New York partner William Kuntz, II, was quoted in a September 11 New York Times article, "Complaint Board Lawyers Will Assist at Police Trials."
According to the article, lawyers from the independent New York City agency that investigates low-level police misconduct, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, will assist Police Department prosecutors for the first time during departmental trials of officers. Lawyers from the board will serve as "second seat" prosecutors at the trials.
The change deals with a key area of disagreement over the years between the review board and the department, according to the article. The civilian board has said that the department does not prosecute enough of the cases of misconduct that the board has substantiated. The Police Department, in turn, says that its standards of proof are different from those used by the review board's lawyers, and that only department lawyers have the expertise to decide which cases to prosecute.
Kuntz, a review board member, said the project was a "welcome first step." But the collaboration will have to be monitored, he added, to see how much lawyers for the board will be allowed to participate, especially as most of its cases end in dismissal or a plea bargain. "There is nothing wrong with the second chair," Kuntz said. "The department can get a comfort level with the C.C.R.B. and the C.C.R.B. lawyer can learn the ropes in the departmental trial. But the rubber meets the road and the real test will be after a while, when you assess the relationship between the first and second seat in terms of responsibility and approaches," he said.