Day: February 26, 2025

Alex Spiro, Mayor Eric Adams‘ criminal defense attorney, argued in a new Wednesday legal filing that Hizzoner’s corruption case should be dismissed “with prejudice” due to former Manhattan federal prosecutors leaking documents to the press that, he argues, has tarnished the mayor’s image with any jury pool.

In the Feb. 26 court papers, Spiro alleged that a Feb. 12 letter from former acting Manhattan US Attorney Danielle Sassoon to US Attorney General Pam Bondi — which accused Adams’ counsel and President Trump’s DOJ of engaging in a quid pro quo to have his charges dropped — constituted “prosecutorial misconduct.” Spiro and the DOJ have both fiercely denied any quid pro quo, and the mayor himself denied it under oath during a federal court hearing last week.

In her letter, Sassoon not only alleged that Spiro had offered Adams’ cooperation with Trump’s immigration crackdown to the DOJ in exchange for his legal reprieve but also revealed that federal prosecutors were on the verge of charging Adams with additional crimes. Sassoon resigned on Feb. 13.

The mayor’s attorney contended Sassoon’s letter, along with another from former Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten, have caused “irreparable” damage to his presumption of innocence in the courtroom.

For those reasons, Spiro implored federal District Judge Dale Ho to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” meaning the DOJ is waving its right to reindict Adams on the same charges. That stands in contrast to the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case “without prejudice”, which gives federal prosecutors the ability to resurrect the case at any time.

“The most appropriate recourse is to dismiss this case now and do so with prejudice,” Spiro wrote. “The recent government leaks provide this court with an independent and more-than-sufficient basis to dismiss this prosecution due to the irreparable prejudice to Mayor Adams’s rights.”

The DOJ’s move to drop the charges without prejudice has created the perception that Trump is using the threat of resurrecting them to get Adams to cooperate with his deportation push. 

Spiro’s filing comes after Judge Ho last week refused to dismiss the case immediately.

Instead, Ho appointed an independent attorney — Paul Clement of the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC — to argue for keeping the case alive. The judge said Clement’s appointment was necessary because someone needs to argue on behalf of the charges, given that Trump’s DOJ and Spiro are in agreement about dropping them.

Adams, in a Wednesday morning Fox5 interview, repeated his claim that the case against him is weak and that former President Biden’s Justice Department was “weaponized.”

“I have a great deal of confidence in my legal team,” he said. “I stated from the start that I’ve done nothing wrong. The former president, President Biden, stated that his justice department was weaponized. President Trump stated it was weaponized.”

However, the DOJ explicitly said it is not dropping Adams’ charges based on the facts of the case.

In making his case, Spiro noted that Sassoon’s letter caused a cascade of bad news for Adams.

The attorney listed the resignation of four of Adams’ deputy mayors, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams calling on him to resign, and Gov. Kathy Hochul introducing legislation to place guardrails on his executive powers as fallout from the letter.

“The government’s decision not to heed that guidance predictably further eroded any presumption of innocence Mayor Adams had left in this ill-fated prosecution,” Spiro said. “It is impossible to understate the prejudice inflicted by the Feb. 12 letter.”

Губернатор Нью-Йорка Кэти Хоукул объявила о ряде законодательных и нормативных предложений, направленных на улучшение медицинского доступа для пострадавших работников. Ключевой мерой станет отмена давнего требования […]

Мэр Нью-Йорка Эрик Адамс устроил прием в честь Месяца истории чернокожих в особняке Грейси, к которому присоединились городские чиновники и лидеры общин, размышлявшие о наследии […]

Seeking to recruit more officers, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced on Wednesday morning a dramatic reduction in the department’s college credit requirements for candidate cops.

The comments came during the top cop’s speech at the ABNY Power Breakfast inside the Hilton Midtown Hotel. Tisch outlined a new, multi-tier plan designed to bolster NYPD ranks facing both a hiring crisis and a retirement crisis that has depleted the rank-and-file of “New York’s Finest” — from a high of 37,000 uniformed officers seven years ago, to an estimated 33,000 cops today.

“I’m not going to sugar coat it, the NYPD is in a hiring crisis, and this is not a budget problem,” Tisch told the crowd on Feb. 26. “The applicants just aren’t there. It wasn’t that long ago when people would wait years to get the call to join the Academy and every incoming class was full to capacity. Now we are practically begging people to take the exam.”

The main crux of Tisch’s strategy is immediately lowering the number of college credits needed to become an officer from 60 to 24; that impacts more than 5,000 candidates on 29 active civil service lists who were previously ineligible to join the NYPD. Police officials hope that this will attract more applicants and increase the ranks.

However, Tisch acknowledged that it will take more than simply changing qualification criteria to attract new recruits.

“We are still seeing the very real impact of the defund and anti-police movement. A lot of the rhetoric aimed at our police is vile, and the pendulum has swung too far away from what I consider to be the most important and noble job one could do,” Tisch said.

Though the move lowers the credit requirement for enlisting with the NYPD, Tisch noted that the department is also increasing the number of credits earned by a candidate upon completing the police academy.

According to police sources, a reassessment conducted by the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS), the NCCRS determined that completion of the six-month NYPD Police Academy training program was equivalent to 45 college credits, up from the previous 36 credits.

The increase in credits was based on the academic strength and rigor of the program, which covers criminal law, criminal procedures and investigations, constitutional rights, crisis intervention, and more. As a result, each academy graduate will enter the NYPD having earned a minimum of 69 college credits — which qualifies them for an associate degree.

The NYPD is one of the last major city police departments in America to require college credit. Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, and Detroit do not have such a college credit mandate. Suburban NYC police departments, such as Suffolk and Westchester Counties, also lack this standard. 

Along with tweaking academic requirements, Tisch further announced that the NYPD is looking to boost the physical fitness of its officers by reinstating a long-standing requirement for each candidate officer to complete a 1.5-mile run in less than 14 minutes, 21 seconds.

Mayor Eric Adams, in a statement, applauded Tisch for working to ensure “we reach every qualified individual who is committed to serving our city and protecting its people.”

“Public safety and justice are the prerequisites to prosperity, and as we continue to see record declines in crime across our city, but we know we must take bold, decisive action to ensure we are doing everything in our power to put more officers on the streets and keep New York City the safest big city in America,” the mayor said. “We need not only more officers but also enhanced training, and this new initiative delivers on both fronts, setting us on a path to an even safer, more secure city.”

Share your passion for your neighborhood with other New Yorkers by volunteering to lead a tour for Jane’s Walk 2025. Enthusiastic locals can now submit tour plans for the May event, which features free walking tours in all five boroughs.

Hosted by the Municipal Art Society (MAS) since 2011, Jane’s Walk NYC is named after Jane Jacobs, opponent of powerful city planner Robert Moses and author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” the 1961 critique of 1950s urban planning policy. In the spirit of Jacobs, the free walks are meant to spark conversations about planning, history, preservation, development, and urban life. The New York City event is part of a global Jane’s Walk with hundreds of similar programs in cities around the world.

The 2025 New York edition will again feature both in-person walks and virtual experiences and each year there are usually over 200 offerings throughout the city. Those with a tour plan can submit their ideas online until March 31. The online form encourages using a snappy title and description, giving potential attendees important details about participation, and providing a sneak peek of some of the tour highlights.

Past Brooklyn tours have included a “smell walk” in Bushwick, a tour of the architectural treasures of East New York, an exploration of the Brooklyn waterfront and water quality, and an in-depth look at one street in Windsor Terrace. For those in need of a bit of inspiration, the full list of Brooklyn 2024 tours can still be seen online. MAS is also holding an information session on March 4 for those looking for more details.

If you are more interested in joining rather than leading a tour, the full calendar of events is usually announced in early April. This year’s event takes place from May 2 to 4. While all the events are free, reservations are usually required. More information about submitting or joining a tour can be found online.

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner.