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Bureau Chief:
Assistant District Attorney
Joan I. Ritter
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is one of the world's busiest courts of record. In Queens alone, filings of misdemeanor and lesser offense cases in the Criminal Court amount to approximately 50,000 per year. Assistant District Attorneys in the Criminal Court Bureau handle each of these cases through final adjudication. In addition, assistant district attorneys in this bureau share arraignment responsibilities with the Intake Bureau and also contribute to the prosecution of a significant number of felony complaints.
The range of misdemeanor cases handled by Criminal Court assistants is wide. It includes prostitution, driving while intoxicated, graffiti writing, gambling, petit larceny, menacing and assault. There has been an increase in the number of so-called quality of life crimes, the vast majority of which are handled by the Criminal Court Bureau. While such crimes usually do not cause the kinds of damage or injury associated with more violent felonies, successful handling of these cases in which criminal conduct has caused harm to an individual or to the community at large remains a top priority.
The handling of misdemeanor cases in Criminal Court carries with it all of the legal and procedural requirements of more serious crimes. Over one hundred thousand police, civilian and expert witnesses are contacted and interviewed during the course of the year. Reams of paperwork, including case activity reports, affidavits, subpoenas, supporting depositions and notices must be written and dispatched. Additional masses of paper police reports, witness statements, motor vehicle histories, search warrants and criminal records must be obtained and reviewed.
Prosecutions of Criminal Court cases are enhanced through the use of the Vertical Prosecution System. Assistants assigned to Criminal Court work 4 weeks in Criminal Court and then work the next 2 weeks in Intake. This pattern continues for their term in Criminal Court/Intake. The cases they write up in Intake are assigned to them for all phases of the prosecution, from motion practice through hearings, trials and dispositions. Not only does this system ensure that the assigned assistant district attorney knows all relevant facts, but the need for victims and witnesses to repeatedly relate the facts of their cases is minimized.
In a Court as busy as the Criminal Court, there is really no typical day for an assistant district attorney. One day the ADA may be assigned to handle the calendar call in one of the three "all purpose part" courtrooms for which the bureau is responsible. There, the ADA must be prepared to report on the case status of over one hundred cases, while arguing various applications and conducting plea negotiations. The next day that same ADA may be engaged in a bench or jury trial. Other days are filled with arraignments, pre-trial hearings, witness interviews or crime scene investigations. It is a never-ending cycle, with close to one thousand new cases entering the bureau in a given week.
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