A judge who only cares about the perp: Just what progs want
“Judge, the mother of the victim is in the building, walking down the hallway,” said Christopher Conway of the Bronx DA’s Office.
“What does that have to do with what we’re doing here?” replies Justice Naita Semaj of the county Supreme Court. “I understand you might want her sitting here in the courtroom, but what does that have to do with the actual task at hand?”
Which was arraigning Tyresse Minter, 28, in the death of his stepson, Corde Scott, 15.
After a lecture from the bench — Nemaj snarking on about the prosecutor’s “preference” and how everyone else had made it on time, concluding, “Are you serious?” — they proceeded without the grieving mom.
She arrived at some point, only to flee the courtroom in horror at the judge’s behavior.
The defendant pleaded “not guilty,” though he’s confessed to a host of material facts: Corde unquestionably died at his hands — strangled to death as the grown man pinned him in place.
Minter stands charged with manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide, both bail-eligible offenses.
Just a month before the Jan. 23 death, he was released on parole from a crime in which he shot the victim three times in the back.
He has a long record that clearly qualifies him as a persistent violent felony offender and a multiple parole violater.
So Conway requested remand — jail or at least substantial bail.
Minter’s defense attorneys — two lawyers from the Bronx Defenders — argued, basically, that the accused hasn’t fled in the months since the crime and has been reporting to his parole officer and doing all his Family Court-ordered programs. They suggested release on his own recognizance.
The judge did just that — no bail, just supervised release.
“I’m not gonna make this about the victim at all,” she said. “We’re focusing on this defendant.” Nothing “can lead me to conclude that he is a flight risk,” and “I believe he greatly benefits from some sort of programming.”
Ah, “programming”! That’s surely enough to keep the public safe from a man who lost control sufficiently to kill a kid.
This is a judge with contempt for the victim’s survivors, and for the public. Her only concern is for the perp — hoping he can “benefit” from therapy or other “programming.”
This seems to be exactly how the Legislature’s leaders think judges should behave: They’re still fighting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to remove the “least restrictive restraint” language from the state’s “reformed” bail law.
Hochul, meanwhile, on Thursday took steps to ensure that Minter got re-imprisoned: Turns out killing someone while you’re out on parole is still a violation, imagine that.
