Category: In the News

News 12 Bronx: The Bronx Defenders opens a new location in Melrose

THE BRONX – A non-profit organization in The Bronx that has been helping the community for 15 years opened a new location today. The Bronx Defenders helps more than 30,000 residents with legal cases and social work per year. In order to keep up with their clientele, the organization opened the new space on the […]

New York Law Journal: ‘Justice Campus’ Opens in the Bronx

The Bronx Defenders yesterday opened its new ‘Justice Campus’ at 360 E. 161st St., with Executive Director Robin Steinberg and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. cutting the ribbon. The new offices, which were made from the renovation of two empty storefronts near the Hall of Justice, will allow the Bronx Defenders to better serve its […]

Reuters: Bronx man cannot be retried after mistrial

A Bronx man cannot be retried for selling drugs after his first case ended in a mistrial because the judge failed to consider less severe alternatives, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. The Appellate Division, First Department, found that double jeopardy precluded a second prosecution against Jamal Morris, who sought a writ prohibiting the Bronx […]

The Guardian: America’s bail system: one law for the rich, another for poor

If you’ve ever been arrested for a misdemeanor offense, like jumping a turnstile, smoking a joint, or protesting a cause in a way the authorities would rather you didn’t, then you’ll know that your best chance of avoiding jail has less to do with what you’ve done than if you can make bail. It’s no […]

New York Law Journal: Lippman Lauds Bronx Group’s Nonprofit Approach to Bail Defenders

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman (See Profile) last week praised as a way “to take the profit motive out of bond making” the program of a Bronx legal assistance organization that used charitable contributions to keep its indigent clients out of jail as they awaited trial. Lippman’s endorsement came as The Bronx Defenders prepared to resume […]

DNAinfo: 10 Judges Will Head to Bronx to Target Criminal Case Backlog

BRONX SUPREME COURT — Ten judges from outside the city will be temporarily assigned to The Bronx as part of an unprecedented plan to shrink an “intolerable” backlog of felony cases, the state’s top judge said Tuesday. The move came as the borough’s top criminal judge, Efrain Alvarado, will be replaced by Justice Douglas McKeon, […]

News 12 Bronx: Argument against stop-and-frisk picking up steam

Watch Bronx Defenders Staff Attorney Molly Kovel discuss the recent court ruling. MELROSE – The attorneys who sponsored a lawsuit against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy are supporting their claims today after a federal judge ruled the program must come to an end in certain buildings. The attorneys are representing 13 Bronx residents involved in the […]

The Guardian: Federal judge orders NYPD to stop using stop-and-frisk tactic in the Bronx

A federal judge has dealt a significant blow to the New York police department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, declaring that officers had “systematically” engaged in unconstitutional activity by searching residents outside thousands of private apartments in the city. Manhattan federal court judge Shira Scheindlin said the NYPD must immediately halt the practice of conducting trespass stops […]

The Village Voice: Making Bail Better

When Judge Ralph Fabrizio saw William Miranda, free of handcuffs and dressed in street clothes, sitting in his Bronx courtroom, he was surprised. Three days earlier, on February 24, 2009, Miranda had been up before Fabrizio for arraignment on two misdemeanor assault charges. Fabrizio had set a substantial bail, $1,500 for each charge, certainly more […]