adorned the walls that led to the inner office — a collection of pictures of Brown and dignitaries — that rivals any in the borough. And inside his office, pictures of his grandchildren, two girls — his pride and joy — who he would be taking to breakfast on Friday morning.

There are the typical lawyer- type books and stuff as well as a collection marking his years as one of the City’s leading jurists and crime fighters: a collection of fire and emergency hats from a variety of locals; a framed platinum record given to him for his work stopping counterfeit music sales; a NY Post front page celebrating his 70th birthday; and a comic book called Mr. District Attorney.

Brown, who was appointed in 1991 by then-Governor Mario Cuomo to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of John Santucci, has been reelcted easily ever since — the last time with all four major party endorsements.

In reaction to our suggestion that the system would serve the people more effectively if there were true competition in elections, Brown responded, “I think it is indicative of the fact that we’re doing a good job. It means that people from all the major parties came to the conclusion that we’re doing what we are supposed to be doing.”

Brown’s reference to, “the four major party endorsements” — Democrat, Republican, Conservative and Liberal — in spite of the fact that the Liberal Party lost its accreditation in the last election and has been below #4 in New York for some time, is illustrative of the long thread of New York political history sewn into the fabric of his office makeup. Brown admits to reading five newspapers every morning and has probably been doing so for his five decades in public service.

Our lunch opened identically to the way it did in 2001. The sandwiches were set around the table for the Judge, his Press Secretary, Pat Clark, Tamara and me.

I sat down and asked with a smile, “Having a good time?”

“I’m having a ball,” he shot back with a bigger smile.

I’ve admired him ever since he left the Appellate Division bench in 1991 to accept the DA appointment. Here I sat with the tough, top law enforcement guy in the borough, but he was filled with compassion and concern.

The Death Penalty

In spite of his position, he has been able to speak out and oppose the death penalty. Even though it runs against his conscience, the DA’s office has sought the death penalty — most recently for John Taylor in the Wendy’s case, the first time the jury system in Queens has decided to take a life since the 1995 reinstatement of capital punishment.

Brown said: “I believe I have an appropriate record in terms of enforcing the [death penalty] law. I do what the law requires me to do . . .  I don’t look at the death penalty as an issue of morality, as far as I personally am concerned . . . It is costly to implement . . . the commitment of time, money and man power necessary for a capital case is enormous and it takes from other cases. But I think what bothers me most is that it offers to the families of the victims and the survivors a false sense of closure. They never get closure and they will not get closure until the time he (referring to Taylor) is executed or the court decides he will not be executed.”

From Brown’s curious collection of memorabilia.

The Wendy’s Case was, “The most important case we have handled in many years . . . It was a major test of New York’s death penalty statute.”

“I lived with the victims’ families for two and a half years now  . . . I promised them I’d give them my best.”

Testing a DA’s moral resolve doesn’t stop with the death penalty.

“How do you feel when you find out that someone has been wrongly convicted,” I asked just moments after the five wrongly convicted youths in Central Park jogger case were set free.

“There’s nothing much you can say, but it’s still the best system in the world. There are so many checks and balances in the system . . . it is a very rare case indeed [when someone is falsely convicted]. I don’t want to go ahead to prosecute a case unless I think it’s justified . . . Everybody’s looking for the truth . . . I can go ahead and look at myself in the mirror in the morning [because I believe] that there are enough checks and balances in the system.”

September 11

Since Sept. 11, the DA’s office has been impacted significantly. Brown started by talking about the budgetary impact: two and a half percent budget cut last December; seven and a half percent this year; and another three and a half expected.

“We are prepared to do more with less.” His fear, however, is that the cuts will impact the significant progress Queens crimefighters have made over the past 10 years.

Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan returned from a Manhattan presentation by Robert Muller – head of the FBI – and pointed out that the concern was for the Police Department and the DA’s office not to be cut disproportionately. Since the DA is the funnel for the work of the cops and the Queens DA has made strides in getting cops back to the streets and not caught up waiting for trial processes, they must remain as effective so as not to negatively impact the police.

Brown also spoke about reallocating resources after Sept. 11.

“You go out on Roosevelt Avenue and you can buy a Social Security card, a driver’s license, a passport.” In three months, the Identity Task Force shut down seven “mills” for phony IDs.

The DA’s office did background checks on “all 40,000 employees at Kennedy and LaGuardia who have access cards to the tarmac” and found a “couple hundred chargeable” for things like outstanding warrants, falsified identifications and concealed arrests.

Brown said he believes it is safe to fly out of Queens airports and “the screening process is adequate.” He spoke  about having to take his own shoes off as he recently passed through security even though he was with a detail of armed officers. He maintained that screeners should not be profiling: “They should be screening everyone . . . the little bit of inconvenience everyone has to put up with is worth it.”  

The DA’s Office

“In the 90s, we attacked violent crime . . . We had to go after auto theft and organized crime,” Brown explained. Now resources are moving and the office is spending “a great deal of time on insurance fraud and identity theft.”

“It has always been my opinion that banking and credit card [companies] are not committing enough of [their] resources to the law enforcement side and too much to the marketing [of credit cards].”

His staff includes 300 Assistant District Attorneys (ADA’s); an NYPD Squad of 30 people; and a State Police Unit – seven full-time Troopers.

They handle 60,000 arrest cases a year. Their in-take bureau works from 6 a.m. to 1 or 2 in the morning. 

“We do very well on the disposition of our cases,” Brown observed.

“If you are indicted by the grand jury here [in Queens], you plead guilty to the top count or you go to trial. We don’t plea bargain.”

When we started talking stats, Jimmy Quinn, executive assistant DA for Trials, joined us. Coincidentally, the Judge explained, it was Jimmy’s 25th Anniversary in the Queens DA office.

Jimmy beamed with pride as he ran through the numbers and shared a borough comparison printout of felony arrests, indictments, convictions and prison sentences. The info is clear; the Queens DA’s office shines . . . as does Dick Brown and his impressive team.

The office has changed under Brown. They have a “misdemeanor recidivist program” to identify and target repeat offenders, A Domestic Violence Unit, a 24-hour hotline that processes police activity information as it is received. They have relied heavily on computers and technology to make their performance more effective.

“At the end of any given day we will know that any one of our cases is taken care of,” Brown explained.

They have their own version of the Police Department’s COMPSTAT program, and Brown meets three mornings a week at 8 and 9 a.m. with different bureaus to discuss “pending cases; what they are doing; they brief me so I can know what’s going on.”

Going to the crime scene is part of the job. “I’m not hearing [the details] cold around this table . . . It helps me in terms of understanding that case.”  

Brown’s Future

“I enjoy the job immensely. I’m very proud of [the work the office does],” the Judge emphasized.

As he begins his campaign for reelection in 2003 for another four years, he insists he’ll keep running, “As long as I am satisfied that we are running one of the best prosecutor’s offices in the State.”

Then with a bit of whimsy, he pointed to Bob Morgenthau, his colleague from Manhattan and acknowledged with a smile Morgy’s 28 years in office — and he’s still going — as a record worth shooting for.

Dick Brown sat back smiled and took a moment to reflect about the DA’s office and said, “It has been extraordinarily good to me.”

As one, not-so-impartial observer, I observe, he’s been extraordinarily good for it.

— Column contributor: Tamara Hartman