Q & A with D.A. candidates: RVC resident Denis Dillon seeks re-election

Q: What did you make of the federal government's recent effort to break up the MS-13 gang?
A: Naturally, I am very happy about the federal government's effort to break up the MS-13 gang on Long Island. It goes to show there is a good deal of cooperation between law enforcement agencies. What impresses me most about this most recent operation is that we have gone beyond cooperation; we are now coordinating. We have found sometimes that once someone is arrested, the punishment is not always adequate. Now things are being coordinated better, and I think the result is a lower number of gang-related homicides.
Q: Where do you see yourself splitting from the Republican leadership in Nassau County? Do you consider yourself a Republican, or do you run on that line because they're on the same wavelength on issues that are important to you?
A: I am a registered Republican. I believe in the principles of the Republican party. Do I agree with everything the Republicans in Nassau County do? No. Someone who is wrong is wrong. It doesn't matter what party they belong to, I am going to say something if wrong information is put there. [County Legislature Minority Leader] Peter Schmitt made a statement saying violent crime is up all over the county, which was absolutely false. If you look at Department of Criminal Justice statistics, the numbers are right there, and they're down. In Nassau County we actually have the lowest crime rate for any county with a population of 1 million or more.
Q: Are you noticing patterns of gang-related crime in areas where there wasn't before?
A: Not to a large extent. We see it in what we call the "corridor," which is the economically challenged area in the central part of the county. We will find gangs spreading out to the neighboring areas from there, but not a lot. But 10 or 15 years ago we didn't have this problem.
Q: Living in Rockville Centre, do you find yourself more attuned to what is going on there?
A: No, but the first sting I set up was in Rockville Centre, when someone came to me about a burglary ring in the '70s.
Q: You have been criticized by some people for not being proactive enough in investigating allegations of molestation in the Catholic Church. How do you respond to that?
A: The problem with that is nobody was coming forward to the police. If somebody did come forward, I would probably prosecute right away.
Q: You've been an outspoken advocate on right-to-life issues, and you're also a devout Catholic. How does religion inform your views, and are you finding it easier for public figures to be open about their religious views in the current political climate?
A: There's nothing religious about my views on abortion. Natural law, which the United States Declaration of Independence was based on, says that we hold these truths to be self-evident: that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. So we have a right to life that comes from our creator. That is not a blanket statement, that is the Declaration of Independence - the same document that Abraham Lincoln argued on to free the slaves. If the dominant part of society can take away even inalienable rights, we have no rights at all. That can happen with any group of people where the dominant part of society has the power to offset their rights.
Q: Many people were surprised to see that you were running again with your recent health problems after 30 years in office. Is the job old to you yet?
A: This job changes every day. One of the best things we have been able to do is start the Rising Star program. The way that got started was, in our investigations, we come into the possession of money and items like cars and boats that become forfeited through government actions. Some of it we can use not only for law-enforcement purposes, but anything else we want to use it for.
      What we decided to do is to put that money into activities in areas of the county that are economically deprived, and where kids are on the street unsupervised with nothing to do after school, because that's when the majority of crime committed by minors happen. We started to support athletic leagues and, in particular, boxing leagues, first in Hempstead and then all over the county. The point is to guide young people in a positive direction and fortify them with virtues so they can resist criminal behavior if it surrounds them.
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Caption: Democratic challenger Cynthia Kouril
drophed: Challenger Cynthia Kouril speaks out for change
By Jesse Serwer
      Cynthia A. Kouril, a partner in the law firm of Robert L. Folks & Associates and a member of the Nassau County Board of Ethics, recently announced her candidacy for Nassau County district attorney. Kouril, 46, of Glen Cove, has been an examining attorney in the New York City Department of Investigations and a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. A registered Democrat, she is seeking the party's nomination.
Q. What is your legal background, and why do you think you would make a good D.A. for Nassau County?
A. The type of work I have done as a prosecutor has caused me to work with a lot of law-enforcement agencies and a lot of offices. A big part of my background is political corruption cases and task-force-related investigations. I was involved in U.S. v. Patcheone, which was the first time anyone used RICO [the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] to prosecute environmental crime. It was a case where medical waste was being dumped illegally. I can't claim authorship, but I learned a lot from the experience about thinking outside the box.
Q. When, why and how did you become interested in running for district attorney?
A. Since 2001 I have been looking for a candidate to support who I thought was at least as good as me on the issues but with more name recognition. I surveyed the scene, and there wasn't anyone with the characteristics I would have liked to have seen. Once I started thinking about it, I would come home full of ideas of what I wanted to do - how this office could be fixed and become more functional. But I didn't want to run, because I have a small child at home and it takes you out of the house.
      When the priest pedophile thing happened and [District Attorney Denis Dillon] didn't investigate, that made me think again. I cannot imagine anything as traumatic as being a victim of a crime and having the church blow you off, then having the law blow you off as well. It seemed heartbreaking, and incredibly wrong. I also felt the response coming from the district attorney's office after the Mepham hazing incident was inadequate. So, for the last 18 months I have been out there seeing if people cared about the same things that I care about.
Q. What are some of the things you intend to do if elected?
A. I would be interested in working with [Suffolk County District Attorney] Tom Spota on developing bi-county initiatives, and working closely with the D.A.s in the five boroughs. We have problems that come out of the city but end up here, like gangs and chop shops. I thought the grand jury report that Spota put together - revealing how priests were being moved around from parish to parish and preying on people - with all these solid allegations, was a work of genius. Most of these offenses were beyond the statute of limitations and therefore unprosecutable, but it painted a picture. It was a brilliant piece of lawyering that everyone was in awe of, but instead of commending [Spota], Dillon criticized him. This office should not be about politics, but about building a good case and letting the chips fall where they may.
      Among the people I talk to, the idea of victims' rights seems to have a lot of traction. I support the idea of eliminating the statute of limitations for the abuse of children, period. Sometimes it is so traumatic that it takes decades before a person has healed enough to speak on it.
Q. You're a political novice running against a 32-year incumbent. What's your strategy to get elected?
A. I feel I have to highlight differences between myself and Denis and expose what I feel is a misuse of prosecutorial discretion. I believe he treats the vast power of the D.A., which has been entrusted to him only for the public good, to advance his own fringe agenda. Women are afraid to go to women's health care centers like Planned Parenthood in this county, even if it's for gynecological care or prenatal care for a baby they want to have, because of the D.A.'s public opposition to them.
      D.A.s are entitled to their personal opinions, but there needs to be a level of circumspection for the public to have confidence that they are objective. I went to a Voice of the Faithful convention - most of the people in that organization originally knew each other, because they were lobbying against abortion. Person after person came up to me and said it's more important that you're right on pedophiles than that I disagree with you on abortion. If you're right on the issues that are important in people's lives, then you're not automatically a vote killer. That is a mistake that the national Democratic Party is making.
Q. What is the one thing you'd like voters to know about you?
A. I would like them to know that I have integrity, I will follow the facts and the law fairly without bias, and base all my charging decisions on the facts and the law, and not on any political consideration or outside influence.