Darcel Denise Clark (born April 2, 1962)
is an American attorney and
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
serving as the
Bronx County District Attorney
The Bronx County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for Bronx County, which is coterminous with the Borough of the Bronx, in New York City. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. (Fed ...
, serving since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office, and the first woman of color to serve as a
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
in the history of the State of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
Prior to being elected district attorney, Clark served as a judge on
New York City Criminal Court
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the Judiciary of New York (state), State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors (generally, criminal law, crimes punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to one yea ...
and subsequently on the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
in the Bronx and in that court's
Appellate Division.
Early life and education
Clark is a native of
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. She was raised in the
Soundview Houses
Soundview is a neighborhood on the Clason Point peninsula, on the southern section of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the north, White Pl ...
in the
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...
. Her father, Daniel, was a grounds supervisor and her mother, Viola, was a nurse and a member of the tenant patrol, which was formed in 1975 to keep neighbors and children safe.
[ Clark attended ]New York City public schools
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...
and graduated from Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx. Clark became the first member of her family to attend college.
She attended Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor's of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree. She then attended law school at Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
, graduating in 1986.[
]
Career
Following law school, Clark returned to the Bronx, where she was hired as an assistant district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...
for Mario Merola Mario Merola could refer to:
*Mario Merola (singer) (1934-2006), an Italian singer and actor
*Mario Merola (lawyer)
Mario Merola (February 1, 1922 – October 27, 1987) was a New York City Councilman from 1964 to 1971 and the District Attorney of ...
, the Bronx County District Attorney at the time, and stayed under her immediate predecessor, Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
. Clark served as supervisor of the Narcotics Bureau from 1993 to 1997 and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Court bureau from 1997 to 1999.
In 1999, New York City Mayor
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
appointed Clark as a Judge for the Criminal Court for the City of New York, where she served for seven years. In 2006, Clark was elected to the Supreme Court in Bronx County, where she served until Governor Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...
appointed her to serve as an Associate Justice
Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...
of the Appellate Division of the First Department of the New York Supreme Court in November 2012.
Bronx County District Attorney
Clark decided to step down from the bench to seek election as the Bronx County District Attorney, following Johnson's decision to step down to seek a judgeship one week after his win in the primary election in September 2015. This sparked controversy, as much of the press perceived Johnson's decision as orchestrated by the Bronx Democratic Party to avoid selecting the next district attorney in the primary. Regardless, Clark easily defeated her Republican opponent, Robert Siano, in the November 2015 general election, garnering 86.64% of the vote. She is both the first woman and first African American to hold this position.
As district attorney, Clark has vowed to implement reforms to address wrongful conviction
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
, administrative backlogs, and problems surrounding Rikers Island
Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...
, among others.
Controversy and Criticism
Clark's tenure as District Attorney has been marred by reports of cronyism and misconduct. In May 2016, newspaper accounts revealed Clark to have rehired a friend who had been forced to resign from the District Attorney's Office years prior after impersonating a police officer, breaking a man's nose, and fleeing the scene of a crime in a fit of road rage. Reporting further revealed that Clark gave a prominent promotion and raise to the assistant district attorney responsible for the bungled prosecution of Kalief Browder
Kalief Browder (May 25, 1993June 6, 2015) was an African American youth from The Bronx, New York, who was held at the Rikers Island jail complex, without trial, between 2010 and 2013 for allegedly stealing a backpack containing valuables. Durin ...
. A federal civil rights lawsuit alleged that Clark and high-ranking members of her newly-formed Public Integrity Bureau sought to harass and intimidate a police officer for issuing a traffic ticket to fellow Democratic party member Vanessa Gibson.
Another federal lawsuit claimed that Clark demanded the resignation of a disabled prosecutor after she requested handicap access to accommodate her wheelchair. Court filings in the conviction integrity investigation surrounding the murder conviction of Calvin Buari revealed that investigators acting on behalf of the Bronx District Attorney's Office sought to bribe and threaten a witness who exculpated the wrongly accused and imprisoned defendant, ultimately silencing this witness. Clark's prosecution of Sgt. Hugh Barry for the murder of Deborah Danner, an elderly woman suffering from a mental illness who was shot and killed in her home, resulted in an acquittal on all charges. Clark was later revealed to have suppressed evidence and kept an innocent teenager in jail for over one year on attempted murder charges until, on the eve of trial, Clark was forced to dismiss the case in the wake of a public outcry. Clark dismissed another case against a young man kept in jail for years without being convicted after claiming, again on the eve of trial, that the alleged witness to this murder could not be located. Clark refused to bring any charges in the murder of Layleen Polanco
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco was a 27-year-old Afro-Latina transgender woman who died at Rikers Island, New York City's main jail complex, on June 7, 2019, in solitary confinement after staff failed to provide her with medical care tha ...
, a transgender woman being held on Riker's Island, even though surveillance video showed that guards tried to wake her for ninety minutes before calling for help and then laughed outside her jail cell. Clark also deadnamed Ms. Polanco in her press release. It has been revealed that the Corrections Officers were the top donors to Clark's re-election campaign. Clark also declined to prosecute anyone connected to the death of Jason Echevarria, who swallowed a ball of soap while in solitary confinement, only to have federal prosecutors later successfully prosecute the corrections captain with regards to Echavarria's death. Clark opposed affording immigrants the right to jury trials, only to have the New York State Court of Appeals rule against her, holding the Constitution guarantees immigrants and citizens alike the right to a speedy trial for serious offenses. Leaked internal documents showed that the Bronx District Attorney's Office was training its employees to violate defendants' Constitutional rights to speedy trials. Clark held Darrell Herring, an innocent man wrongfully accused of rape, in jail for eighteen months even though security footage and medical records in the possession of the Bronx District Attorney's Office exculpated Mr. Herring. In another case, Clark kept three people in jail waiting trial even though the sole witness to the alleged crime died one year prior. Clark attempted to quietly dismiss an indictment alleging that a physician's assistant on Rikers Island raped four women detainees after the Chief of her Discovery Compliance Bureau failed to comply with New York State discovery laws. After blocking evidence from being submitted to the United States Supreme Court in ''Hemphill v. New York'' by denying the request of the mother of a murdered child that the former prosecutor who tried the case be allowed to submit an amicus brief, Clark lost the appeal.
Clark received further criticism when she reduced the charges against Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old felon and convicted sex offender. Phu was on lifetime parole for after serving 6 years for attempted robbery in 1991 and raping a 17 year-old girl at gunpoint in 1994. Phu was designated a Level 3 sex offender, the most dangerous designation under New York State Law. On August 12, 2022, Phu allegedly put on work gloves and, without provocation, brutally assaulted 52 year-old Jesus Cortez with a roundhouse sucker punch to Mr. Cortez' face from behind, so that Mr. Cortez could not see Phu as he initiated the assault. The unprovoked assault, the entirety of which was captured on surveillance video, left Cortez with a skull fracture, broken cheek, and brain bleeding. Cortez required brain surgery and was put in a medically induced coma. Police charged Phu with attempted murder in the second degree, a B-level violent felony offense. Clark subsequently office reduced the charges against Bui to assault and harassment, a misdemeanor and a violation. While the charges the police filed against Phu, or an assault in the first degree or attempted assault in the first degree charge, would have allowed a court to set bail, the charges Clark filed against Phu are not bail eligible. Accordingly, the judge who oversaw the arraignment of Phu was required to release Phu on his own recognizance.
References
External links
Office of the Bronx District Attorney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Darcel
1962 births
African-American lawyers
African-American politicians
Boston College alumni
Bronx County District Attorneys
Howard University School of Law alumni
Living people
New York (state) Democrats
New York (state) lawyers
People from the Bronx
Politicians from New York City
Women in New York (state) politics