So, Did Joe Hynes Cross Ethical Lines When He Went After John Phillips and Sandra Roper? And Does He Live in Breezy Point, Queens? And Does It Matter?
by Brooklyn Ron
July 18, 2013
These are questions that are raised by John Kennedy O'Hara.
O'Hara says he himself was improperly prosecuted by Hynes more than 15 years ago.
O'Hara says he went against the Brooklyn Democratic machine in an election back then, and Hynes targeted him with a vengeance.
O'Hara was charged with voting from a place that was not his primary residence, and O'Hara ended up being disbarred for twelve years.
O'Hara acknowledges that he had another dwelling place at the time, but says it was strange, and extremely rare, for anyone to be prosecuted for something like that. In fact, O'Hara says, the last person to be so charged was Susan B. Anthony in the 1873.
O'Hara says there's a great irony in the charge that he was not living where he was supposed to be living. O'Hara raises the issue of Hynes living, not in Brooklyn, but in Breezy Point, Queens. O'Hara also says that a substantial portion of Hynes' assistant prosectors live outside Brooklyn. He says that Hynes' deputy who prosecuted O'Hara in the residence case lived in New Jersey.
But the truly sad tale is that of the late John Phillips, a former judge who was set to challenge Hynes and then found himself in a special home because Hynes arranged to have him determined to be incompetent.
Phillips died in that facility, and O'Hara says he has commenced a case against the home, which is on Prospect Park West, the south west corner of Grand Army Plaza.
O'Hara is working these days with the campaign of Abe George, who is trying to unseat Hynes. O'Hara says Hynes treated attorney Sandra Roper the same way he treated Phillips -- prosecuting her after she planned to run against Hynes, O'Hara says.
Speaking for Joe Hynes yesterday, spokesperson Mia Goldberg told me, "We are not going to participate in the video." This was a reference to the BrooklynRon video in which O'Hara makes his assertions.
We present it here. (Also we have here a partial transcript from the interview I did two weeks ago with O'Hara in Abe George's office.)
I have tried to get the local papers and web sites interested in this story. I told them they could use the video. We'll see what happens.
It's just that these allegations raise important questions, especially about the limits of prosecutorial power.
