Professor Bruce Green was quoted in an article in The New York Times discussing the recent grievances filed by law professors against 21 Queens prosecutors.
Prosecutors working the men’s case had failed to turn over important evidence and had made false statements at trial, a judge found — textbook misconduct. And they were far from alone in the Queens district attorney’s office.
Normally, accusations of misconduct are handled out of public view by a little-known state committee. But the professors wanted to make some noise. They filed grievances against 21 Queens prosecutors, and instead of keeping their complaints quiet, they built a website and published everything online — and made plans to expand the effort to other boroughs.
The blowback from New York City was swift. A city lawyer called the grievances an abuse of the system and said that they had “concerned” local prosecutors.
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“Were they motivated by the fact that the complaints were filed publicly so that a failure to act expeditiously would look bad?” asked Bruce Green, who directs a center for legal ethics at Fordham University.
“It could well be that the public nature of the complaint was useful,” said Mr. Green, who was not part of the group that filed the grievances.