A.G. Schneiderman And Governor Cuomo Announce $1 Billion Lawsuit Against Trump Administration To Protect Federal Health Insurance Funding For 700,000 New Yorkers

NY, MN Attorneys General Sue Trump Administration for Unlawful Funding Cuts to Basic Health Program

$1 Billion in Federal Funding Currently Used to Support 700,000 Low-Income New Yorkers Covered by NY’s Essential Plan

  New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its abrupt and unlawful cutoff of more than $1 billion in federal funding for New York’s Essential Plan, which provides critical health care to over 700,000 low-income New Yorkers. The Essential Plan, which is New York’s Basic Health Program (BHP), is a state-run health insurance program for low-income New Yorkers created under the Affordable Care Act and primarily funded by the federal government.

The lawsuit, which was filed today by Attorney General Schneiderman and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, details how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – without adequate justification and in disregard of lawful procedure – withheld legally-required funding owed to New York and Minnesota to operate their BHPs.  New York and Minnesota are the only states that operate BHPs, which collectively provide health insurance coverage to over 800,000 residents.

“The Essential Plan is a lifeline for over 700,000 low-income New Yorkers. The abrupt decision to cut these vital funds is a cruel and reckless assault on New York’s families – and we will not allow it,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “I won’t stand by as the federal government continues to renege on its most basic obligations in a transparent attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. We’re suing to defend these vital funds and the quality, affordable health care they ensure for New Yorkers.”

“The Trump administration’s action jeopardizes quality care for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers and goes against everything we stand for in New York,” Governor Cuomo said. “In New York, we believe health care is a right, not a luxury, and we will fight to protect that right for all New Yorkers. We are joining together to stop this injustice and preserve New York’s Essential Plan for everyone that needs it.” 

New York’s Essential Plan is extremely successful, with the vast majority of eligible individuals choosing to participate due to the low costs of coverage and generous benefits. Depending on income, some enrollees do not pay any premiums, while others pay at most $20 per month; there is no deductible, and the plan covers preventive care without cost sharing – providing access to critical health care for low-income New Yorkers. Despite New York’s tremendous success in implementing this federally-created program, in December 2017 HHS abruptly determined that it would cut off 25 percent of the federal funding owed to New York to operate the Essential Plan — a loss of over $1 billion in mandatory federal funding over just one year. At the same time, and with the same flawed procedures and inadequate justifications, HHS also cut off BHP funding for Minnesota.

While New York and Minnesota submitted proposals to HHS that would restore the states’ funding, HHS failed to respond to those well-supported proposals and instead continued its unlawful and unjustified determination to pay only a portion of the full funding owed.

New York and Minnesota are challenging HHS’s illegal cutoff of federal funds, as well as its failure to respond to, and consequently its failure to adopt, the states’ reasonable alternative funding proposals. HHS’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in a multitude of ways — including failing to follow the clear procedures set forth in the APA for making such significant administrative payment decisions. Accordingly, the states seek to have the court set aside HHS’s unlawful payment determinations and compel HHS to restore the states’ BHP funding as required by federal law.  

 “For each dollar Minnesota sends to Washington D.C., we get just 53 cents back,” said Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson. “This lawsuit seeks to avoid Minnesota losing hundreds of millions of dollars of payments in the coming years.”

“The Essential Plan has made accessing health care possible for lower income New Yorkers,” said New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “These federal actions jeopardize access to health care for the over 700,000 New Yorkers who depend on this program. We must stand together to protect those who depend on it. ”

Former High School Librarian Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Kidnapping Conspiracy

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that CHRISTOPHER ASCH was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison for conspiring to kidnap, rape, and murder the wife of a man he had met over the Internet, as well as a female Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) agent working in an undercover capacity.  ASCH was convicted of two counts of kidnapping conspiracy following a jury trial before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe, who imposed the sentence.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Christopher Asch, a former New York City public school librarian, received a significant prison term for his involvement in two sadistic kidnapping, rape, and murder conspiracies.  Prosecuting and bringing to justice perpetrators of such depraved and violent crimes is at the core of this Office’s mission.  We thank our law enforcement partners at the FBI for their tireless efforts to bring Asch to justice.”

According to the charging document, other documents previously filed in Manhattan federal court, and in statements made during court proceedings:

Between the spring of 2011 and January 2013, ASCH, Richard Meltz, and Michael Van Hise engaged in a series of email and instant message communications during which they discussed and planned the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Van Hise’s wife and other members of Van Hise’s family.  Van Hise sent ASCH and Meltz photographs of these family members, and the approximate location of their residence. 

In addition, beginning in approximately January 2013, ASCH, Meltz, and an FBI agent working in an undercover capacity (“UC-1”),  began discussions about kidnapping a woman, who unbeknownst to ASCH and his co-conspirators was also an FBI agent working in an undercover capacity.  UC-1 and ASCH met on a number of occasions in Manhattan, and during one meeting ASCH provided UC-1 with a bag of materials to be used during the kidnapping and torture of the intended victim, including, among other things, a ski mask, hypodermic needles, leather ties, chrome forceps, a three-page gun show itinerary, documents relating to a “leg-spreader” and “dental retractor” that ASCH claimed to have purchased, and the liquid form of doxepin hydrochloride, commonly used as a sleep agent.  ASCH also traveled from New York to Pennsylvania to attend a gun show and purchased a high-voltage Taser gun to incapacitate the victim during the planned kidnapping. 

In addition to the prison term, ASCH, 65, of Manhattan, New York, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Meltz, 67, of Linden, New Jersey, pled guilty in September 2014 before Judge Gardephe and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Van Hise, 27, of Newark, New Jersey, was convicted in March 2014 following a jury trial before Judge Gardephe and is awaiting sentence.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI.

Former President And CEO Of New York City Non-Profit Organization Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Of Government Funds

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DEREK BROOMES, the former president and chief executive officer (“CEO”) of a nonprofit housing organization based in Harlem, New York (the “Housing Nonprofit”), pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathanial Fox to abusing his position at the Housing Nonprofit to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Derek Broomes abused his position by selfishly diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds designed to assist low-income citizens living with HIV/AIDS.  It is hard to imagine a more at-risk, vulnerable tenant population than the one Broomes chose to victimize, and for that reason today’s guilty plea is a deserving one.”

According to the allegations contained in the Complaint, the Indictment, and publicly-available documents:

The Housing Nonprofit is a faith-based, non-profit organization located in New York, New York that develops and provides low-income housing in Harlem to a variety of constituencies.  In approximately 2002, DEREK BROOMES, the defendant, became the chief financial officer of the Housing Nonprofit.  In approximately 2011, BROOMES became its president and CEO.  Prior to joining the Housing Nonprofit, BROOMES worked briefly as a Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Human Resources Administration (“HRA”) and, for three years at the City’s Department of Investigation (“DOI”) in various capacities, including as an investigator and Deputy Inspector General.

Since at least 1999, the Housing Nonprofit has participated in the federally funded Scattered Site Housing Program (“SSHP” or the “Program”), through which the Housing Nonprofit receives federal funds that it uses to subsidize rents for low-income individuals who are living with HIV and/or AIDS.  According to Program rules, SSHP funds are to be maintained in a segregated account and used exclusively for Program costs, including rental payments for residents covered by the Program.  In fiscal years 2014 and 2015, the Housing Nonprofit received more than $3,000,000 in SSHP funds.

Beginning in at least 2013, BROOMES abused his position as president and CEO of the Housing Nonprofit, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds from his employer by charging personal and unauthorized expenses to a corporate credit card issued in his name (the “Corporate Credit Card”).  Using the Corporate Credit Card, BROOMES routinely paid for personal auto repairs, medical bills, electronics, clothing, and gifts.  None of these charges were authorized by the Housing Nonprofit, which ultimately was required to pay the monthly bills on the Corporate Credit Card.  In total, between approximately March 2013, when the Corporate Credit Card was issued, and March 2015, when it was cancelled, BROOMES charged $394,145.65 to the Corporate Credit Card.  Of that, an analysis conducted by the Housing Nonprofit determined that more than $200,000 of those charges were either personal or otherwise unauthorized.

To cover those expenditures and other operating expenses at the Housing Nonprofit, BROOMES misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds that were provided through the SSHP.  Specifically, BROOMES diverted the SSHP funds, which were intended to be used to cover rent payments for residents covered by the Program, to the Housing Nonprofit’s operating account, where they were used to pay for unauthorized expenses, including the monthly Corporate Credit Card bills.  As a result of BROOMES’s diversion of SSHP funds, the Housing Nonprofit was often unable to make rent payments for SSHP apartments on a timely basis.  The Housing Nonprofit thus fell increasingly behind on its rent obligations due to a lack of sufficient SSHP funds in its accounts, and tenants it sponsored in the SSHP began to receive threats of eviction by landlords who were owed months’ worth of back rent by the Housing Nonprofit. 

Moreover, to conceal his conduct, BROOMES submitted, and caused others to submit, false and fraudulent reimbursement requests to HRA, which administers the SSHP, in which BROOMES and others acting at his direction certified that the Housing Nonprofit had properly used SSHP funds for program expenses, including rental payments, when, in fact, substantial amounts of those funds had been diverted to cover unauthorized expenses, including the substantial charges incurred by BROOMES’s use of the Corporate Credit Card.  BROOMES personally signed false and fraudulent paperwork submitted to HRA as a part of the Housing Nonprofit’s monthly certifications and reimbursement requests on May 8, 2013, and July 19, 2013, and directed others to sign similarly false monthly certifications and related paperwork throughout the duration of the charged scheme.

BROOMES, 72, pled guilty to one count of embezzlement from a federally funded program, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.  The maximum statutory penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by the judge.  As a condition of the plea, BROOMES consented to the entry of a forfeiture order in the amount of $203,408.80 and further agreed to entry of an order of restitution.  BROOMES is scheduled to be sentenced by the Chief Judge Colleen McMahon on April 26th, 2018.

FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO OF CITY-FUNDED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL FRAUD CHARGES

   Mark G. Peters, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on the guilty plea of DEREK BROOMES, the former president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit housing organization Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (“HCCI”) to one count of embezzling funds from a government-funded program and instead using the money to pay for personal expenses. HCCI provides various services, including services relating to housing and economic development. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox presided over the plea in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Office of Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuted the case. BROOMES is expected to be sentenced on April 26, 2018.

  DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters said, “This defendant stole public funds from some of the City’s neediest New Yorkers and his criminal conduct undermined one of the most basic needs of life – housing. DOI thanks the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York for their partnership on this important case, helping us protect valuable taxpayer funds and vulnerable New Yorkers.”

  BROOMES, 72, of the Bronx, N.Y., pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement from a program receiving federal funds, a federal charge which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years.

  According to DOI’s investigation, since 2013, BROOMES stole more than $200,000 in funds from HCCI using a corporate credit card issued in his name to purchase luxury items, including electronics and clothing, and other unauthorized expenses, including personal auto repairs and medical bills. To cover up these expenditures, BROOMES misappropriated federal funds that were provided to HCCI through the federally-funded Scattered Site Housing Program (“SSHP”), funds designated to subsidize rents for low-income individuals who are living with HIV and/or AIDS. As a result of these actions, HCCI was often unable to make rent payments for the apartments on a timely basis and tenants of the SSHP apartments were threatened with eviction.

  DOI Commissioner Peters thanked United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman, and his staff, for their partnership in this investigation.

DE BLASIO ADMINISTRATION, NYPD ANNOUNCE ALL OFFICERS ON PATROL TO WEAR BODY CAMERAS BY END OF 2018, ONE YEAR EARLIER THAN EXPECTED

Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson today announced the New York City Police Department will speed up its timeline to outfit all police officers and detectives on patrol with body worn cameras by the end of 2018, one year earlier than previously planned. The Administration and the Department initially projected that all officers on patrol would receive body cameras by the end of 2019.

“Body cameras have helped guide a new day in policing, bolstering transparency and increasing accountability. Now we’re accelerating their expansion,” said Mayor de Blasio. “By ensuring all patrol officers are outfitted with these essential, modern policing tools a year faster than originally planned, we’re helping to make New York City fairer faster, and growing trust between police and communities.”

“Through the hard work of our technical and support staff, along with the valuable feedback from those commands that have already been equipped with body cameras, we are now able to move forward at a faster pace in expanding the program,” said Police Commissioner O’Neill. “We are on track to have all precinct, transit and housing commands citywide up-and-running with body cameras by the end of this year.”

“Body cameras are essential to modern policing both to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers and to solidify relations between the NYPD and the communities that they serve. This is an important step that will keep our City’s police force on the cutting edge as we work to make our City fairer and safer. The Council has worked to increase transparency these past few years to strengthen our police force. With increased accountability and additional resources, we will continue to work together in maintain our City’s record low crime rate. As Speaker of the City Council, I am proud to be a partner with the Mayor and the Commissioner in doing everything in our power to ensure the City of New York continues to be the safest big city in the world,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

The de Blasio Administration’s Preliminary Budget includes $5.9 million in Fiscal Year 2018, $12 million in Fiscal Year 2019 and $9.5 million in Fiscal Year 2020 in funding for the accelerated rollout. The resources will cover the cost of purchasing body worn cameras, associated information technology upgrades, and the build out of the space for the Body Worn Camera Units in the Risk Management, Information Technology and Legal Bureaus.

As of January 26^th, 2018 the NYPD has deployed 2,470 body cameras. Starting this January, the NYPD plans to issue approximately 800 cameras each month, increasing to 1,000 to 2,000 per month beginning in March. By the end of 2018, the NYPD plans to have deployed a total of 18,000 body cameras. Only police officers and detective specialists on patrol will be outfitted with a body camera.

In addition to the body cameras themselves, NYPD requires IT infrastructure upgrades in the facilities to ensure a smooth rollout. The work will enable the charging of body cameras in police facilities and additional internet bandwidth to accommodate faster video footage uploads.

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES OPENING OF SENIOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AT ESSEX CROSSING

First building in Seward Park Urban Renewal area includes nearly 100 homes for seniors, is named for housing advocate Frances Goldin, welcomes home tenants dislocated 50 years ago

  Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced the opening of the Frances Goldin Senior Apartments, a 100 percent affordable project with 99 homes on Manhattan’s Lower East Side – while also marking the emotional homecoming of six New Yorkers displaced from their homes 50 years ago.

With a medical center, senior center, and job training services for young adults also planned for the building, 175 Delancey Street is the first of nine buildings that will open in the 1.9 million-square-foot Essex Crossing development. Previously known as the Seward Park Urban Renewal area, it is one of the largest renewal projects in New York’s history.

“I am delighted that long-displaced tenants who want to come home are finally coming home and that we are making good on a decades-old promise to revitalize this important corner of the Lower East Side – which epitomizes New York City’s immigrant roots. Welcome home, it’s about time!” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

After tenement housing in the area was demolished in 1965, re-development plans were sidelined for decades. Planning work, which started under the Bloomberg Administration, was taken over the finish line by the de Blasio Administration.

“As we push forward under our accelerated and expanded housing plan, we must put our seniors first. It is fitting that the first long-awaited housing development to rise on the Seward Park Urban Renewal site is for our city’s seniors, and named after Francis Goldin, a fierce champion for the community and for social justice. Today represents a homecoming for six residents who were displaced half a century ago, and a more secure, affordable future for more than 100 New Yorkers who will call Francis Goldin Senior Apartments home,” said Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. “I want to thank the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, and all my colleagues across government for their partnership to provide critically needed affordable housing for those who helped build our great city.”

“Essex Crossing has been decades in the making, and today we celebrate the opening of the first of hundreds of affordable homes for people on the Lower East Side,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President James Patchett. “This project is a key part of our efforts to build strong neighborhoods and good jobs for New Yorkers. We’re proud to have worked with HPD and Delancey Street Associates to deliver truly affordable homes for seniors.”

“The opening of Frances Goldin Apartments and the role it will play in providing affordable, safe housing for our seniors is a momentous first step in realizing the dream of Essex Crossing and the revival it is bringing to its Lower East Side neighborhood,” said New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas. “This project is exemplary of how Governor Cuomo is partnering with local governments and the private sector to combine housing with health services and commercial spaces to create a foundation for economic success, and make our communities a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”

So far six tenants, each of who were promised they would return, have moved into the Frances Goldin apartments. Eight other returning tenants will move into the Rollins, at 145 Clinton Street, when it opens later this year.

The building was financed in 2015 under the mayor’s Housing New York plan. The larger Essex Crossing development – with a total of 561 affordable homes – is part of the City’s Housing New York 2.0 plan to finance 300,000 affordable homes by 2026. The City has financed 87,557 affordable apartments since 2014.About Frances Goldin Senior Apartments:

* 99 Affordable homes for seniors and named for housing advocate Frances Goldin.

* The homes are reserved for seniors with household incomes of $65,000 or less, with rents ranging from $396 to $1,254 a month.

*NYU Langone’s Joan H. and Preston Robert Tisch Center at Essex Crossing will open this summer.  

*Grand Street Settlement, a not for profit focused on community services, will operate:

o   A senior center.

o   The GrandLo Cafe, a coffee shop that also provides job-training services for youth.

o    Additional community facility space for nonprofits focused on job training.  The facilities will all open this year.

“For at least 50 years she has been fighting for affordable housing on the Lower East Side,” advocate Lisa Kaplan wrote in an essay about Goldin. “Fran has been the neighborhood’s conscience – struggling for the right of every wave of immigrant to get a foothold in this county and benefit from its potential.”

Delancey Street Associates, the group selected by the City of New York to develop Essex Crossing in 2013, includes BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners, and Taconic Investment Partners, and has teamed up with the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group as an investment partner. The 2013 Request for Proposals process was led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation in coordination with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development.

HPD, the State’s Housing and Community Renewal, Wells Fargo, the Low Income Investment Fund, and Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. invested $79.3 million in financing for 175 Delancey Street. The building received an allocation of $34.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits, a federal tax credit program designed to increase private investment in businesses and low-income communities, with $15 million from LIIF, $12 million from Enterprise, and $7.5 million from Wells Fargo, who was also the NMTC investor. Additionally, Wells Fargo and LIIF provided approximately $20 million and $6 million of debt to the project, respectively. DSA contributed $9.85 million of equity. Total development costs for the residential component were $31.3 million, with $25.7 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity investment by Wells Fargo, allocated by HPD and HCR. HPD awarded 9% tax credits worth $1,939,980 annually for ten years as well as eight Project-Based Vouchers. 

Placing a premium on up front construction of affordable housing, the de Blasio Administration has ensured that Essex Crossing’s affordable homes, 51% of the new homes in the development, were constructed first. 

About Essex Crossing:

*Construction has begun on all but 35 of Essex Crossing’s 561 affordable apartment and condominiums.

*When complete in 2024, Essex Crossing will be home to:

o   561 affordable apartments and condos, and a total of 1,079 new homes.  

o   A public park, Regal Cinemas, Trader Joe’s and Target are set to open in 2018.

o   New home of the International Center of Photography is set to open in 2019. 

o   The Market Line: A vast bizarre-style marketplace spanning three blocks: It will offer food, fashion and cultural space, including a beer hall and gardens. The first phase will open next year, along with revitalized 77-year-old Exxex Street Market – which never closed.

*Under construction:

o   Rollins, at 145 Clinton Street, with 211 rental apartments – 104 of them affordable – will open later this year.

o   140 Essex Street, with another 92 affordable senior apartments, opens in 2019.

o   242 Broome Street, with 55 condominiums – 11 of them affordable – opens this year.

o   115 Delancey Street, with 195 rental apartments, 98 affordable, opens in 2018.

o   180 Broome Street, with 263 rental apartments – 121 of them affordable – and 175,000 square feet of office space, opens in 2020.

o   Market Line market

*Soon to start construction:

o   202 Broome Street will include 83 condominiums and 175,000 square feet of office space. It opens in 2020.

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT ANNOUNCES GUEST FOR STATE OF THE UNION & CONTINUES HIS CALLS FOR PUERTO RICO RELIEF

Vanessa Caldari, Founder of Mujeres Ayudando Madres Inc. (CENTRO MAM), Will Attend Tonight’s State of the Union Address to Highlight Urgent Need for Maternal and Infant Care Throughout Puerto Rico

  Congressman Adriano Espaillat has been among the most vocal congressional leaders in his calls for emergency federal relief and resources to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria’s landfall in September. From his legislative efforts to provide emergency financial assistance and call for congressional hearings, and his trips to assess devastated communities, Rep. Espaillat continues to amplify the critical needs and ongoing challenges that residents continue to face nearly four months later, including limited access to medical assistance and resources which continues to have a significant impact on pregnant women, newborns and infants.

Vanessa Caldari, a certified professional midwife who has attended births in Puerto Rico for over 20 years and founder of Mujeres Ayudando Madres Inc., CENTRO MAM, a catalyst for change and empowerment around birth, women’s issues, and societal norms in Puerto Rico, will attend tonight’s State of the Union Address as Rep. Espaillat’s guest to continue to raise awareness of maternal and infant health needs on the island as it continues to lack infrastructure, power and basic supplies and necessities.

“President Trump has failed the American public on a number of issues,” said Rep. Espaillat.“Including but certainly not limited to his tax scam that raises taxes on the middle class and gambles the future of America’s children, workers and seniors. His giveaway of massive tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest one percent. His attempts to strip away health care from tens of millions of families and destroy protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions. His continued efforts to sow hate, division and chaos throughout communities around the nation – by advancing a mass deportation and anti-immigrant agenda, attacking voting rights, rolling back civil rights efforts across the government and attempts to use DREAMers as bargaining chips for an extreme anti-immigrant agenda, including an effort to cut legal immigration by 50 percent.

“Among one of Trump’s most significant failures has been to the American citizens of Puerto Rico. Four months following devastation to the island, thousands of U.S. citizens remain without adequate resources or assistance, only half of the population has reliable electricity and water, medical supplies are scarce and violence has sparked while the death toll continues to rise. These conditions are uninhabitable and have greater significant impact to pregnant women, infants, individuals with medical conditions, seniors and the poor,” he concluded.

“Puerto Rico continues to face a major crisis mired in devastation, as pregnant women and infants remain among the most vulnerable,” said Vanessa Caldari, CPM, BSN and founder of Mujeres Ayudando Madres Inc. and CENTRO MAM. “Many are unaware of the devastation that continues throughout communities in Puerto Rico and the daily hardships families continue to face. Obstetricians and doctors have stopped attending clinics and office hours as expectant mothers are sent to hospitals filled with the dead and dying due to lack of infrastructure and power. Medical problems or prenatal issues are exacerbated by unsanitary conditions such as infected waters, lack of plumbing and electricity, excessive heat, mosquitos and flies, and lack of nutritious food. It’s a matter of life and death if we cannot meet the primary needs of Puerto Rican mothers and children.

“As MAM continues to coordinate on the ground to distribute supplies and provide outreach to the community, I am attending the State of the Union address to call for more immediate attention to the needs of mothers and children in Puerto Rico and ensure their voices are heard and they receive the prenatal and postpartum care that they deserve,” she concluded.

BRONX DA, NYS COURTS ANNOUNCE NEW YORK CITY’S FIRST COURT OFFERING PRE-PLEA TREATMENT TO OFFENDERS AT RISK OF OPIOID OVERDOSE

“Overdose Avoidance And Recovery” Diversion Program Aims To End Cycle Of Substance Abuse And Arrest; Court Opened Eight Weeks Ago, 52 Defendants in Treatment

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and Bronx County Criminal Court Supervising Judge George A. Grasso today announced the first court-based program of its kind in New York City to offer treatment in lieu of incarceration for offenders with substance abuse, in an effort to combat the opioid crisis in the Bronx. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The Overdose Avoidance and Recovery (OAR) program is an innovative tool for confronting a scourge that has ravaged the Bronx far too long and ruined hundreds of lives. Last year, our borough had the second highest rate of opioid overdose deaths in the state. My Office has a duty to stem this health crisis by addressing defendants who cycle through the criminal justice system because of crimes fueled by drug abuse. 

  “I’m proud to introduce the City’s first such drug diversion program which will operate in newly established Bronx court parts. I want to thank Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks, Judge Grasso, Bronx Community Solutions and the defense bar for their support and assistance in fighting this public health crisis by establishing this pioneering court. OAR will save and reshape lives.” 

 Judge Grasso said, “The OAR track is an important Criminal Court innovation that will save lives. OAR is not about ‘crime and punishment,’ but about ‘compassion and recovery.’ Individuals placed on the OAR track are provided with the network of support and services they need to overcome the deadly disease of addiction and avoid becoming another tragic statistic. This focused, collaborative effort by the Criminal Court in partnership with the District Attorney, defense bar and Bronx Community Solutions provides an immediate response to an at-risk individual that was previously lacking in the criminal justice system. I am proud to be part of it.”

 District Attorney Clark said her Alternatives to Incarceration Bureau and other trained Assistant District Attorneys will offer defendants charged with seventh-degree Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance (NY Penal Law 220.03) the opportunity to take part in OAR. In addition to linking defendants with intensive treatment, Bronx Community Solutions will offer job training, housing and other needed services.

 Those who are assessed as high-risk of overdose and accept the program will have their cases adjourned to one of two specialized drug court parts presided over by Judge Grasso and Criminal Court Judge Linda Poust-Lopez, with prosecution of the case withdrawn pending the OAR outcome.

 Participants who meaningfully engage in and fulfill treatment will, upon consent of the Court, have their cases dismissed and sealed, eliminating the burden of a criminal record. There are no penalties for defendants who forego the use of OAR and their cases will move ahead in the criminal court process.

 District Attorney Clark said her Office began planning OAR in May, 2017 with the goal of reducing the number of individuals with opioid addiction from entering the criminal justice system and stemming overdoses in the Bronx.

 According to data, from January 2013 to July 2017, 879 people died of opioid use in the Bronx, and 551 of those people had prior involvement with the criminal justice system in the Bronx, for an average of 8.9 arrests each. The most frequent top charge was NYPL 220.03.

 The OAR program began on December 4, 2017, and has screened 250 cases, out of which 176 were eligible for OAR, and 52 defendants entered the program. The Bronx District Attorney’s Alternatives to Incarceration Bureau is overseeing the initiative, with the assistance of the Trial Division and the Complaint Room/Arraignments Bureau.