Formerly Queens; Currently Brooklyn

Law Professors filed a grievance regarding Patrick O’Connor’s repeated, blatant, and egregious misconduct in multiple cases since 2005. O’Connor’s misconduct led to the reversal of two verdicts, in People v. Singleton, and People v. Negron, a wrongful conviction that sent a Queens man, Julio Negron, to prison for nearly ten years.

In Negron, the Court of Appeals found that O’Connor withheld crucial evidence suggesting someone else, not Mr. Negron, was responsible for the murder. When the case returned to the trial court, the Queens Supreme Court denounced O’Connor for his “utterly misleading” conduct in the case. Mincing no words, the court dismissed the case, concluding that O’Connor’s “deception” in front of the grand jury by withholding “an unusual volume of exculpatory evidence” was “indisputably deliberate.”

In Singleton, O’Connor made several improper statements, repeatedly violating the judge’s orders. The Appellate Division was scathing, finding that O’Connor engaged in “deliberate defiance” of the judge’s orders, requiring reversal of the conviction. 

The grievance below details O’Connor’s misconduct in several cases, including deliberately withholding evidence that should have been disclosed, multiple forms of summation misconduct, and other problems – all in service of “winning” his cases. 

O’Connor’s misconduct in Queens was far from unique; serious misconduct at the Queens District Attorney’s Office has been regularly reported for years.

Powerful positions require the highest accountability. We cannot reward prosecutors for breaking the rules.