BREAKING (Thread): 1/ Nassau County District Attorney @madelinesingas, acting as a special prosecutor after @NYGovCuomo superseded @ManhattanDA, has decided not to charge former #NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
2/ Singas personally interviewed each woman who had made an allegation against Schneiderman, and ultimately exercised her discretion to decline prosecution. Said Singas: "[L]egal impediments, including statutes of limitations, preclude criminal prosecution."
3/ Possible charges had included misdemeanors of Assault in the Third Degree and Criminal Obstruction of Breathing or Blood Circulation, as well as the violation (not a crime) of Harassment.
4/ #NYS Legislature has imposed legal hurdles for each, including requirement of "physical injury" for assault, and "intent to impede the normal breathing or circulation of the blood of another person" for the obstruction of breathing charge (often called the "choking law").
5/ "Physical injury means "impairment of physical condition or substantial pain," and requires proof of “more than mere bruises, bumps, abrasions, or superficial cuts."
6/ Choking law also requires actual "pressure on the throat or neck" or "block[ing] the nose or mouth."
7/ The violation of Harassment may well have been violated here, but the statute of limitations for violations, which are not crimes, is one year, which may be what DA Singas was getting at when she mentioned "statutes of limitations."
8/ Bottom line is that this is precisely what a District Attorney should do: examine the facts and come to a legal conclusion whether to go forward. It is just as much her duty NOT to file charges when not appropriate as it is when charges are appropriate.
9/ The special prosecutor's actions are a textbook example of following the #RuleOfLaw. Here's my op-ed from last year about the duties of prosecutors not to follow the political winds but rather to go where the facts and the law point them. nydn.us/2zsbRxM
10/ DA @madelinesingas has also proposed new legislation called "Sexual Harassment," which would be the first crime in #NYS history bearing that name. Here is the text of her proposal, which she has sent to the NYS Legislature.
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