Charles Hynes has been the District Attorney for Kings County (Brooklyn) since 1989. His tenure has had its share of controversial moments. Critics have often suggested that he is too closely aligned with the political machinery of the King’s County Democrats. They believe it is not healthy for a DA to be so close to party-bosses, elected-democrats, their minions and their operatives. There may be a point to this critique.
On Friday 8th May, 2009, state senator Kevin Parker (Brooklyn‘s 21SD), was arrested for physically attacking a reporter/photographer from the New York Post. It appears that after some time, the Brooklyn DA’s office offered Parker a relatively lenient plea-deal which he rejected; deciding instead to take his chances facing a jury. Sources say the deal included a few week-ends in jail.
Parker’s long history of verbal and physical altercations is well documented. In Albany, he has often clashed with colleagues during legislative and/or committee-sessions. Shamelessly enough, he once verbally threatened a female senator (Savino) with physical abuse.
In general, assault-cases are dispensed-with before a year passes. For some reason, Parker’s case took about nineteen months to resolve. While the legal process was unfolding, Senator Parker faced a primary challenge from the Jamaican-born political activist/businessman/educator named Wellington Sharpe: in a district where half the residents are either Caribbean-born, or are of Caribbean-American heritage/ancestry. Sharpe’s ethnicity presented a serious challenge for the incumbent; especially in a one on one race. Parker spent loads of money on his re-election effort here; his ads could have been seen on the cable networks even.
Sharpe and his supporters claim that the DA’s office deliberately postponed Parker’s criminal-case in order to help the senator’s re-election bid. They suspect it was all done to prevent a conviction (which was highly likely) before the primary. Sharpe believes that such a conviction would have devastated Parker’s campaign. Sharpe feels strongly that he would have won the election without this interference. He also believes that his son (Wynton/Assistant District Attorney) was wrongfully dismissed from the Brooklyn DA’s office: and this happened after Wynton had put in four years of commendable service there.
In giving a reason for one postponement, the DA’s office claimed the need for an investigation, in order to ascertain whether or not the younger Sharpe -while working there- had any nefarious involvement in the Parker-case. In this regard, they even brought in a special prosecutor from Staten Island. The SP found Wynton to be cleaner than the proverbial whistle, since he had worked in another department and was totally removed from the Parker-case. Yet, Wynton Sharpe was suspended without pay. He eventually faced further indignities when fired almost a year later. Now he is suing the DA’s office.
A few weeks before the primary election -when the Parker trial was aborted and again postponed- mainstream media posited a news item to the public, which could have been easily misconstrued. The Sharpes believe that they were made to appear in the item as a sinister and diabolical duo; with implications of Parker being a potential victim of their shenanigans in the DA’s office.
It was far from the truth; and yet, DA Hynes never set the record straight on all this. Hynes could have called a timely press conference to explain the many nuances involved, and all the other pertinent issues with the impending trial at that stage: but he didn’t. And that was wrong. Hynes should have been sensitive to the ongoing primary campaign. Or maybe he was too sensitive to it?
Last September, Senator Kevin Parker won the primary with seventy-two per cent of the vote. In his five previous runs for office Parker had averaged around thirty-five percent. The result appears to be aberrational given Parker’s consistent lack of public-decorum, perpetual bad-behavior, and his overall stinking-sinking-reputation: since he first ran for office in 2001.
In early December of 2010, Parker finally came to trial: almost three months after the primary. That November, he had been re-elected to the state senate via the general election. His trial lasted a few days. It took the jury mere hours to find him guilty on two counts of criminal mischief. Instead of being sent to jail (given his record) Parker got away with probation for three years. He continues to hold on to his senate seat. Did Anthony Weiner do worse than Kevin Parker(accumulatedly)?
Stay tuned-in folks.